FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
July 29, 2020
Contact: Brad Jurkovich, spokesman, Conservative Baptist Network
(318) 588-0819
BOSSIER CITY, La. —Today, the Conservative Baptist Network is pleased to announce two new members of its national Steering Council.
Sen. Peggy Jeffries (R-AR) was the first Republican woman ever elected to the Arkansas Senate and was the only woman in the Senate during her service. She was elected Republican National Committeewoman for Arkansas and served on the RNC Platform Committee. She was the longtime executive director of Arkansas Eagle Forum, and a tireless lobbyist in both Arkansas and Washington, D.C. for education, pro-life, and family issues. Sen. Jeffries trusted Christ as her Savior and Lord at the age of 12, served as director of children’s ministries and taught women’s Bible class at First Baptist Fort Smith for decades. She has also served on the board of the Arkansas State Baptist Convention. She is the wife of Dr. Jerry Jeffries and has three grown children.
Sen. Dennis Baxley (R-FL) is chairman of the Ethics and Elections Committee in the Florida Senate. He previously served as speaker pro tempore in the Florida House of Representatives. He is chairman of the Florida chapter of the National Association of Christian Lawmakers, is a member of Gideons International, and previously served as president of the Christian Coalition of Florida. He also boldly led the Florida Legislature’s fight to save the life of Terry Schiavo. The son of a Southern Baptist minister, he is very active in Baptist life, including service as an elder of his church, on the board of Jay Strack’s Student Leadership University, and previously on the board of the Florida Baptist Witness. Sen. Baxley lives in Ocala, Florida with his wife (Ginette) of 48 years, and has three natural and two adopted children and eight grandchildren.
“There have been few times in American history when an effort such as the Conservative Baptist Network has been so needed,” said Sen. Jeffries. “The unbiblical, cultural Marxist views of Critical Theory and Intersectionality are a cancer on and in our churches: they undermine our Christ-centered efforts at evangelism and true reconciliation, and are alienating large and quickly growing numbers of Baptists from our Cooperative Program-based work. Baptists have to stop this insidious effort to co-opt the church away from its gospel mission into nothing more than a political tool of the left.”
Sen. Baxley agreed: “The focus of the church, and certainly of our Cooperative Program-funded ministries, should be reaching the lost with the Gospel, not advancing a leftist political agenda. We need more evangelism, more care for the suffering, and a lot less virtue signaling and cancel culture. Some of our leaders are losing their way, chasing the latest political fads and worldly philosophies. They need to put their eyes back squarely on Christ and His all-sufficient Word.”
CBN spokesman Brad Jurkovich, Senior Pastor of First Baptist Bossier in Bossier City, La., said, “I am so grateful for Senators Jeffries and Baxley, for their lifelong devotion to Southern Baptists, but especially for their willingness throughout their careers to serve boldly in the public arena for Christ. They have been the very definition of salt and light, and it’s an honor to get to work with them now toward a better future for our SBC.”
The Conservative Baptist Network is a broad-based grassroots movement of Southern Baptists of all generations who are committed to the sufficiency of Scripture for all facets of life and application. Its 50-member Steering Council includes pastors and laypeople from across America, including well-known figures such as former Atlanta fire chief Kelvin Cochran, former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee, Family Research Council President Tony Perkins, past SBC President Charles Stanley, and immediate past SBC Executive Committee Chairman Mike Stone. The Steering Council can be found online at ConservativeBaptistNetwork.com.
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For more information about the Conservative Baptist Network, visit:www.ConservativeBaptistNetwork.com.
