Sarah Pulliam Bailey

Washington, D.C.

Reporter covering religion

Education: Wheaton College

Sarah Pulliam Bailey covers how faith intersects with everything, including politics, culture and education. Before joining The Post, she was a national correspondent for Religion News Service.
Latest from Sarah Pulliam Bailey

How Franklin Graham pushed a domestic abuse victim to return to her husband

Graham asked whether she was cheating on her husband. “It was a good question to ask,” the evangelist said. “I would’ve asked it again.”

June 20, 2022
Naghmeh Panahi is pictured outside of her house in Boise. (Kyle Green for The Washington Post)

Southern Baptists vote on sex abuse proposals, debate female pastors

For years, survivors of sexual assault in church settings have been calling on churches to admit the extent of abuse.

June 14, 2022
Attendees hold up their ballots during a session at the Southern Baptist Convention's annual meeting in Anaheim, Calif., on June 14.

How Christian home-schoolers laid the groundwork for ‘parental rights’

Over the past year, parental rights have become a popular cause as Republicans have assailed pandemic measures and the teaching of gender and race in schools.

June 11, 2022
Will Estrada runs a “parental rights” group in Purcellville, Va.

Southern Baptist leaders release sex abuser database they kept secret for years

The database showed what top leaders knew behind the scenes while telling Southern Baptists that they couldn’t maintain a public list.

May 27, 2022
Christa Brown, of Colorado, speaks in 2019 at a rally outside the Southern Baptist Convention's annual meeting  in Birmingham, Ala. (Julie Bennett/AP)

Southern Baptist leaders say they will release list of alleged sex abusers

Board members of the Southern Baptist Convention’s administrative arm Tuesday issued an apology to sex abuse survivors.

May 24, 2022
The Southern Baptist Convention executive committee, seen in June 2021.

Key takeaways from the bombshell sex abuse report by Southern Baptists

A nearly 300-page report about the Southern Baptist Convention's leadership found mishandling of sex abuse claims within the church. Here are the key findings from the full sex abuse report.

May 23, 2022
People vote on a motion during the annual Southern Baptist Convention meeting on June 15, 2021, in Nashville. At that meeting, messengers approved a report on the SBC executive committee's handling of sex abuse allegations, which came out May 22.

Southern Baptist leaders covered up sex abuse, kept secret database, report says

Among the findings in the report was a previously unknown case of a pastor who was credibly accused of assaulting a woman a month after leaving the presidency of the Southern Baptist Convention.

May 22, 2022
The Southern Baptist Convention’s Nashville headquarters.

Jewish World War II veterans get new headstones with Stars of David

For more than seven decades, Albert Belmont was buried under a Latin cross instead of a Star of David reflecting his Jewish identity.

May 6, 2022
Barbara Belmont and daughter Erin McCahill hold a portrait of Belmont’s father at McCahill’s home in Bethesda.

To fight climate despair, this Christian ecologist says science isn’t enough

Rick Lindroth wants to help people get ‘re-enchanted with the earth’ so they can have hope.

April 16, 2022