An Ideological Pandemic

Since the closing gavel of the 2021 Southern Baptist Convention in Nashville almost three weeks ago, social media has lit up with a firestorm of posts in a raging ideological, political and social war going on. between groups of pastors and lay leaders who lined up behind a couple of candidates for the demomination's presidency.  The fireworks are being set off by supporters who joined an organized group that billed itself as the "Conservative Baptist Network," CBN as it became known, and who nominated Georgia pastor Mike Stone, a former chairman of the SBC Executive Committee, as President.  They are aimed at the rest of the SBC, including supporters of Ed Litton, Pastor of Restoration Church in the suburbs of Mobile, Alabama and the candidate who won the SBC Presidency in a second-ballot runoff.  

Theological conservatives gained control of the SBC presidency when they elected Dr. Adrian Rogers, Pastor of Bellevue Baptist Church, a mega-congregation in Memphis as President of the SBC.  The president has appointive powers that allow him to determine the makeup of the trustee boards and committees that run the convention's entities under its multi-million dollar "Cooperative Program," and beginning with Rogers in 1979, conservatives occupied a majority of board seats by 1989, and now completely dominate the convention.  Virtually none of their opposition, labelled as either "Moderates" or "Liberals" holds any seat anywhere within the denomination.  

So why is the SBC now engaged in a denominational war that threatens to fragment, splinter and split the denomination in a way the original "Conservative Resurgence" did not do in 1979?  

I call it "An Ideological Pandemic."  

This is far more about positioning on social justice issues and figuring out how to use churches and the denominational apparatus itself to move people to vote for conservative Republican candidates than it is about theology.  Being theologically conservative in the Southern Baptist Convention means acknowledging a specific set of doctrines known as the "Baptist Faith and Message 2000."  It includes belief that the 66 books of the Old and New Testament, without the Apocrypha, are infallible in their doctrinal and spiritual guidance and that the original manuscripts are without error.  It also includes believing that the eternal destiny of a human being is determined by whether or not they acknowledge that Jesus was God's divine son and that his execution at the hands of the Romans was a sacrifice bringing about a "substitutionary atonement" that is the only means of forgiveness of sin and reconciliation between human beings and God.  

But that's not conservative enough to qualify someone to hold a position of authority or leadership in the SBC any more, according to those who founded CBN.  In order to do that, you must disavow Critical Race Theory and Intersectionality because it has Marxist origins, stop using the term "Social Justice" because it is a code word for "Progressive Liberalism", take a stand against Black Lives Matter, again because of the alleged philosophical roots of their ideology,  completely avoid acting or sounding "woke", and drag your feet when it comes to allegations of sexual abuse by women because of their spiritual inferiority.  You can read between the lines and figure out the origins of this "ideological pandemic", how all of this infiltrated and influenced the SBC, and easily see how it is behind what has become the denomination's most divisive controversy since 1979.  

The issues have been amplified by a sexual abuse scandal involving pastors and staff members of SBC affiliated churches exposed by the Houston Chronicle just prior to the 2019 annual meeting in Birmingham two years ago.  The viral pandemic cancelled the subsequent meeting during which plans had been put in place to deal more comprehensively with the issue of clergy sexual abuse but the Executive Committee, which is responsible for taking care of denominational matters when the annual meeting is not in session, dragged its heels and made virtually no progress.  The committee, chaired at the time by CBN's presidential nominee, was far more occupied with punishing Russell Moore, the head of the SBC's Ethics and Religious Liberty Committee, because he was vocally anti-Trump, and because he and the entity he led was doing something about SBC clergy sexual abuse. 

Moore resigned just prior to the 2021 convention meeting.  Following his departure, some of his supporters within the SBC managed to get their hands on a couple of letters he had sent which detailed the heel-dragging of the executive committee under Stone, and which. may have generated enough support to keep Stone from winning the presidency.  

Mixing secular politics and support for political parties and politicians with the mission and purpose of the church, whether a local congregation, the whole body of Christians, or as in the case of the SBC a denomination, never turns out well for the church or denomination.  History is filled with plenty of examples of the complete corruption of the church when it got pulled into the politics of the state and became its agent.  It's tempting to want to use the political power of the state or of an educated intellect to accomplish its mission and purpose but only God can empower the church.  

What's happening now is a good example of what getting too close to secular politics can do.  It's taken literally a hundred years for African American pastors and churches to trust the SBC enough to cooperate.  The progress was slow, but it was steady.  An African-American pastor from New Orleans, Fred Luter, was actually elected President of the SBC for two terms.  Inclusion of African-Americans, and Latinos who also have a growing fellowship within the SBC, in high-level leadership or executive positions has been very slow, but in recent years, there have been a few.  Then the issue of CRT/I came crashing in and the lack of trust has justifiably and understandably returned, undermined by a weak and ill-advised resolution in Birmingham in 2019 and by a subsequent statement by seminary presidents that didn't take anyone else's ideas or thoughts into consideration. 

As it turns out, the pressures put on Moore, leading to his resignation because his trustee board was fully supportive of his presence at the ERLC, were more related to his activity pushing for the SBC to do something about clergy sexual abuse than they were to his open opposition for Trump, though that was still seething beneath the surface.  Moore simply pointed out the inconsistency of "making a deal with the devil" when it came to the Trump presidency.  Nobody talks about it, of course, but that's the biggest pressure that now exists in the SBC for those whose livelihoods depend on a denominational salary.  The sharp drop in membership that the SBC has experienced, almost a million in just four years, is directly tied to this issue.  

I don't wish the SBC any ill-will.  I know many Southern Baptist church members, pastors and church leaders from having grown up in an SBC congregation and most of them are dismayed, grieved and disgusted by what is going on.  Those behind the controversy, mainly those who didn't get their way when the ballots were counted, are on a rampage.  It might be hard to put the lid back on this and stuff the garbage down into the can.  Some people didn't get their way, so instead of doing the honorable thing, they're burning down the house on the way out the door.  If they can't run the SBC, then they're going to try their hardest to make sure there's not an SBC for anyone to run.  Or for God to use for his glory, which is really the bottom line. 

How Many Lives Were Saved by Strict COVID-19 Guidelines?

We will probably never know.  

What we do know, though, is that it would have been a lot worse if we didn't have some governors and state officials who realized they were going to have to step up and fill the vacuum created by the federal government, and specifically the Trump administration's failure to provide leadership to protect the American people. 

New York and California bore the brunt of the early impact of COVID-19.  This was a new thing but there was an awareness, and a measure of preparation in both states which have dealt with the spread of infectious diseases before, though not on this scale.  Because of the level of travel in and out and the amount of potential contact, the early "hot spots" were in both states.  But their governors, Andrew Cuomo in New York and Gavin Newsome in California, began putting measures into effect to stop the spread.  

Of course there was a lot of criticism, whining and complaining, and absolutely no support whatsoever from the Trump administration which was still trying to weight its options based on what they thought they could get out of it politically  Both states experienced the early, rapid spread of COVID-19.  But they took measures to make sure that the hospitals wouldn't get over-topped with more critical cases, found space in convention centers, schools and even hotels to set up temporary hospitals and in California, even brought in one of the military's hospital ships to help with the influx of cases.  

So how do you evaluate the success of those measures?  The highest number of cases and deaths per capita in the US turned out to be in those states where the governors left the protocols up to local officials and didn't do much, if anything, to stop the spread of COVID-19 in their states.  So residents of places like North and South Dakota, Wyoming, Mississippi, Alabama, Tennessee, Louisiana, Arkansas, Arizona, Florida and Iowa had higher odds of contracting the virus, and higher odds of dying from it.  States that put restrictions in place early, enforced them and worked to make sure hospitals didn't get over-topped, were states where residents were less likely to get COVID-19 and less likely to die from it.  Don't get me wrong, this was a devastating pandemic and everything we did to try and slow it down was worth it.  I don't care whether you think it was or not.  

Over 600,000 Americans died from the effects of COVID-19.  It's a semantic argument to say that many of those deaths were the result of underlying conditions.  That's the bottom line for the death rate of any viral or bacterial infection.  The convoluted rationale provided by Trumpie apologists attempting to minimize the death rate and claim that it was "leftist propaganda" in order to defend his inaction and failure is more ignorant poppycock conspiracy theory for those who can't think on their own.  The fact is that the number of deaths due to COVID-19 infection in the US is probably higher than 600,000.  One was too many.  We will very likely never really know how many lives were saved because of the preventative measures that were taken and the sacrifices made.   

There were certainly some political consequences, though those governors and state officials, along with members of Congress, who decided that taking precautions and standing up for the lives of those most endangered by this virus were rewarded during the 2020 election cycle.  Trump was voted out, and his incompetent, politically motivated lack of leadership and action was probably the leading cause of his loss, though his entire Presidency was a display of selfish ambition and inept incompetence.  California Governor Gavin Newsome is facing a recall, but polling data shows that it will be more like a confirmation of his governorship.  Expect him to get more than 60% of the vote keeping him in office.  

Pandemics shouldn't be political.  The health and well-being of people is far more important that trying to gain some kind of political advantage.  

What Goes Around Comes Around: Former NRA President, Research Analyst Address Empty Chairs

Former NRA President David Keene and one of the NRA's former "researchers" John Lott prepared and delivered graduation speeches at the June 4,  2021 graduation ceremony of James Madison High School in Las Vegas, Nevada.  They didn't actually speak to the graduating class.  The speeches were delivered to 3,044 empty chairs, each of which represented a member of the class of 2021 across the country who was not able to participate in their high school graduation because they were victims of gun violence. 

The NRA speakers didn't know what the chairs represented when they wrote and delivered their speeches at what they were told was a rehearsal and sound-check preparation for the graduation.  Of course, there's no way that, on behalf of the NRA, they would make an appearance at an event honoring victims of gun violence, especially one as symbolic and as dramatic as this one was.  Their remarks, in fact, were quite a contrast to the solemn message of the empty graduation ceremony which memorialized 3,044 tragic losses of young life representing a small fraction of those whose lives have been lost because of gun violence.  

They inadvertently made the point intended by those who organized the event.

There is no James Madison High School in Las Vegas.  There is an online JMHS, based in Georgia, and several high schools bearing Madison's name in several locations.  But not in Las Vegas.  These guys were so bend on promoting their agenda that they didn't bother to check out the "school" or verify the facts of the matter before taking to the podium and making their speech.  They got very upset when they found out what had happened.  Well, that was their mistake and their own fault.  

An organization called Change the Ref, founded by the parents of Marjorie Stoneman Douglas student Joaquin Oliver, who was killed in the 2018 assault on his high school, organized the "graduation" ceremony, invited the speakers and actually got them to deliver their speeches to the empty chairs as a "rehearsal" for the ceremony.  Keene told the empty chairs to fight restrictive gun laws.  Lott spoke about background checks.  Ironically, if he'd done a background check, he would have discovered that there was no "James Madison High School" in Las Vegas.  He certainly proved the point that those advocating for responsible gun ownership have been making for years.  Background checks work, if you bother with them.  

It is also ironic that after discovering they'd been tricked into giving the speeches, Lott had the audacity to whine about how Change the Ref had "chopped up the video" and "creatively edited" what people say, which he claimed was a lie.  Actually, they didn't do that at all.  They simply contrasted his words with recordings of students in school settings where an active shooter was taking lives, one by one.  I'm sure that was disconcerting.  Lott himself is guilty of "creative editing" the words of those who don't share his perspective on gun regulation, as is the NRA to which he belongs.  That makes it hard to complain about this event, doesn't it?  

Change the Ref is obviously very serious about addressing the issue of gun violence and using whatever influence they have at their disposal, including the emotional devastation and suffering of those left behind when their loved one dies.  Breitbart, Newsmax, Fox the NRA, the Trump Campaign and the whole scope of right wing extremism use misleading statements and outright lies to advance their phony, fake news for the sake of their agenda.  This event was pretty straight up.  It takes a measure of boldness to fight against fake news and lies.  Change the Ref turned the tables on the NRA and the squawking says that they got their attention. 

It's definitely worth watching.  

Former NRA President Speaks to 3,044 Chairs Representing Students Killed by Gun Violence

So You Never Heard of Critical Race Theory? Neither Have Most of its Critics

 Southern Baptist Attacks on Critical Race Theory

In 2019, during their annual convention in Birmingham, the Southern Baptist Convention passed a resolution declaring Critical Race Theory/Intersectionality incompatible with the Baptist Faith and Message 2000, which is the statement that defines the doctrinal requirements of the seminaries and mission boards which are operated cooperatively by Southern Baptists.  The resolution was quite clear in pointing out that CRT/I, because its philosophical foundation was not Biblical in nature, would not lead to successful resolution of the human problems associated with racism and racial reconciliation.  

The resolution noted that while CRT/I has limited usefulness in providing analysis of specific racial issues, only the transforming power of the gospel of Christ can truly resolve racism and bring about genuine racial reconciliation.  

The convention's messengers passed the resolution in as affirmative a manner as most resolutions get passed.  In the community of American Evangelicalism, the SBC's resolution would be one of the more restrictive and conservative statements on CRT/I.  Though it was not enthusiastically embraced by most of the SBC's African American churches and pastors, most of them realized the give-and-take of the debate.  Dr. Walter Strickland, an African-American who is a professor and dean at Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary in Wake Forest, North Carolina and who is, at least in this writer's opinion, Southern Baptists' leading expert on the whole scope of issues involved in racism and racial reconciliation within the American Christian church, was a member of the resolution committee that drafted what is known as Resolution #9. 

But ignorance abounds in the SBC, especially when it comes to issues related to race, and so does the ignorant, populist brand of politics now defined as "Trumpism."  In a denomination that has a long history of a controlled press, decisions made on deliberately misleading information, a leadership oligarchy that ignores the rules and does what it wants, influenced by Christian Fundamentalism, it did not take long for the critics to drag out accusations of "liberalism," attack those they perceived as supporters or collaborators of Resolution #9 including SBC President J. D. Greear, Russell Moore of the SBC's ERLC and Dr. Strickland.  They claimed that the messengers who voted to pass Resolution #9 were "confused, deceived and didn't know what they were doing."  And they launched a campaign aimed at getting control of the SBC in order to save it from "creeping liberalism" and from becoming "woke."  

Not that either of those things are happening, or ever would happen, but discerning truth is not a Southern Baptist strength these days.  At least, not among its Fundamentalist Trumpies.

There are elements within the Southern Baptist Convention that exhibit cult-like tendencies, or who, in fact, are a cult by definition and that includes those who have blended both the old version of Tea Party extremist right wing politics and now Trumpism with selected principles of extremist Fundamentalist religion to determine their principles and actions.  They are less interested in the cooperative ministries of theological education, church planting and international missions and are more interested in using the influence, power and resources of the denomination to make political deals with an immoral adulterer, thief, and pathological liar whose only interest in anything they have to offer is their votes, not their faith or their values. In so doing, they are trading the gospel of Jesus Christ for a bowl of soup, to use an Old Testament illustration.  

The sudden interest in bashing CRT/I and attempting to turn it into a Marxist plan to take over the United States is just one more ignorant and uninformed prompting of the extremist right wing media to try and create some political traction for Trumpie Republicans going into a 2022 election that increasingly appears to be shaping up to produce a "blue tsunami" for Democrats.  The ignorance of it is appalling.  They've got it wrong.  They blame the "liberal media" for mischaracterizing conservative Christians, but then, following what was a resolution that reasonably characterized their position on CRT/I as a conservative denomination, the ignorance and raging stupidity poured forth and formed the basis for yet another group attempting to "take over" control of the denomination to use it as a means of promoting their uninformed ignorance. 

They failed.  

There are also elements within the Southern Baptist Convention that are reasonably informed, that exhibit characteristics of genuine, God-breathed spirituality, that see Fundamentalism as lacking in some essential core Biblical values and, while many of them may still be politically conservative, are able to recognize the harmful and destructive effects on the gospel message that occur when extremist right wing politics are mixed in with and equated with Christian practice and used to determine the definition of "conservative" and "liberal" or "progressive a.k.a. liberal."  And while they may hold a conservative perspective when it comes to interpreting the Bible, they recognize that racism is a sin and that as a denomination, they still have a long way to go when it comes to reconciling with their African American brethren.  

Instead of "rescinding" Resolution 9 at its annual meeting in Nashville earlier this month, the SBC didn't take any further steps to address CRT/I.  The one resolution passed which might have been a reference to it does not mention it by name.  The Fundamentalist-Trumpie element did indeed show up, in fairly large numbers.  But all of their attempts to turn the SBC toward their agenda failed.  The presidential candidate they nominated lost and the president they elected, Alabama pastor Ed Litton, represents the group that desires to see the SBC become more unified and more friendly to ethnic and racial minorities who currently make up the only segments of the denomination showing numerical membership growth.  

Resolution 9 puts the SBC on the record as declaring CRT/I to be both incompatible with its doctrinal statement, the Baptist Faith and Message 2000, and incapable as a means of resolving the human problem of racism apart from the gospel of Jesus because it doesn't acknowledge sin as the source of racism.  The fact that such a resolution was even considered by the SBC is evidence of the intrusion of Trumpie politics and some blurring of the lines when it comes to defining what is theologically "conservative" and using political perspective as a means of accusing those who disagree of being "liberal" when that has absolutely nothing to do with theological liberalism.  Misleading and deceptive characterizations such as this, which define the core values of Trumpism, appear to be infiltrating and eroding the Christian values once held in high regard by Southern Baptists.  

 A large number of predominantly African-American churches and pastors left as a result of the statement issued by the seminary presidents condemning CRT/I, which appeared to be made for political, or personal job preservation purposes, anticipating a Fundamentalist-Trumpie win at the convention.  Not only did the Fundamentalist-Trumpies not win, but attempts to keep some of their group members in controlling officer positions on the executive committee were voted down overwhelmingly by the convention. Their failure to gain a power-wielding foothold in Nashville was a smack-down and it may lead to more boldness and less fear among SBC leaders over the next year. It may have also prevented, at least temporarily, the further exodus of African-Americans who, along with Latinos and Asian ethnic minorities, represent virtually the only constituencies in the SBC whose churches are growing in attendance and membership.

If Christians really believe in the transformative power of the gospel of Christ, as they claim, then that is the power on which they must rely to resolve racism and the issues in their churches that arise from it.  The SBC is a long way behind those in the denominations and Christian churches who were not just principally opposed to slavery in America, but who actively worked to see that it was abolished, did not tolerate its existence and made sure that the Union had the popular support it needed to defeat it instead of compromising with it by a negotiated peace with the Confederacy. Making an effort to understand CRT/I doesn't require rejecting the Bible as authoritative.  It is, after all, the gospel that actually possesses the kind of transformational power that is necessary to resolve the problems of humanity, including prejudice, bigotry and racism.  Being for that, instead of against everything, would be a start.

Eighth Graders in the US Are Required to Pass a Test on the Constitution: So Should Prospective Presidents

The Washington Post:  A Civics Lesson for Trump

Most American eighth graders have to pass a test over the United States Constitution to move on to high school.  It's a fun year, really, with many schools actually taking their eighth grade classes to Washington, DC on a field trip to help make understanding the constitution clearer and easier, and to give, in some cases, an opportunity to actually talk to lawmakers. 

So most eighth graders apparently know more than at least one former President about the constitution.  They know that after losing an election, a former President has absolutely no constitutional standing whatsoever to be "reinstated."  Former President Trump must have been absent from class or not paying attention on the day that was brought up in his eighth grade civics class, or he would not be making such ridiculously ignorant statements in public.  Then again....

Unofficial, Unauthorized Audit Against Federal Law

Trump seems to think that the bogus "audit" of  ballots in Arizona will not only lead to the discovery of "massive voter fraud," but will also somehow bring about his "reinstatement" as POTUS.  So far, the only thing the "cyber ninjas" have done is mess up the ballot boxes.  They claimed that the voter registration database had been "deleted" when, in fact, they didn't have someone who was sharp enough to figure out the instructions given to them on accessing it.  They are supposed to be "auditors" but they've had to be shown, by county officials, more than once how to identify boxes by number and how to account for the ballots stored in them.  Seems like they need to hire a couple of eighth graders to raise their collective intelligence and figure out how to audit an election.  

Aside from the fact that the number of Arizona Republican senators who now think this was a really bad idea is growing by the day, and the fact that 82% of Arizona voters are opposed to this waste of tax dollars aimed at finding something that doesn't exist, the most recent Trumpie to declare this whole "election fraud" claim a scam is Cory Lewandowski, Trump's first campaign manager back in 2016.  He, along with Trump attorney Sidney Powell, who has admitted in court testimony in a private lawsuit that they had no "real" evidence of massive voter fraud, have completely undermined Trump's claims.  

Audits of elections must be conducted by certified auditors who represent all of the political parties with candidates on the ballot.  There are specific procedures required for handling voting machines, vote counting machines and for handling the ballots.  The constitution puts specific dates in place for making sure that all ballots are verified, counted and the results certified, for the dates that the electoral vote is certified and when the electors gather to cast their votes.  What's happening in Arizona now violates just about every legal statute in place. 

But Trunpism is a cancer that is eating away at our democracy and Trump-supporting state legislators, ignorant of constitutional law, are helping to keep this cancer flourishing.  There is no provision or authority that would lead to the "reinstatement" of a former President who lost an election in a landslide.  That was Trump's description of his 2016 win, and since Biden won exactly the same number of electoral votes, and bested Trump by more than eight million popular votes, it's accurate to say Trump lost in a landslide of authentic, legally cast, real votes.  

First, the "Cyber Ninjas" who have been engaged as the auditing firm are not auditors.  It's really hard to be sure what they are, except a scam to collect money from those not smart enough to hang on to it, like the Republican members of the Arizona senate.  Hiring them will go down in history as one of the most grossly negligent, incompetent, idiotic political moves of all time. And in Arizona Republican legislative history, that is saying an awful lot. Even hard core right wing members of the Arizona senate are now complaining about how stupid and ignorant they look as a result of this move.  So instead of perpetuating the stupidity and confirming the image, why not put a stop to it?  

Second, when they were given access to the ballots, voting machines and counting machines, they demonstrated total and complete incompetence in how to operate and handle them.  Did the state senate not know that there is a federal law prohibiting anyone not certified to conduct the election from having access to the machines, counters and ballots?  Were they ignorant of the fact that allowing unauthorized access to the machines means that those machine can now not ever be used in another election because of the risk, and in this case the almost certainty, that the machines would be altered in one candidate's or party's favor?  If they were ignorant of the law, they should be recalled.  If they weren't they should be arrested and charged.

No Such Thing as "Reinstatement" 

No matter how many times the ballots in Arizona, or any other state, get taken out and played with, there is no power to change the election.  They can look until the paper disintegrates or the electronic chips wear out, there was no massive voter fraud and Trump, and anyone else who declares that there was, is lying.  But for the sake of discussion, let's just say that the Cyber Ninjas and their magic "bamboo fiber detection device" found something that looked suspicious.  Yeah, I know these people are nut jobs and they see things no one else does, but let's suppose just so we can put the constitution to the test.  

The Constitution provides for the states to conduct elections, count ballots and choose electors who actually elect the President.  All of those dates have passed and all of those things have happened, including the certification of both the popular vote in each state and the electoral college vote.  Joe Biden is President, and his term ends January 20, 2025.  Any vote "irregularity" found in the dead ballots now is inconsequential as far as the constitution is concerned.  Courts have already ruled in the cases Trump filed before he left office on what evidence Powell and Giuliani presented, determining that they had nothing credible.  Then Powell admitted, under oath, that they were taking expected "political" advantage which included fabricating evidence and paying people to lie on the outside chance a court would at least stall the vote counts or certification.  Nothing wrong with that, according to her, lying is just "politics."   

The only way a sitting President, once elected, can be removed from office is through impeachment and that's not going to happen.  The other way, death, is a possibility for any President but if that occurs, the constitution provides for the Vice President, not a former, defeated President, to take office.  The election is over, has been certified, in many cases by Trump-supporting Republican office holders, most notably in Georgia, and the resulting Biden victory can't be undone.  It's not likely that Biden and Harris will step down and appoint Trump to take their place, so his claim of "reinstatement" is just another one of the thousands upon thousands of lies that this dishonest jackass has told in his lifetime.  

So there are some conclusions we can draw here.  By making the claim that he will be "reinstated" in August, Trump is declaring himself to either be less educated and informed than eighth graders who study the constitution, or he is thinking that some kind of insurrection or coup, such as the "Myanmar-style" military overthrow advocated by the traitor Michael Flynn, will happen.  Either way, it makes Trump look insane and demented and it is also proof that Trump is an anti-American, anti-Constitutional, anti-patriotic enemy of the American people.  Seems he learned a few things from his friendship with the Marxist Communist dictator Kim Jong-Un.  

At any rate, the ballots have all been audited and counted, and recounted, legally, by firms who regularly do audits and know what they're doing.  This was the most accurate election in history, due mainly to the large number of mail-in ballots which relieved the pressure on voting locations and led to fewer actual complaints.  Trump gets an F in Eighth Grade Constitution and US History, and an F in conduct for lying about the election results and perpetuating a surge of anti-American, anti-Republic, anti-Democratic legislation and activity.  

Sometimes, there are silver linings in dark clouds and the silver linings in this one are shining brightly.  This kind of activity just alienates more and more voters.  Trump lost in a landslide by his own definition in 2020.  He has about as good a chance at being re-elected President as the Cyber Ninjas do of finding that some of the ballots their magic camera is examining were dipped in green cheese from the moon.  Although I wouldn't be surprised to hear them make that claim.  

You Can't Serve Two Masters: Evangelical Denomination Paying the Price for Influence of Right Wing Politics

The Washington Post:  Russell Moore Letters 

The Dispatch:  David French on Leak of Russell Moore Letters

The Southern Baptist Convention, which frequently bills itself as "The Nation's Largest Protestant Denomination," is holding its annual meeting June 13-16 in Nashville, Tennessee, which also happens to be the home of its headquarters and its publishing enterprise, Lifeway Christian Resources.  Southern Baptists suspended their annual meeting last year, due to COVID-19, and enacted a constitutional provision which extended the terms of its officers by one year.  

There is probably not another denomination in the US into which the injection of Trumpism has caused more controversy. The SBC was already reeling from an expose in the Houston Chronicle which uncovered hundreds of cases of sexual abuse by Southern Baptist clergy in its local churches.  It's executive committee had launched two angry investigations of its own Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission because the president of the commission, Russell Moore, has been an outspoken opponent of Trump.  

Moore, who has been the target of pro-Trump members of the SBC executive committee ever since before the 2016 election, resigned his position as President of the ERLC several weeks ago to accept a position at Christianity Today and also stepped away from his membership in a Southern Baptist church.  Two letters surfaced this week, revealed by a source known as The Baptist Blogger, which show that the pressure Moore was feeling was more closely related to his efforts to expose sexual abuse within SBC and to help victims deal with the aftermath than it was to his opposition to Trump and Trumpism. Some members of the SBC's executive committee think Moore is responsible for making the SBC "woke" and for causing it to buy into the #metoo movement, opening the door for the flood of sexual abuse cases uncovered three years ago by the Houston Chronicle.  The letters indicate that there was a lot of opposition among the exec committee to the ERLC's efforts to help victims of the SBC clergy abuse and to taking any steps that would lead to the denomination doing anything about sex abuse allegations by church pastoral staff or by those employed in SBC entities. 

A group of "messengers," those who are elected from churches to attend and vote at the annual meeting, presented a resolution at the last convention in 2019 condemning Critical Race Theory/Intersectionality.  The convention approved the resolution, which declared CRT/I to be incompatible with the denomination's doctrinal statement, but not exactly in the kind of condemning tones that the originators of the resolution wanted.  Still, after the release of the letters is it clear that Moore's public opposition to Trump was a factor into investigations launched by the Executive Committee against the ERLC, blaming Moore and the ERLC stand for churches deciding to stop giving to the denomination's Cooperative Program.  

The Southern Baptist Convention, according to its own books of reports, lost just over a million members during the past four years, over 750,000 of those in 2019 and 2020 with the biggest decrease coming just this past year, 425,000. You'd expect in-person church attendance to be down over the past year because of COVID-19, but this isn't an attendance issue.  These numbers represent church members who are leaving the membership of the Southern Baptist churches to which they have belonged and have made a commitment of support in the past.  Trumpism, and its politics of fear, baseless conspiracy theories, outright lies, requirement of personal loyalty and the gross immorality of its leader doesn't fit well with Evangelical Christian theology. And it looks like the incompatible demands of loyalty to the Trump cult and its leader, which requires buying into and excusing his immorality and supporting and spreading his lies, all of which runs counter to Evangelical teaching and practice, are taking quite a toll. 

 The Christian scriptures, in Matthew 6:24, give a clear reason why: 

No one can serve two masters for either he will hate the one and love the other or he will be devoted to one and despise the other.  You cannot serve both God and money.  

David French, in The Dispatch, puts it this way: 

Fearful believers behave as if the maker of the heavens and earth needs corrupt politicians or corrupt pastors to preserve his people's presence in this land. 

The "leak" of Moore's two letters, one to the executive committee of the ERLC trustee board, the other to current SBC President J. D. Greear, who shares Moore's passion for dealing with sexual abuse in the SBC, intensifies the decisions that will be made at the SBC next week, including which of four candidates will become president of the denomination.  One of the candidates was among those Moore mentions in both letters as being party to the "psychological terror" to which he was being subjected. 

This quote from John Stott in The Bible: God's Word for Today, sums up the decision Southern Baptists will face next week in their annual convention: 

Nothing is more obnoxious in those of us who claim to follow Jesus Christ than arrogance, and nothing is more appropriate or attractive than humility.  And an essential element in Christian humility is the willingness to hear and receive God's word.  Perhaps the greatest of all out needs is to take our place again humbly, quietly and expectantly at the feet of Jesus Christ, in order to listen, attentively to his word, and to believe and obey it.  For we have no freedom to disbelieve or disobey him.  

The ultimate issue before us and the whole church is whether Jesus Christ is Lord (as we say he is) or not.  The question is whether Christ is Lord of the Church (to teach and command it) or the church is lord of Christ (to edit and manipulate his teaching). 

Southern Baptists seem to have been pushed toward the latter.