The Southern Baptist Convention (SBC), the largest Protestant denomination in North America, is at a breaking point. In Hold the Line, a documentary from The New Yorker and supported by the Pulitzer Center, filmmaker Daniel Lombroso captures a denomination in crisis through the lens of two pastors on opposite sides of a heated theological battle.
Pastor Tom Ascol, a powerful figure within the SBC and head of Founders Ministries, believes the church must return to what he calls a strict, Biblical order. Central to his mission is banning women from ministry—a cause that came to a head in 2023 when the SBC expelled several churches, including Fern Creek Baptist in Louisville, Kentucky, led by Pastor Linda Barnes Popham.
Popham, one of the few women pastors in the denomination, made an emotional appeal at the SBC’s annual meeting, only to lose in a landslide vote. “I was willing for him to come if he would do nothing to harm the cause of Christ,” Popham said of Lombroso. “I’m going to just trust that it will bring glory to God.”
Premiering at over a dozen major festivals—including DocNYC, DCDox, Doc10, Big Sky, Hot Springs, and New Orleans—Hold the Line is both intimate and unflinching, offering a rare portrait of a church—and a country—struggling over who gets to preach, and who gets to belong.
