The resurgence was the most serious controversy ever to occur within the Southern Baptist Convention, the largest Protestant denomination in the United States. Albert Mohler later described it as a "reformation ... achieved at an incredibly high cost." A part of that cost was the departure of 1,900 churches from the convention, which broke away in 1990 to form the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship, a moderate Baptist group which affirms women in ordained ministry, and emphasizes the Baptist principles of the autonomy of the local church, the priesthood of all believers, and soul liberty.