People are widely praising President Jimmy Carter’s Christian faith after his passing, a reaction that reveals a telling double standard in how elites treat different expressions of Christianity.
For example, a <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/history/2025/01/01/jimmy-carter-evangelical-baptist-faith/">Washington Post</a> writer declared, “For Jimmy Carter, faith was inseparable from politics and life.” The Hill <a href="https://thehill.com/opinion/5060618-jimmy-carter-christian-example/">wrote</a>, &#8220;Jimmy Carter was the Christian most politicians pretend to be.” And The New York Times<a href="https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2024/12/30/us/carter-on-death.html"> profiled</a> how Carter’s faith defined his activities and outlook in public life.
By all accounts, Carter’s Christianity was a particularly pietistic expression of Mainline Protestantism. This is a faith whose doctrinal core has been hollowed out for decades by theological liberalism. It’s a modernized Christianity that sheds the most controversial and supposedly outmoded elements of biblical doctrine to placate the spirit of the age.
For example, Carter is on record celebrating same-sex marriage and defending abortion. He publicly opposed Southern Baptist conservatives as they sought to return the denomination to a more biblically faithful position, ultimately departing it altogether.
Carter’s faith resonates with liberal ideals — service, humility, and social justice. His Christianity embodied what one of my old professors called “BOMFOG” (Brotherhood of Man and Fatherhood of God). This version of Christianity wins praise. 
Of course, service, humility, seeking justice, and loving your neighbor are beautiful and vital parts of Christianity. But Christianity also addresses sin, human nature, family structure, the exclusivity of Christ for salvation, sexual morality, repentance, and absolute truth. These are the harder truths of the faith that don’t play well in progressive circles.
When conservative Christians act on their faith, public opinion and media framing shift. Suddenly, Christianity becomes a problem. When conservative Christians act in line with their beliefs on issues like life, family, or religious liberty, they are met with criticism and labeled intolerant or regressive. It’s a threat to democracy and an illiberal force in society. 
Just look at the past eight years. Evangelicals have been relentlessly vilified in the media, even by fellow Christians at elite publications. Yes, there’s some nutty behavior out there among evangelicals. But on the whole, if you take your Christian faith seriously and it becomes a threat to the cultural comfort zones of progressivism, you are persona non grata. Consider the ominous media analysis of Sen. JD Vance’s supposed “post-liberal” Catholicism. The tone makes it seem like his faith is as sinister as Darth Vader’s theme song.
The difference? Carter’s faith comforted the cultural Left. It posed no threat to the dominant liberal order.
To be fair, his faith motivated many good works for which I will not criticize him. But Carter’s Christianity ultimately allowed him to serve as a chaplain to progressive America. It represents the convergence of religious sentimentality with progressive moral values. In effect, Carter’s faith symbolizes the one form of church-state establishment that liberalism will tolerate: a Christianity stripped of its harder truths, its calls to repentance, and its moral clarity.
Biblical, orthodox Christianity, on the other hand, confronts the liberal order with truths it refuses to hear. And when those truths are voiced, orthodox faith is sidelined or castigated as intolerant. Liberalism will not accept a Christianity that proclaims Jesus Christ as the only way to God, that defends unborn human beings discarded as medical waste, or that challenges the decadent sexual deviancy now treated as routine.
The lesson? Our culture tolerates a Christian faith that aligns with its values but resists a Christian faith that challenges it. This dynamic reveals something fundamental about true Christianity: it is to do both, comfort and confront.
If your Christianity is celebrated in the highest echelons of culture, maybe that’s a sign something is amiss. That doesn’t necessarily mean compromise is present, but it should at least raise questions. On the other hand, being so hard-edged and “prophetic” that you’re unbearable to be around is also a problem. Authentic faith should embody love and truth (1 Corinthians 13:6), reasonableness (Philippians 4:5), and sober-mindedness (1 Peter 5:8).
Carter’s life invites us to examine how faith is understood and celebrated in public life. The irony is clear: society embraces a faith that serves its agenda while rejecting a faith that stands apart from it. True Christianity, however, is neither a servant of the age nor its unrelenting critic. Instead, it provides both the comfort of grace and the challenge of repentance, which our culture desperately needs.
So, let’s not selectively celebrate faith only when it fits a preferred narrative. If faith matters, it matters in full, whether it aligns with our politics or not. That’s the beauty of Christianity. It’s the one worldview that provides both comfort and confrontation, truth and grace, and it’s what we need in this moment of cultural upheaval. 
Andrew T. Walker is Associate Professor of Christian Ethics and Public Theology at The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary and Managing Editor of WORLD Opinions. He is a Fellow at The Ethics and Public Policy Center.
The views expressed in this piece are those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire.

Former President Jimmy Carter Teaches Sunday School

Jimmy Carter And America’s Double Standard For Celebrating Christianity

Abortion

Christianity

Jimmy Carter

Same-Sex Marriage

Southern Baptists

Daily Wire reporter Megan Basham&#8217;s latest book revealing the leftist influences on American Evangelicalism hit the shelves on Tuesday and quickly jumped into the <a href="https://www.amazon.com/gp/new-releases/books/?ie=UTF8&amp;ref_=sv_b_3" target="_blank" rel="noopener">top 10 bestsellers</a> in new book releases on Amazon. 
In “<a href="https://www.amazon.com/Shepherds-Sale-Evangelical-Leaders-Leftist-ebook/dp/B0CRQGNLMY">Shepherds for Sale: How Evangelical Leaders Traded the Truth for a Leftist Agenda</a>,” Basham “documents how progressive powerbrokers — from George Soros, to the founder of eBay, to former members of the Obama administration — set out to change the American church. Their goal: to co-opt evangelicals for political purposes.” 
The book also documents how a megachurch pastor pushed fellow pastors to move their views on sexuality to the Left and how leftist talking points on climate change and “systemic racism” have crept into American churches. “Shepherds for Sale” is the #1 bestseller in Christian Church Leadership on Amazon. 
“Shepherds for Sale” hits the shelves as controversy erupts in the Southern Baptist Convention’s Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission (ERLC). Earlier this month, the board of the ERLC, which is the SBC’s lobbying arm, announced it was firing President Brent Leatherwood, who has faced criticism from conservatives within the SBC over his apparent friendly statements about Joe Biden and his advocacy for a red flag law in Tennessee. 
Hours after the announcement, however, the ERLC <a href="https://www.christianitytoday.com/news/2024/july/brent-leatherwood-erlc-president-fired-trustees-biden.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">backtracked</a> and said it was reinstating Leatherwood. Board Chair Kevin Smith, who took responsibility for firing Leatherwood, resigned after Leatherwood was reinstated. Basham said the controversy shows more proof of how the SBC is being influenced by legacy media, but she added that rank-and-file Southern Baptists are waking up to the political influences on their denomination. 
“The New York Times, CNN, the Atlantic, POLITICO, and many other secular media outlets, immediately howled about Leatherwood’s ouster. That tells you they understand how valuable he is to them in his position,” Basham said. “In the end, Leatherwood was reinstated, but there’s no question that this is not over because of the unhappiness of Southern Baptists with his leadership. They may not have media megaphones, but their demands for accountability cannot be held off forever.”
Basham urged evangelical leaders to “get serious about tracing the secular Left influences in any number of evangelical institutions.” 
“When we have leftwing billionaires like atheist George Soros or Buddhist Pierre Omidyar funding evangelical projects, (especially given their direct opposition to biblical ethics on issues like the sanctity of life and gender, sexuality, and marriage), we should ask why,” she said. 
“When church leadership does not know who is behind an organization, they should not agree to sign their public statements or participate in their coalitions. Also, the time for politely ignoring what is going on has come to an end,” Basham added. “It is time to follow the model of J. Gresham Machen in the 1920s and begin to directly call out compromise, capitulation, and infiltration. As he has stated, liberalism is an altogether different religion than Christianity.”

Shepherds for Sale

Daily Wire Reporter Megan Basham’s New Book, ‘Shepherds For Sale,’ Climbs Bestseller List After Release

Books

Church

Evangelicals

Leftism

Saddleback Church, the multi-site <a href="http://dailywire.com/topic/christianity" target="_blank" rel="noopener">megachurch</a> founded by Rick Warren, ordained a <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/woke" target="_blank" rel="noopener">woman</a> to serve as a “campus pastor” even as the congregation is expected to appeal a recent decision from the <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/southern-baptists" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Southern Baptist Convention</a> to disfellowship the entity over similar moves.
Officials on the denomination’s Executive Committee voted earlier this year to <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/southern-baptists-disfellowship-saddleback-church-over-female-pastor" target="_blank" rel="noopener">remove</a> Saddleback, one of the largest churches in the United States, because of its decision to ordain several women as pastors over the past two years. Warren, who maintains a founding pastor role at the California congregation, announced Andy Wood as his successor to serve as senior pastor last year and appointed his wife, Stacie Wood, to serve as a teaching pastor, generating controversy days later at the Southern Baptist Convention annual meeting in Anaheim.
Saddleback Church Lake Forest, one of more than a dozen Saddleback branch campuses, announced last week that Katie Edwards had been appointed as the body’s new campus pastor. Images <a href="https://www.instagram.com/p/CsAFXy3PGaj/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">posted</a> by the church showed Andy and Stacie Wood praying over Edwards on stage.
The move comes weeks before Southern Baptists are scheduled to convene in New Orleans for the next annual meeting of the nation’s largest Protestant denomination, where Saddleback Church will likely contest the disfellowship decision from the Executive Committee.
Warren has defended his position on female pastors, which he adopted three years ago, in a recent <a href="https://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2023/march-web-only/rick-warren-russell-moore-saddleback-church-women-preaching.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">interview</a> with Russell Moore, the editor-in-chief of Christianity Today and the former president of the Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission, the public policy arm of the Southern Baptist Convention. Warren also claimed in a floor <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MBsT1zFmC3E" target="_blank" rel="noopener">speech</a> at last year’s annual meeting that there exists a distinction between the “gift” and the “office” of pastor.
Churches in the Southern Baptist Convention, an association of autonomous congregations which jointly fund seminaries, missionary efforts, and publications, must adhere to the Baptist Faith and Message doctrinal <a href="https://bfm.sbc.net/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">statement</a>, which affirms that “while both men and women are gifted for service in the church, the office of pastor is limited to men as qualified by Scripture.”
Mike Law, a pastor at Arlington Baptist Church, plans to introduce an <a href="https://sbcamendment.org/home-2/frequently-asked-questions/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">amendment</a> to the denomination’s constitution at the upcoming meeting in New Orleans to clarify that the Southern Baptist Convention will “only deem a church to be in friendly cooperation” if the congregation does not “affirm, appoint, or employ a woman as a pastor of any kind.” Law and other ministers have <a href="https://sbcamendment.org/home-2/why-now/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">documented</a> cases of several hundred female pastors who currently hold positions in Southern Baptist churches.
Law said in remarks to The Daily Wire that the most recent move from Saddleback Church to ordain a female pastor “shows the continued need for our convention to be clear and committed to our doctrine,” adding that “we can begin to meet this need by taking the first step of adopting the proposed constitutional amendment this June.”
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Controversy over the appointment of female pastors at Southern Baptist churches occurs as the denomination sees the largest single-year membership <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/sbc-sees-largest-one-year-membership-decline-in-a-century-churches-leave-due-to-liberal-drift" target="_blank" rel="noopener">decline</a> in at least a century. Beyond the lockdown mandates, which accelerated broader trends toward diminished church attendance in the United States, several ministers have identified the female pastor phenomenon as evidence of the denomination’s theologically liberal drift. Bart Barber, the president of the Southern Baptist Convention, and other leaders have faced criticism for neglecting to rebuke the dozens of churches which have installed female pastors.
Warren himself was one of several prominent evangelical ministers to <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/how-the-federal-government-used-evangelical-leaders-to-spread-covid-propaganda-to-churches" target="_blank" rel="noopener">endorse</a> wearing face masks as a fulfillment of Jesus’ command to “love your neighbor as yourself.” He also affirmed Francis Collins, the former director of the National Institutes of Health who declared himself an “ally” of the LGBTQ movement and supported human fetal tissue research, as a committed Christian and a “man you can trust.”

Rick Warren

Rick Warren’s Saddleback Church Ordains Woman To ‘Campus Pastor’ Role Amid Southern Baptist Female Minister Controversy

Rick Warren’s Church Appoints Woman To ‘Campus Pastor’ Role Amid Southern Baptist Female Minister Controversy

Feminism

Religion

Wokeness

Membership in the <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/southern-baptists" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Southern Baptist Convention</a> witnessed the largest single-year decline in at least a century as the nation reels from the aftermath of <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/lockdowns" target="_blank" rel="noopener">lockdown</a> mandates and pastors become concerned about the denomination’s theologically <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/woke" target="_blank" rel="noopener">liberal</a> drift.
The nation’s largest Protestant denomination saw a decline from 13.7 million members in 2021 to 13.2 million members in 2022, a decrease of more than 3% which continues the trajectory seen over the last three years, according to <a href="https://research.lifeway.com/2023/05/09/southern-baptists-decline-in-membership-grow-in-attendance-baptisms/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">data</a> released by Lifeway Research, a provider of church business services for the Southern Baptist Convention.
“Much of the downward movement we are seeing in membership reflects people who stopped participating in an individual congregation years ago and the record keeping is finally catching up,” Lifeway Research Executive Director Scott McConnell said in a statement. “Membership totals for a congregation immediately reflect additions as well as subtractions due to death or someone removing themselves from membership. But many congregations are slow to remove others who no longer are participating.”
Even as the number of baptisms and the amount of giving increased from the previous year, the Southern Baptist Convention is now composed of 416 fewer churches between 2021 and 2022. Unlike other more centralized denominations, the Southern Baptist Convention is a voluntary association of autonomous churches which fund seminaries, missionary efforts, and publications as they <a href="https://bfm.sbc.net/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">adhere</a> to the Baptist Faith and Message statement of doctrinal convictions.
Lockdowns contributed to a broader decline of religiosity in the United States as many congregants never <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/wheat-and-chaff-a-three-year-post-mortem-on-evangelical-church-attendance" target="_blank" rel="noopener">returned</a> to traditional worship services. Church attendance has fallen to 85% of pre-lockdown levels in Protestant denominations even after nearly every church in the country resumed normal operations, according to another <a href="https://research.lifeway.com/2022/11/08/churches-are-open-but-still-recovering-from-pandemic-attendance-losses/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">study</a> from Lifeway Research.
Those who continued to profess Christianity became increasingly theologically liberal in their beliefs: a <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/from-the-inspiration-of-scripture-to-gender-identity-evangelicalism-sees-a-massive-leftward-shift" target="_blank" rel="noopener">survey</a> from Ligonier Ministries found that the share of self-identified evangelicals who believe “gender identity is a matter of choice” rose from 22% to 37% between 2020 and 2022, while the share who believe “the Bible’s condemnation of homosexual behavior doesn’t apply today” more than doubled from 11% to 28% over the same time horizon.
Record decline in Southern Baptist Convention membership occurs as hundreds of pastors throughout the country notice the liberal direction of the denomination. The trend is perhaps most palpable at the institutional level: Southern Baptist Convention President Bart Barber and other leaders have faced <a href="https://americanreformer.org/2023/04/mr-smith-goes-to-the-convention/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">criticism</a> for neglecting to rebuke the dozens of churches which have <a href="https://gk2611.p3cdn1.secureserver.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/Churches-with-Female-Pastors-from-churches.sbc_.net_-2.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">installed</a> female pastors, a practice denounced in the Baptist Faith and Message.
Officials at the Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission, the denomination’s public policy arm, meanwhile <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/southern-baptist-ethics-arm-doubles-down-on-support-for-tennessee-red-flag-law-despite-pushback" target="_blank" rel="noopener">endorsed</a> a red flag law in Tennessee months after they <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/pro-life-lobbying-groups-issue-letter-against-charging-women-with-crimes-for-seeking-abortions" target="_blank" rel="noopener">opposed</a> a bill in Louisiana that would have criminalized abortion for all parties involved, even though Southern Baptists passed a <a href="https://www.sbc.net/resource-library/resolutions/on-abolishing-abortion/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">resolution</a> affirming that “the murder of preborn children is a crime against humanity that must be punished equally under the law” the previous summer. Former Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission President Russell Moore said three years ago that ministers should <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/how-the-federal-government-used-evangelical-leaders-to-spread-covid-propaganda-to-churches" target="_blank" rel="noopener">persuade</a> church members to accept vaccination and wear face masks.
The Daily Wire reviewed several emails from concerned former Southern Baptist Convention pastors sent to Mike Law, a minister at Arlington Baptist Church in Virginia, who had contacted thousands of pastors to garner support for his <a href="https://sbcamendment.org/home-2/why-now/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">efforts</a> to address the female pastor phenomenon. Many of the churches represented by the pastors have left the denomination in recent months.
“You can take our church off your mailing list,” one pastor replied. “We do not support the socialist movement that has infiltrated the convention and are no longer a member.”
“Our congregation is no longer in the SBC because of their liberal stances on this and their support in fighting an abolition bill in Louisiana,” another minister said. “I pray along with you that the SBC leadership would be convicted by your efforts and the many churches like us who are stepping away,” added a third pastor.
“We truly appreciate your efforts to uphold the Bible. I’m just letting you know that our church voted to leave the SBC this past summer,” commented a fourth. “We felt that this issue was just one that should have been addressed in 2022. There were other issues, so we chose to become non-denominational and break from the SBC.”
Controversy over the ordination of women in the Southern Baptist Convention emerged last year as Rick Warren, the founding pastor of Saddleback Church in California, selected a husband and wife team to replace him at the megachurch after his retirement, drawing rebukes from veteran conservative ministers. The congregation was <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/southern-baptists-disfellowship-saddleback-church-over-female-pastor" target="_blank" rel="noopener">disfellowshipped</a> from the denomination earlier this year, a move which Warren will be permitted to appeal next month.

Church Steeple

SBC Sees Largest One-Year Membership Decline In A Century, Churches Leave Due To Liberal Drift

SBC Witnesses Largest Single-Year Membership Decline In A Century, Pastors Grow Concerned Over Liberal Drift

Lockdowns

The public policy agency of the <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/southern-baptists" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Southern Baptist Convention</a> doubled down on their support for a so-called <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/gun-control" target="_blank" rel="noopener">red flag</a> law in <a href="http://dailywire.com/topic/tennessee" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Tennessee</a> despite many pastors and church members affirming that they do not support the move.
Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission President Brent Leatherwood sent a <a href="https://www.tennessean.com/story/news/religion/2023/04/17/southern-baptist-public-policy-backs-tennessee-gov-bill-lee-gun-proposal/70122387007/?fbclid=IwAR2vHqditHBaO8UwC1MQqg9wvkZyFIegcaFAPgFi31zgyKel_0zzvBmn0j4" target="_blank" rel="noopener">letter</a> last week to state lawmakers in support of Tennessee Republican Governor Bill Lee’s proposed red flag statute, which would provide state officials additional powers to take firearms away from those deemed to be at risk to themselves or others. The proposal follows a transgender individual fatally shooting three children and three staff members at The Covenant School in Nashville, which three of Leatherwood’s own children attend.
The ERLC released an <a href="https://erlc.com/resource-library/articles/explainer-tennessee-governors-order-of-protection-proposal/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">explainer</a> on Friday insisting that the policy differs from a red flag law because only police can “file a petition before the court to have firearms confiscated” and because an individual can “only be dispossessed of the firearms” if he or she completes an entire court process. Neither clarification countered the fundamental objection to red flag laws which make the policies broadly <a href="https://www.thetrafalgargroup.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/06/COSA-RedFlag-Poll-Report-0621.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">unpopular</a> among large majorities of Republicans and many independents: that government officials can abuse the authority granted by the statutes to deprive citizens of their means for self-defense, a concern which Second Amendment activists cited to The Daily Wire in multiple recent <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/gov-bill-lee-calls-on-legislature-to-pass-red-flag-law-signs-exec-order-intensifying-gun-background-checks" target="_blank" rel="noopener">reports</a> on the Tennessee red flag proposal.
The explainer from the ERLC cited resolutions passed by attendees of the Southern Baptist Convention, the largest Protestant denomination in the United States, at annual meetings in 2018 and 2022. The <a href="https://www.sbc.net/resource-library/resolutions/on-gun-violence-and-mass-shootings/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">former</a> affirmed the solidarity of the denomination “with all those victimized by gun violence” while the <a href="https://www.sbc.net/resource-library/resolutions/on-the-imago-dei-and-the-helpful-content-submitted-in-several-resolutions/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">latter</a> asked lawmakers to “minimize the threat of gun violence throughout our society” with “concrete steps.” Neither calls for the enactment of any specific law or statute regarding gun violence, much less any proposal resembling a red flag law.
Advocacy from the ERLC in favor of the red flag law proposal continued even after Tennessee House Republicans implied on Wednesday that they would oppose such a statute. “Any red flag law is a non-starter for House Republicans,” a <a href="https://twitter.com/tnhousegop/status/1648839020070174720" target="_blank" rel="noopener">statement</a> from the conference said. “Our caucus is focused on finding solutions that prevent dangerous individuals from harming the public and preserve the Second Amendment rights of law-abiding citizens. We have always been open to working with Governor Lee on measures that fit within that framework.”
Leatherwood <a href="https://twitter.com/LeatherwoodERLC/status/1648789967433244674" target="_blank" rel="noopener">invoked</a> the two resolutions passed by Southern Baptist Convention attendees on social media as he doubled down on his support for the red flag law. Another <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/top-southern-baptist-ethicist-claims-to-speak-for-denomination-as-he-supports-tennessee-red-flag-law" target="_blank" rel="noopener">report</a> from The Daily Wire published earlier this week noted how Leatherwood told lawmakers that “Southern Baptists comprise over one-fifth of the population of Tennessee,” an apparent attempt to leverage the size of the denomination in favor of the red flag proposal.
Creekside Fellowship Lead Pastor Drew Byers, whose congregation gathers in Castalian Springs, Tennessee, affirmed in an interview with The Daily Wire that the ERLC does not speak for the majority of Southern Baptists with respect to their stance on firearm restrictions. He noted the entity’s comparative silence on transgenderism as “more concerning” and contended that “after a transgender person shoots children at a school, the ideology that needs to be condemned is not gun culture.”
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“There are times when the ERLC does speak clearly on some issues,” he continued. “However, I think more often than not they advance the views of those in the organization rather than the views of those in the pew. No one from the ERLC has ever contacted me to ask my view on anything.”
Leatherwood and the ERLC appear to have remained silent when Lee recently <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/tennessee-gov-signs-bills-protecting-children-from-sex-change-procedures-drag-shows" target="_blank" rel="noopener">approved</a> bills which prohibit sex change procedures, hormone treatments, and puberty blockers for minors, as well as sexually explicit drag shows in public or near children. The Daily Wire has been unable to find public statements or court filings from the ERLC in favor of the laws and contacted the entity to confirm they did not publicly support the proposals.
ERLC Trustee Michael Guyer <a href="https://twitter.com/msguyer/status/1649088765317758977" target="_blank" rel="noopener">said</a> via social media on Thursday that “the insinuation that ERLC is silent about the dangers of transgender ideology” is “simply false.” He likewise invoked the two Southern Baptist Convention resolutions as he addressed concern over the red flag proposal.
Southern Baptist denominational leaders have been repeatedly accused in recent years of supporting policy proposals which contradict the desires and beliefs of congregations. Former ERLC President Russell Moore asserted three years ago that ministers should <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/how-the-federal-government-used-evangelical-leaders-to-spread-covid-propaganda-to-churches" target="_blank" rel="noopener">prompt</a> church members to accept vaccination and wear masks. Leatherwood endorsed a <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/pro-life-lobbying-groups-issue-letter-against-charging-women-with-crimes-for-seeking-abortions" target="_blank" rel="noopener">letter</a> last year alongside several dozen pro-life activists which opposed a bill in Louisiana that would have criminalized abortion for all parties involved, even though Southern Baptists had previously passed a <a href="https://www.sbc.net/resource-library/resolutions/on-abolishing-abortion/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">resolution</a> affirming that “the murder of preborn children is a crime against humanity that must be punished equally under the law.”

Southern Baptist Ethics Arm Doubles Down On Support For Tennessee Red Flag Law Despite Pushback

Southern Baptist Leadership Doubles Down On Support For Red Flag Law Amid Pushback

Gun Control

LGBTQ

Pastor

Politics

Tennessee

Transgender

The senior ethicist for the <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/southern-baptists" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Southern Baptist Convention</a> threw the weight of the denomination behind a so-called <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/gun-control" target="_blank" rel="noopener">red flag</a> law in <a href="http://dailywire.com/topic/tennessee" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Tennessee</a>, even as rank-and-file <a href="http://dailywire.com/topic/christianity" target="_blank" rel="noopener">ministers</a> and congregants increasingly see denominational leadership’s values as contradictory to their own.
Brent Leatherwood, the president of the Southern Baptist Convention’s Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission, recently wrote a <a href="https://www.tennessean.com/story/news/religion/2023/04/17/southern-baptist-public-policy-backs-tennessee-gov-bill-lee-gun-proposal/70122387007/?fbclid=IwAR2vHqditHBaO8UwC1MQqg9wvkZyFIegcaFAPgFi31zgyKel_0zzvBmn0j4" target="_blank" rel="noopener">letter</a> to state lawmakers in support of Tennessee Republican Governor Bill Lee’s proposed red flag laws, which would <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/gov-bill-lee-calls-on-legislature-to-pass-red-flag-law-signs-exec-order-intensifying-gun-background-checks" target="_blank" rel="noopener">enable</a> the state government to take firearms away from those who are found to be at risk to themselves or others. The forthcoming legislation follows a self-described transgender individual fatally shooting three children and three staff members at The Covenant School in Nashville, which three of Leatherwood’s own children attend.
“What he outlined is a thoughtful approach to ensure we respect the constitutional rights of citizens while also helping to protect potential victims from dangerous individuals,” Leatherwood wrote in support of the proposal from Lee. “Allowing law enforcement to work with families in order to initiate action that involves full due process in the judicial system will ensure individuals who could cause great harm are temporarily kept from accessing weapons.”
Leatherwood invoked the command from Jesus to “love your neighbor as yourself” in his letter, cited biblical commands for civil government to oppose the “bad conduct” of wrongdoers, and noted that “Southern Baptists comprise over one-fifth of the population of Tennessee.”
Red flag laws nevertheless remain broadly <a href="https://www.thetrafalgargroup.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/06/COSA-RedFlag-Poll-Report-0621.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">unpopular</a> among large majorities of Republicans and many independents, who fear that government officials can abuse the authority granted to them under the statutes. Opponents of red flag laws assert that they pose a threat to Second Amendment liberties and due process while failing to prevent criminal acts. The National Rifle Association and other advocacy organizations have publicly <a href="https://www.nraila.org/articles/20230418/tennessee-urgent-action-needed-oppose-red-flag-gun-confiscation-orders" target="_blank" rel="noopener">opposed</a> the Lee proposal.
“Red flag gun confiscation would not have stopped the shooter. However, it will disarm perfectly sane, law-abiding people, resulting in more terrible deaths, not fewer,” Zach Lautenschlager, the former vice president of the National Association for Gun Rights, told The Daily Wire. “Tennessee already has laws which allow guns to be seized from people who are adjudicated a danger to themselves and to others. Red flag just removes due process, pure and simple.”
Lautenschlager, who was instrumental in enacting constitutional carry legislation across the country, noted that residents of other states have fallen victim to “a disgruntled neighbor or former coworker” submitting an anonymous tip to law enforcement, which results in the loss of their right to self-defense “without their knowledge and without any kind of hearing in which they can participate.”
Members of the Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission, also known as the ERLC, have been accused in recent years of supporting policy proposals which contradict the desires of Southern Baptist congregations. Russell Moore, the former president of the ERLC, said three years ago that ministers should <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/how-the-federal-government-used-evangelical-leaders-to-spread-covid-propaganda-to-churches" target="_blank" rel="noopener">persuade</a> church members to accept COVID vaccination and wear masks. Leatherwood endorsed a <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/pro-life-lobbying-groups-issue-letter-against-charging-women-with-crimes-for-seeking-abortions" target="_blank" rel="noopener">letter</a> last year alongside several dozen pro-life activists which opposed a bill in Louisiana that would have criminalized abortion for all parties involved, even though Southern Baptists passed a <a href="https://www.sbc.net/resource-library/resolutions/on-abolishing-abortion/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">resolution</a> affirming that “the murder of preborn children is a crime against humanity that must be punished equally under the law” the previous summer.
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“As an SBC pastor for the past nearly 16 years, I have never been contacted by anyone at the ERLC to share my thoughts on any of the issues they cover or agendas they push,” Scott Packett, the pastor of North Athens Baptist Church in Athens, Tennessee, told The Daily Wire. “For Mr. Leatherwood to assume that he speaks for all SBC pastors and churches is quite presumptuous.”
Packett added that he does not believe red flag laws will “stop these acts of terror” even though he sympathizes with Leatherwood and his family after the massacre at The Covenant School. “Guns do not kill people. Depraved human beings kill people,” he continued. “Giving the government power to limit our Second Amendment rights is not the answer. Look at other major cities and states where these laws are enforced: murderers will do whatever it takes to kill. Therefore, limiting access to guns for regular law-abiding citizens is never the solution.”
Leatherwood wrote in his letter to Tennessee lawmakers that “every life, without exception, is created with infinite worth in the eyes of our Lord because each one is made in His image.&#8221; Packett sees the claim as inconsistent with Leatherwood’s opposition to the bill in Louisiana, after which the ERLC told “churches like mine they want abortion to be unthinkable.”
Leatherwood and the ERLC appear to have remained silent when Lee recently <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/tennessee-gov-signs-bills-protecting-children-from-sex-change-procedures-drag-shows" target="_blank" rel="noopener">approved</a> bills which prohibit sex change procedures, hormone treatments, and puberty blockers for minors, as well as sexually explicit drag shows in public or near children. The Daily Wire was unable to find public statements or court filings from the ERLC in favor of the laws and contacted the entity to confirm they did not publicly support the proposals.

Top Southern Baptist Ethicist Claims To Speak For Denomination As He Supports Tennessee Red Flag Law

Top SBC Ethicist Claims To Speak For Denomination As He Supports Tennessee Gun Control Law

California megachurch Saddleback Church, founded by prominent Christian leader and best-selling author Rick Warren, was disfellowshipped from the <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/southern-baptists" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Southern Baptist Convention</a> (SBC) on Tuesday over having a female pastor.
Officials on the Executive Committee voted out one of the largest churches in the United States less than a year after Warren delivered his final sermon as Saddleback&#8217;s senior pastor and ushered in lead pastor Andy Wood and his wife, Stacie, who serves as a teaching pastor.
Due to the church continuing to have a female functioning in the office of pastor, SBC Executive Committee Chairman Jared Wellman told The Daily Wire in a statement that the convention ousted the 43-year-old megachurch, as it is &#8220;not in friendly cooperation&#8221; with the denomination.
Wood told <a href="https://apnews.com/article/baptist-church-us-news-california-religion-7970970aef44935329cd0fa4d3feceee?utm_campaign=TrueAnthem&amp;utm_medium=AP&amp;utm_source=Twitter" target="_blank" rel="noopener">The Associated Press</a> last year that the Bible “teaches that men and women were given spiritual gifts by God.”
“The church should be a place where both men and women can exercise those spiritual gifts,” Wood said. “My wife has the spiritual gift of teaching and she is really good. People often tell me she’s better than me when it comes to preaching, and I’m really glad to hear that.”
The move from the convention also comes after Warren ordained three women as pastors in May 2021, sparking the initial discussion to remove the church from the SBC, arguing it defied Biblical principles and Article VI in the Baptist Faith and Message.
&#8220;While both men and women are gifted for service in the church, the office of the pastor is limited to men as qualified by Scripture,&#8221; the article reads.
Warren responded to Saddleback&#8217;s disfellowship in a tweet on Tuesday, thanking his supporters.
&#8220;Friends worldwide: I&#8217;m so touched by your love!&#8221; Warren said. &#8220;We&#8217;ll respond to #SBC in OUR time &amp; way thru direct channels.&#8221;
https://twitter.com/RickWarren/status/1628178253373657088
At an SBC convention in June 2022, Warren responded to officials calling to sever the relationship with Saddleback.
&#8220;Are we going to keep bickering over secondary issues?&#8221; Warren said. &#8220;Or are we going to keep the main thing the main thing?&#8221;
Warren also reportedly said at the same meeting that he believes there is a difference between the office of pastor and the gift of pastor.
Traditional Christians believe the Bible makes it clear from a Complementarian viewpoint that women have a place in ministry under a male leader&#8217;s authority, arguing that primary leadership roles for females are unhealthy, counter to biblical standards, and place the congregation on a slippery slope away from fundamental scripture teachings and on a path toward more liberalism.
&#8220;They are on that path — anybody can see this by following their social media pages,&#8221; a source, who requested anonymity, told The Daily Wire.
The Executive Committee also ousted five other churches from the convention — four of which have a woman serving as a lead or senior pastor.
Those churches include New Faith Mission Ministry in Griffin, Georgia, St. Timothy&#8217;s Christian Baptist in Baltimore, Maryland, Calvary Baptist Church in Jackson, Mississippi, and Fern Creek Baptist Church, in Louisville, Kentucky.
SBC officials also disfellowshipped Freedom Church in Vero Beach, Florida, over a sex abuse-related issue, which <a href="https://www.tennessean.com/story/news/religion/2023/02/21/southern-baptist-convention-disfellowships-saddleback-church/69927465007/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">The Tennessean</a> reported executive committee chairman Wellman said the church exhibited &#8220;a lack of intent to cooperate in resolving concerns regarding a sexual abuse allegation.&#8221;
&#8220;These churches have been valued, cooperating churches for many years, and this decision was not made lightly,&#8221; Wellman told The Daily Wire. &#8220;However, we remain committed to upholding the theological convictions of the SBC and maintaining unity among its cooperating churches.&#8221;
Pastor Richard Demsick of Freedom Church said in an interview with The Tennessean, &#8220;we are deeply saddened by the false allegations, which are slanderous.&#8221;
&#8220;There are no sexual abuse allegations,&#8221; he added. &#8220;There have been false reports based on gossip.&#8221;
The Southern Baptist Convention leaders said last year the nation&#8217;s largest Protestant denomination, which has almost 14 million members and more than 47,000 churches in all 50 states, was under investigation by the Justice Department for sexual abuse allegations.
An outside consultant reported that women and children were abused by male pastors, church employees, and officials from 2000 to the present, <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2022/08/12/us/southern-baptist-convention-sexual-abuse.html#:~:text=%E2%80%9CFor%20almost%20two%20decades%2C%20survivors,or%20employed%20as%20church%20staff.%E2%80%9D" target="_blank" rel="noopener">The New York Times</a> reported.
&#8220;For almost two decades, survivors of abuse and other concerned Southern Baptists have been contacting the Southern Baptist Convention,&#8221; the consultant&#8217;s <a href="https://static1.squarespace.com/static/6108172d83d55d3c9db4dd67/t/628a9326312a4216a3c0679d/1653248810253/Guidepost+Solutions+Independent+Investigation+Report.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">report</a> said, &#8220;to report child molesters and other abusers who were in the pulpit or employed as church staff.&#8221;
Victims said they made several attempts via phone, mail, and email, showed up at meetings, and held rallies, &#8220;only to be met, time and time again, with resistance, stonewalling and even outright hostility.&#8221;
SBC officials said the convention would &#8220;fully and completely cooperate&#8221; with the investigation, and the church continues to &#8220;grieve and lament past mistakes.&#8221;
All six churches can appeal the decision made by SBC officials at the convention&#8217;s next annual meeting, which is set to take place in New Orleans in June.

USA – Religion – Purpose Driven Network Summit at Saddleback Church

Southern Baptists Boot Saddleback Church Over Female Pastor

California

Judeo-Christian Values

U.S.

American evangelicalism experienced a seismic shift toward theological and social progressivism over the past two years.
As revealed by Ligonier Ministries and LifeWay Research’s most recent <a href="https://thestateoftheology.com/">State of Theology Survey</a> — a biennial poll that tracks the beliefs of professing evangelicals and the overall adult population — the winds of the social justice movement appeared to sweep through the pews equally as strongly as the culture at large.
&#8220;The frightening results only reveal the fact that many who claim to be evangelical in America are not, indeed, truly evangelical,” G3 Ministries Executive Vice President Scott Aniol told The Daily Wire. “At the very least, this should cause us to think twice when we read statements in the media about what &#8216;evangelicals&#8217; do or believe, and above all, the results should motivate pastors to be sure to faithfully teach their people core biblical doctrine.&#8221;
Two years ago, for instance, only 22% of evangelicals agreed that “gender identity is a matter of choice” — a figure that has since increased to 37%. Only 11% affirmed that “the Bible’s condemnation of homosexual behavior doesn’t apply today” — a figure that has risen to 28%.
The results correspond with a rising tolerance of homosexuality and transgenderism in the broader American culture. Toward the beginning of 2021, a <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/majority-of-gop-voters-support-same-sex-marriage-for-the-first-time-poll">majority of Republican voters</a> for the first time indicated that they support same-sex marriage. As officials consider the Respect for Marriage Act, a bill that would codify homosexual marriage into federal law, <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/gop-establishment-leaders-call-on-senate-to-enshrine-same-sex-marriage">several high-profile Republicans</a> publicly endorsed the legislation.
For a handful of issues, however, evangelicals became more conservative. 
The share of evangelicals affirming the statement “sex outside of marriage is a sin” increased from 90% to 94%. On the sanctity of life — “abortion is a sin” — evangelical support also rose from 88% to 91%. “While the reasons for this positive trend are unknown, it is encouraging to see more evangelicals affirming the personhood of human beings in the womb,” Ligonier remarked.
Cultural battle over wokeness <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/how-the-battle-over-wokeness-has-infiltrated-the-church">cascaded into evangelicalism</a> after the death of George Floyd and the rise of the Black Lives Matter movement. 
Many pastors and high-profile evangelicals spoke in favor of critical race theory and posited that the United States is systemically racist, requiring patently unbiblical responses such as <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/warnock-america-must-repent-for-its-worship-of-whiteness">repenting of whiteness</a>. As Ibram X. Kendi and Robin DiAngelo became household names, evangelical volumes such as “Woke Church” by Eric Mason and “How to Fight Racism” by Jemar Tisby began circulating in many church circles.
Perhaps most concerning of all is an apparent rise in postmodern tendencies among evangelicals; agreement with the notion that “religious belief is a matter of personal opinion” rather than “objective truth” soared from 23% to 38%.
Professing evangelicals likewise folded on historic Christian teaching with respect to matters of doctrine. Two years ago, 15% said that “the Bible, like all sacred writings, contains helpful accounts of ancient myths but is not literally true” — a figure that increased to 26% in the most recent survey. “A rising disbelief in the Bible’s literal truth may help us understand why American evangelicals also increasingly believe that religious faith is a subjective experience rather than an objective reality,” Ligonier continued.
Rather than affirming that salvation is available through Jesus Christ alone, the share of evangelicals claiming that “God accepts the worship of all religions, including Christianity, Judaism, and Islam” rose from 42% to 56%. Meanwhile, the proportion of evangelicals agreeing that “Jesus was a great teacher, but he was not God” rose from 30% to 43%.
The <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/how-the-federal-government-used-evangelical-leaders-to-spread-covid-propaganda-to-churches">closure of churches</a> as a result of government lockdowns is a possible explanation for declining affirmation of orthodox Christianity — especially since many former attendees stayed at home on Sunday mornings even after the lockdowns ended. For the first time in American history, church membership <a href="https://news.gallup.com/poll/341963/church-membership-falls-below-majority-first-time.aspx">fell below half of the population</a> in 2020 — an overall decline of nearly 30% since the end of World War II.
Although evangelicals in the United States have <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/more-dangerous-than-the-crude-tyrannies-of-the-past-a-profound-theologians-prophetic-warnings-about-government-education">long faced the temptation</a> to prioritize social activism and capitulate to theological liberalism, the turmoil of the past two years appears to have accelerated such a shift — and manifested that the sons of the present age are alive and well within the four walls of the church.
“These results convey the ongoing need for the church to be engaged in apologetics, helping unbelievers by providing a well-reasoned defense of the Christian faith, and helping believers by strengthening their clarity and conviction regarding why they believe what they do,” Ligonier concluded. “The need is great, but the power and promises of God can equip the church to bring truth and light to a deceived and dark world.”

The Del Ray Baptist church in the aftermath of the SCOTUS Roe draft leak, on May 08 in Alexandria, VA.

From The Inspiration Of Scripture To Gender Identity, Evangelicalism Sees A Massive Leftward Shift

Bible

Readers Pass

The annual meeting of the Southern Baptist Convention (SBC) witnessed a major shift at the expense of theological conservatives.
Pastors and congregants assembled in Anaheim, California, last week to serve as messengers for their churches to elect new leadership and debate key issues. This year, hot topics for America’s largest Protestant denomination included a move from several churches to <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/religion/2021/05/11/saddleback-ordain-women-sbc/">ordain</a> female pastors, as well as a <a href="https://static1.squarespace.com/static/6108172d83d55d3c9db4dd67/t/6298d31ff654dd1a9dae86bf/1654182692359/Guidepost+Solutions+Independent+Investigation+Report___.pdf">report</a> from investigative firm Guidepost Solutions — which garnered controversy for <a href="https://twitter.com/GuidepostGlobal/status/1533872616812978176">lauding Pride Month</a> on social media — outlining instances of sexual abuse within the denomination.
A conservative <a href="https://wehaveabook.com/endorsements">coalition</a> of pastors and theologians endorsed Florida pastor Tom Ascol as president of the SBC, African Christian University Dean Voddie Baucham as president of the pastors’ conference, and Georgia pastor Javier Chavez as recording secretary. All three candidates lost, with Texas pastor Bart Barber taking the mantle as SBC president.
Many pastors <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2021/06/16/us/southern-baptist-convention-evangelicalism.html">view these trends</a> as symptoms of a broader progressive drift in the SBC, which has a reputation for maintaining firm convictions on the fallen nature of man, salvation through Jesus Christ alone and the inerrancy of Scripture.
<h4>What Is a Pastor?</h4>
Article VI of the “<a href="https://bfm.sbc.net/bfm2000/">Baptist Faith and Message</a>,” a statement of faith adopted by the SBC in 2000, makes plain that “the office of pastor is limited to men as qualified by Scripture.” As a result, messengers <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/religion/2022/06/15/saddleback-remains-southern-baptist-now-after-surprise-appeal-by-rick-warren/">proposed a motion</a> to disfellowship Saddleback Church — a California-based, multi-site megachurch led by pastor Rick Warren — over its decision to <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/religion/2021/05/11/saddleback-ordain-women-sbc/">install three females</a> into pastoral roles last year. Warren and his wife, Kay, also <a href="https://www.christianitytoday.com/news/2022/june/rick-warren-retirement-saddleback-church-pastor-andy-wood.html">tapped</a> Andy and Stacie Wood as “God’s couple” to lead the congregation after Warren’s upcoming retirement. 
“The church has maintained meaningful, albeit not uniform, consensus on what a pastor is for approximately 2,000 years,” Jeff Wright, pastor of Midway Baptist Church in Cookeville, Tennessee, explained to The Daily Wire. “Now, at the same time the broader culture has found a way to become confused on what a woman is, the SBC has become confused on what a pastor is.”
In response to the disfellowship motion, the SBC’s credentials committee recommended studying the issue of female pastors further — an offer that was <a href="https://www.baptiststandard.com/news/baptists/credentials-committee-withdraws-study-recommendation/">withdrawn</a> after Southern Baptist Theological Seminary President Al Mohler denounced the move.
Tom Buck, senior pastor of First Baptist Church in Lindale, Texas, pointed out to The Daily Wire that 1 Timothy 2:12 and other passages quoted by the “Baptist Faith and Message” are by no means unclear. “A pastor is someone who teaches and exercises authority in the church, and Scripture prohibits women from holding that office and performing the function of that office,” Buck said. “The fact that the members of the credentials committee are unable to discern this from Article VI only demonstrates how woefully unqualified they are to serve the SBC in this capacity.”
Mike Harding, pastor of Regeneration Church in Millersburg, Ohio, noted to The Daily Wire that “Christians are textualists and not deconstructionists.”
“There is irrefutably no wiggle room in our confession for calling women ‘pastors’ or giving them the office of pastor,” Harding said. “This unfortunately, in my humble opinion, demonstrates that we are in fact in a theologically liberal drift.”
<h4>Weaponized Accusations</h4>
Last year, the SBC commissioned Guidepost Solutions to chronicle and investigate instances of sexual abuse from pastors and other denominational affiliates. This week, the SBC greenlit <a href="https://www.baptiststandard.com/news/baptists/sbc-abuse-task-force-seeks-3-million-for-reforms-website/">recommended resolutions</a> from its sexual abuse task force to create a separate “Abuse Reform Implementation Task Force” as well as a “Ministry Check” website to centralize vetted information about alleged abusers.
Yet <a href="https://twitter.com/TomBuck/status/1532024249677922314?s=20&amp;t=nZ8FaYtPSfaSJEIQ-quQqw">many pastors</a> argue that the website violates biblical standards of justice such as due process and two or three lines of independent witness — as communicated by passages such as Numbers 35:30, Deuteronomy 19:15, and Matthew 18:16.
“Putting someone on a database simply because they have been accused is presuming guilt rather than innocence,” Buck said. “The SBC has as much a responsibility to protect the potentially falsely accused as they do the potential victim&#8230; We must take every accusation seriously and take great care to discover the facts and act accordingly. But putting someone on a list simply because they were accused is not biblical justice — it’s actually injustice.”
Indeed, a <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/southern-baptists-metoo-moment">new report</a> from The Daily Wire’s Megan Basham detailed how the subject of sexual abuse in the SBC has morphed into “a political football that various factions have been leveraging to settle bitter scores and sway the direction of the denomination.” Basham found that Guidepost investigators failed to ask important witnesses for statements or evidence, nevertheless referring to one accusee as an “abuser” rather than an “alleged abuser.”
Harding concurred that “naming a person a sex abuser outside legal conviction runs ahead of Scripture and the legal process in our country for establishing guilt.”
“It slanders the individual and robs both parties of biblical justice,” he added. “We do well to train our church members and the churches in the SBC to recognize grooming behavior, do thorough background checks and reference checks. … Because each church is autonomous, the kind of vetting I mention has to be done by the local church.”
Wright likewise expressed concern that given cultural forces in the United States, a website listing accusations could lead to the “weaponization of abuse” while serving as a redundancy in light of the federal government’s National Sex Offender Registry.
“Think about names like Kavanaugh and Depp. Clearly these allegations can be used to destroy a man’s reputation,” Wright noted. “Justice would dictate a corresponding database of false allegations. However, I cannot believe those pushing this database forward would even countenance such a thing.”
<h4>No Way Forward</h4>
All three pastors interviewed by The Daily Wire said their churches are now more likely to leave the SBC.
“Southern Baptist churches are autonomous and congregationally governed, as expressed in our confession,” Wright said. “Congregations that are clear-eyed on the theological and ethical drift are going to increasingly find it hard to partner with the SBC insiders driving that drift.” He noted that members of his church will likely not “see a way to stay in partnership” through general cooperative program giving, by which the SBC gathers funds from local churches for world missions and other endeavors.
Meanwhile, Buck’s congregation established a task force “to discuss these matters and come back to the church in our August members’ meeting to make recommendations.”
Harding said that although his church “would like to see the SBC turn back from its trajectory of theological compromise and rejection of Scripture’s sufficiency for pragmatism,” it would prove difficult “to have a clean conscience before God and support such godless actions by those that claim to be followers of Christ.”
“I know there are many solid churches in the SBC,” said Harding, “but as of right now, it’s hard to conceive a reason to stay in the convention.”
The views expressed in this piece are those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire.

Readers Pass – Zeisloft – SBC and ‘A Theologically Liberal Drift’16×9

‘A Theologically Liberal Drift’: Conservative Pastors Endure Heavy Losses At Southern Baptist Convention

Conservatives

Progressivism

Leaders in the Southern Baptist Convention (SBC) responded to an independent report released Sunday revealing that sexual abuse was covered up for years in America’s largest protestant denomination
The seven-month-long investigation <a href="https://apnews.com/article/baptist-religion-sexual-abuse-by-clergy-southern-convention-bfdbe64389790630488f854c3dae3fd5">concluded</a> that leaders on the SBC’s Executive Committee (EC) “resisted” and “stonewalled” repeated sexual abuse allegations made by SBC members against pastors and leaders in the denomination.
“There are not adequate words to express my sorrow at the things revealed in this report,” SBC President Ed Litton said in a <a href="https://twitter.com/liamsadams/status/1528489301398503430/photo/1">statement</a> Sunday. “I am grieved to my core for those who have suffered sexual abuse in Southern Baptist contexts, both for those named in this report and the many who are not.”
Delegates at last year’s SBC national meeting called for an outside investigation, and the EC agreed to an examination by independent firm Guidepost Solutions.
“Our investigation revealed that, for many years, a few senior EC leaders, along with outside counsel, largely controlled the EC’s response to these reports of abuse &#8230; and were singularly focused on avoiding liability for the SBC,” the report said, according to the Associated Press.
The independent report added that the SBC ignored or disbelieved sexual abuse survivors and excused complaints by referring to the denomination’s autonomous church polity. The report stated that this excuse was given to those making abuse allegations “even if it meant that convicted molesters continued in ministry with no notice or warning to their current church or congregation.”
The report goes on to state that one EC member held a list of hundreds of accused pastors, but there is no evidence anyone on the committee “took any action to ensure that the accused ministers were no longer in positions of power at SBC churches.”
One of those accused was former SBC President Johnny Hunt, who was accused of sexually assaulting another pastor’s wife during a trip in 2010. Hunt denied the allegations.
“I vigorously deny the circumstances and characterizations set forth in the Guidepost report,” he said in a Sunday statement. “I have never abused anybody.”
The EC will meet on Tuesday to discuss the reports findings after multiple committee leaders resigned in the past year. The SBC will also meet for its annual meeting in Anaheim, California, where the sexual abuse findings are expected to be discussed further.
Following the report, Litton called for the SBC to “implement desperately needed reforms.”
“We have so much to lament, but genuine grief requires a godly response,” he said.
Albert Mohler, president of the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, called the report &#8220;devastating&#8221; and “one of the most difficult moments ever experienced by my beloved denomination” in a Monday opinion <a href="https://wng.org/opinions/the-reckoning-of-the-lord-1653303105">piece</a> for World.
“Truth is, this report shows Southern Baptists in the worst light,” Mohler wrote. “We have to face that fact. But I must move ahead with the confidence, based on long experience, that faithful Southern Baptist laypeople, pastors, and denominational leaders will do the right thing, once they know what that right thing is.”
Tom Ascol, a pastor in Cape Coral, Florida, who has been nominated for SBC president, told The Daily Wire this report is a wake-up call for SBC leaders and members. &#8220;Every Southern Baptist church member should read this report and ask the Lord to awaken us to an honest assessment of just how far we have drifted in our churches from His holy Word,&#8221; he said. &#8220;The Bible is crystal clear about how we are to handle sin in our churches. Yet, as this report makes obvious, too many of our churches are falling short in this area.&#8221;
This story has been updated with additional information.

‘So Much To Lament’: Southern Baptist Leaders Respond To ‘Devastating’ Report On Sexual Abuse Mishandling

Southern Baptists Leaders Respond To Report On Sexual Abuse Mishandling

Investigation

Sexual Abuse

For several years now, the nation’s largest Protestant denomination — the Southern Baptist Convention — has been in a contentious fight over social justice, Critical Race Theory, and what many fear has been an incursion of woke ideology into its ministries. The issue came to a head in Nashville in June of 2021 during a particularly heated fight for the organization&#8217;s presidency at the annual SBC meeting.
After last-minute intrigues that included document leaks and dramatic confrontations on the convention floor, conservative candidate Mike Stone lost in a run-off vote by a razor thin margin to Ed Litton, a more-liberal pastor from Mobile, Alabama.
A year later, conservative concerns about leftward drift within the denomination have only increased, and Litton, whose one-year term has been marked by controversies involving plagiarism, has said he won’t seek re-election but will instead focus on “racial reconciliation.”
In another effort to pull the SBC in what they believe is a more biblically faithful direction, a group of conservative Baptists is <a href="https://founders.org/2022/03/22/statement-from-southern-baptists-nominating-tom-ascol-and-voddie-baucham/">nominating</a> Pastor Tom Ascol, president of Founders Ministries and the Institute for Public Theology, for the SBC president and Voddie Baucham, dean of theology at African Christian University in Zambia, for president of the pastor’s conference.
Baucham, who is black and grew up in the projects of South Central Los Angeles, is, in particular, a well-known critic of CRT and wokeness, calling them godless ideologies, incompatible with the teachings of Scripture. His book “Fault Lines: The Social Justice Movement and Evangelicalism’s Looming Catastrophe” became a best-seller thanks in large part to Christians alarmed at seeing leftist ideas and terminology regarding race becoming popular in church circles.
Baucham told The Daily Wire that he agreed to be nominated for president of the SBC Pastors’ Conference because he feels sound preaching has fallen out of favor in his denomination. He believes the Pastors’ Conference leader sets the spiritual tone for the annual meeting and offers a chance to highlight great preachers and make a statement about what preaching ought to be.
“I would love to see a revival of great biblical preaching in the SBC,” Baucham said. “The Pastors’ Conference has the potential to play a significant part in that, especially if it is part of a larger movement that brings a man like Tom Ascol into the SBC presidency.”
Ascol’s other backers, such as current SBC Vice President Lee Brand and former law and politics professor Carol Swain, both of whom are also black, share Baucham’s fears that a small group of leaders has steered SBC institutions closer to the current culture rather than to Christ. Among the issues they highlight: “radical feminism masked as soft complementarianism,” the “false gospel of Critical Theory and Intersectionality,” and “race marxism [that] divides everyone by their most superficial features, in a never-ending cycle of recrimination and hate.”
Emphasizing the sufficiency of Scripture (that is, the Bible’s ability to address sins like racism without help from man-invented philosophies like CRT), Brand, Swain, and the other pastors and ministry leaders joining them in nominating Ascol and Baucham say that “at this critical juncture, we need men to serve who can unite our convention around the Gospel of Jesus Christ. We believe there are no two better men to lead us in this vital task.”
For his part, Ascol told The Daily Wire that he feels SBC leaders have shown a lack of responsiveness to churches like his, which are concerned that worldly ideas are infecting and distorting the denomination’s core doctrines.
“We&#8217;re a pretty typical SBC church in South Florida,” Ascol told The Daily Wire. “We&#8217;ve got a few hundred people and we just try to faithfully disciple people in our area, make disciples for Jesus, and worship and send missionaries. And churches like ours have just been dismissed time and again by SBC leadership when we raise concerns about things that are happening in some of our institutions. We&#8217;re told, you know, there&#8217;s nothing to see here. You’re meddling in business that doesn&#8217;t pertain to you.”
Some of the concerns Ascol and churches like his have brought up in recent years include claims that SBC seminary faculty encouraged students to identify their white privilege and the 2019 SBC resolutions committee&#8217;s decision to <a href="https://www.sbc.net/resource-library/resolutions/on-critical-race-theory-and-intersectionality/">classify</a> CRT as an “analytical tool” that can “explain how race has and continues to function in society.”
The SBC is known for being one of the last bastions of doctrinal conservatism in the U.S., and the financial gifts of its individual churches provide it a nearly $400-million budget annually. Among the ministries that money funds are Southern Baptist seminaries, which educate about 33 percent of seminary graduates in the U.S., including pastors who go on to serve in other denominations. This means the SBC’s reach goes far beyond its own theological sphere. With the largest Protestant missions organization in the world in its fold, its influence even goes beyond America’s borders, which in part explains why last year’s convention was extensively covered by <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2021/06/12/us/southern-baptists-conservatives.html">The New York Times</a>, <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/religion/2021/06/14/southern-baptist-reckoning-race-gender-abuse/">The Washington Post</a>, <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/news/on-religion/the-fight-for-the-heart-of-the-southern-baptist-convention">The New Yorker</a>, <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2021/06/russell-moore-sbc/619122/">The Atlantic</a>, <a href="https://www.npr.org/2021/06/15/1006480632/southern-baptists-meet-to-grapple-with-race-gender-equality-and-sexual-abuse">NPR</a>, <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2021/06/15/politics/southern-baptist-convention-meeting/index.html">CNN</a>, and <a href="https://www.msnbc.com/opinion/southern-baptist-convention-2021-offers-trump-critical-race-theory-litmus-n1270825">MSNBC</a>, all of which implied or outright stated the conservative side was motivated by racial prejudice.
Ascol will be running against the only other pastor <a href="https://www.christianpost.com/news/willy-rice-to-be-nominated-for-sbc-president.html?utm_source=dlvr.it&amp;utm_medium=twitter">put forward</a> for the SBC presidency so far, Willy Rice of Clearwater, Florida.
While Rice, who is a current trustee for the North American Mission Board, is largely viewed as a midddle-way candidate, some parts of his record have conservatives worried. They point to an <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20220304191510/https:/calvary.us/pastors-blog/political-and-spiritual-crisis/">article</a> Rice wrote comparing some Trump voters to idolaters that has since disappeared from his church&#8217;s web site but was preserved by Internet Archive.
In it, Rice wrote that while he doesn’t condemn the 70 million Americans who chose to vote for Donald Trump in the last presidential election, he is concerned about their reasoning. “Inarguably white evangelicals overwhelmingly supported the President, both fueling his rise to power and enthusiastically wanting his administration to continue,” he said. “There are defensible reasons for that position, but there are grave concerns about what unhealthy political passions in this recent season have revealed about the state of the church in America.”
Rice went on to say that God never called U.S. Christians to &#8220;Make America Great Again&#8221; and, in a reference that seemed to equate the evangelical Trump voters of whom he was writing with the most notorious January 6 rioter, self-proclaimed “shaman” Jake Angeli, he said it was time for such Christians to “put away [their] Viking helmet[s].”
Critics also point out that during protests over the death of George Floyd in the summer of 2020, Rice held a race <a href="https://youtu.be/LupgB-DZCy8?t=2601">panel</a> at his church where a panelist uncritically cited the secular book “White Fragility,” by noted CRT proponent Robin DiAngelo.
In announcing his willingness to accept a nomination to the SBC presidency, Rice said that he intends to address the issue of doctrinal drift but also the lack of unity within the denomination. &#8220;Debates create the pressure to retreat into tribes often defined by secular forces and unspiritual voices. We should be able to debate nuanced issues with temperance, civility, and charity,&#8221; Rice said.
Ascol said he doesn’t see himself as running against Rice.
“I’m not running against him because I don&#8217;t really know him,” Ascol told The Daily Wire. That said, he argues that since Rice has already held multiple prominent positions within the SBC for years and offered little resistance to the current trajectory, he doubts Rice will provide the kind of change the SBC needs. “I think he&#8217;s going to go along with the direction we&#8217;ve had the last four or five years. And I don&#8217;t think that&#8217;s a healthy thing.”
Ascol highlighted the fact that the SBC has been around for 177 years and came back from the brink of liberalism in the 1980s. Then, the denomination famously saw a conservative resurgence that made it one of the only cultural institutions in American history to move back to the right after a significant leftward slide.
“We’ve done a lot of good spreading the gospel around the world. We&#8217;ve been made Christ known in hard places,” Ascol said. &#8220;Our agencies, institutions have done a ton of good, too. But they need to be shepherded. They need to be guarded and protected.”

Rura church in autumn

Southern Baptists Nominate Tom Ascol, Voddie Baucham To Leadership To Combat Woke Drift In Largest Protestant Denomination

A one-minute-and-forty-seven-second clip of influential pastor John MacArthur speaking about religious liberty began circulating on social media Monday. Some critics claimed it proved the longtime teacher of the Grace To You radio ministry doesn’t believe the U.S. should protect religious freedom. Others insisted his words meant he advocates for fascism, state religion, and forced conversions.
The <a href="https://twitter.com/mattsheffield/status/1480239102905569282?s=20">clip</a> gained traction after being posted to a Twitter account belonging to Matthew Sheffield, a <a href="https://twitter.com/mattsheffield">self-described</a> “former right-wing activist” now working to amplify &#8220;voices against fascism.&#8221; It was taken from a sermon immediately after President Joe Biden’s inauguration in January 2021. MacArthur shares that he wasn’t impressed by an evangelical publicist who assured him the new administration would uphold religious freedom.
“I don&#8217;t even support religious freedom,&#8221; MacArthur says in the video. &#8220;Religious freedom is what sends people to hell. To say I support religious freedom is to say I support idolatry. It&#8217;s to say I support lies. I support hell. I support the kingdom of darkness.&#8221;
MacArthur then appears to take aim at the political lobbying arm of the Southern Baptist Convention (SBC), the largest protestant denomination in the nation.
Under the previous head, Russell Moore, the SBC’s Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission filed an amicus brief in favor of a Muslim community’s effort to <a href="https://www.baptistpress.com/resource-library/news/erlcs-moore-defends-religious-freedom-for-muslims/">build a mosque</a>, with the rationale that supporting religious freedom broadly helps protect liberty for Christians. Moore also vocally defended devoting SBC resources to supporting the rights of Muslims at the denomination’s annual convention in 2016.
MacArthur seemed to contrast his church with Moore’s approach, saying it has no plans to lobby the government. “We’re not going to lobby for freedom of religion. What kind of nonsense is that? We are in the world to expose all those lies as lies,” he said.
Dozens of political and religious pundits reposted the video to their large social media platforms. Political commentator David French tweeted the clip out to his more than 266,000 followers, <a href="https://twitter.com/DavidAFrench/status/1480630203055497221?s=20">calling</a> it “disturbing.” He added in a <a href="https://twitter.com/DavidAFrench/status/1480630204863242256?s=20">second post</a>, “There&#8217;s an astonishing arrogance in [MacArthur’s] statements and an astonishing lack of respect for dissent from his version of the truth.”
Economist editor Jon Fasman <a href="https://twitter.com/jonfasman/status/1480646679447617541?s=20">said</a>, “What does he support instead of religious freedom? Forced conversions? The banning and criminalisation of any faith other than his?”
This interpretation was echoed by fellow Christians like Brooke Medina, vice-president of communications for the John Locke Foundation. Medina, who also sat on the 2021 SBC resolutions committee, felt MacArthur’s comments implied he supports government establishing a national religion.
“You know what saying you don&#8217;t support religious freedom actually means … It means you think so little of the kindness of God, which leads us to repentance, that you would prefer the force of the State,” she <a href="https://twitter.com/Brooke_Medina_/status/1480603467143995393?s=20">said</a> in one post, later <a href="https://twitter.com/Brooke_Medina_/status/1480606468223254531?s=20">adding</a>, “It also means you prefer outward conformity over inward heart change. History is littered with bloody, heinous examples of powerful people who used their opposition of religious freedom to imprison and kill their detractors.”
(*Note: After this article was published, Medina reached out to The Daily Wire to say she does not believe her remarks suggest she thinks MacArthur wants a state religion.)
Numerous other SBC leaders, including Southwestern Seminary president <a href="https://twitter.com/AdamGreenway/status/1480902398289797126?s=20">Adam Greenway</a>, Christianity Today editor <a href="https://twitter.com/edstetzer/status/1480984451723182081?s=20">Ed Stetzer</a>, and high-profile Southeastern Seminary professor <a href="https://twitter.com/KSPrior/status/1481018904814231553?s=20">Karen Swallow Prior</a> tweeted and retweeted statements about religious freedom that appeared intended to criticize MacArthur.
It turned out, however, that along with misrepresenting the context of a more than <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_8kk3-mMgHk">hour-long sermon</a>, the brief clip itself was edited to remove a middle portion that would have further clarified MacArthur’s remarks.
In the full, unedited clip, after MacArthur says, “If the new administration supports religious freedom, get ready; persecution will be ramped up because the more supportive they are of the devil’s lies, the less they’re going to tolerate the truth of Scripture,” he adds this:
<blockquote>We condemn every lie, and we call every person to this: there’s one true God, &#8220;Love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength. You’ll have no other gods before Me.&#8221; Right? There’s salvation in one name and one name only: that’s Jesus Christ.</blockquote>
This, along with the rest of the sermon, suggests that MacArthur was speaking about who the church should look to for protection — not earthly powers, but God. Grace to You executive director, Phil Johnson, confirmed that this was part of MacArthur’s intent.
“MacArthur is certainly not advocating the theonomic notion that Christians today should commandeer governments in order to force Christianity on the world,” Johnson told The Daily Wire. Referring to Matthew 20:25-27 and Revelation 2:27, he further clarified the intent of the clip:
<blockquote>Because Christ is perfectly righteous, He has the right and the authority to rule the whole world without tolerating the kind of spiritual free-for-all that people today call “religious freedom.” But because human governments are run by fallen people who tend to misuse power, we do not believe Caesar should have authority over people’s consciences when it comes to the question of whom and how they worship.</blockquote>
The Daily Wire reached out to French to ask if he was aware that the clip was edited when he circulated it but did not receive a response. Stetzer and Medina also did not respond by the time of publication.
Greenway offered a statement through a seminary spokesperson, saying only that he shared an excerpt of the Southern Baptist confession of faith about religious liberty because he noticed so many discussions about it and wanted to remind his fellow Baptists about the importance of religious liberty.
He declined to comment on the people who appeared to take his post as a direct rebuke of the edited MacArthur clip.
While many big-name commentators may have been quick to attack MacArthur, there was one who came to his defense.
Conservative radio host Erick Erickson said that when he listened to the clip in full and in context, he agreed with it. “He was not talking about the ability of different faiths to worship in a multi-ethnic country of different faiths,” Erickson <a href="https://twitter.com/EWErickson/status/1481076981831802884?s=20">said</a>. “He was talking about Christians believing Christianity is true and all other religions are false and don&#8217;t really give you freedom.”
Erickson went on to point out that secular governments often persecute Christians while claiming they support religious freedom. “Obama was big into ‘religious freedom’ while he was suing nuns,” he <a href="https://twitter.com/EWErickson/status/1481076983991783428?s=20">pointed out</a>. “That&#8217;s just true and that is what MacArthur was talking about — the ‘religious freedom’ platitude masks the persecutor of Christ&#8217;s church. He&#8217;s right on that.”
A previous version of this article inaccurately said that Brooke Medina declined to respond by the time of publication. It should have said that she did not respond by publication time.

Bible, gavel and scales of justice on american flag background

Clip Of Pastor John MacArthur Had Critics Pouncing…Turns Out It Was Edited

John MacArthur

Religious Freedom

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