I am a week away from my foray back into Southern Baptist politics; and before I leave it for another 31 years, a summary of sorts is in order.
First, I have been reminded of the famous quote attributed to Mark Twain spoken to a British journalist: “The report of my death is an exaggeration.” The same can be said about the Southern Baptist Convention. It is still alive and flexing its ecclesial muscle. Yes: it has lost a lot of members—2.3 million in the last fifteen years; but it could lose that many more and still be the largest Protestant group in the United States.
A decline? Yes, with the loss of some pretty significant people: Ralph West, Beth Moore, and Russell Moore, to name three. And we might be adding the name of Rick Warren—Southern Baptists appointed a committee to “investigate” his ordination of three women to the gospel ministry. Who knows where that could lead!
One thing is not unknown: Southern Baptists are not a “moderate” group, and their new president (Ed Litton) is not a “moderate” Baptist, regardless of what a New York Times headline asserted.
They like to be known as “conservative” but they regularly act like “fundamentalists.” And I would argue that the recent annual meeting of the denomination confirmed the perception that their classification into categories is very much like that used in the National Basketball Association to describe unacceptable behavior: Flagrant 1 and Flagrant 2. Only this: in the NBA, a Flagrant 2 foul gets a player ejected from the game; in the SBC, a Fundamentalist 2 reputation gets you on the ballot for president!
You may not win that vote, as the election last week demonstrated. A kinder, gentler Fundamentalist 1 won the election. Barely! And I suspect (and most people predict) that Fundamentalist 2 preacher (Mike Stone, from Blackshear, Georgia) will be back next year to do battle for the soul of the denomination. He will have much support, especially from those like the man who, last week, proposed that the wording in a resolution on pregnancy and abortion calling for Christians to “love, care for, and minister to” women who came for help with an unwanted pregnancy be replaced with the demand that the women “repent of their sin.”
That effort to amend a proposed resolution shows how difficult it will be for Southern Baptists to deal with their two big issues: race and gender.
On the race issue, the new SBC president was the best choice, emphasizing as he does grass roots congregational efforts at racial reconciliation rather than a wide-open attack on Critical Race Theory (CRT). There was a great deal of heat generated on that latter subject last week but precious little light. Goodness knows, Southern Baptists above all people need a “come-to-Jesus” conversion on matters of race.
But can I throw in this hunch? One day, long after I’m dead, the Southern Baptist Convention will be largely a black denomination. Why? Because in multi-racial churches, things go fine as long as the white folk are in charge regardless of how many black folk are in the pews. Research shows that once that face at the head of the table (or behind the pulpit) appears black, the white folk leave.
That may just be what happens in the SBC; and that may explain why a black person has never been elected to lead an agency, an institution, or a mission board within the Southern Baptist Convention. (I have proposed that a black man be selected to succeed Russell Moore at the Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission; see HERE.)
We won’t have to wait any longer to discern the grass roots irritation toward the Establishment. Powerful and popular seminary president Albert Mohler was a candidate for SBC president but did not even make the runoff. That was shocking; but the five-fold rebuke of the Executive Committee was even more stunning and surely unprecedented. (I detailed those issues last week.) The Executive Director of that 90-member decision-making group needs to resign or retire.
And finally: through all the pre-convention and post-convention commentary, one big issue was ignored: Donald J. Trump! The former President casts a serious shadow over Southern Baptists just as he does the Republican Party (and often there is serious question as to the difference in the two organizations). The long-term consequences of this connection may compare to the relationship Southern Baptists had with the Confederacy and the subsequent white supremacist culture of the South.
After 31 years away, three days in Nashville was enough for me. I was glad I went but I’ll hold open the possibility of returning … in another 31 years!
Dwight A. Moody
June 2021
