Conservative Baptist Fellowship's List of Complaints Against the SBC
In a word, yes, it does.
For those who aren't familiar with the denominational politics within the nation's largest Evangelical denomination, and how it has been corrupted by the influence of secular, Trump-style politics, the Conservative Baptist Network (CBN) is made up of a group of pastors and churches within the Southern Baptist Convention who claim that the denomination is, once again, going "progressive" and that it needs to have conservative values restored, and they are the ones ordained by God to do this. They have, as you can see from their list of complaints, some neblulous, vague examples of how that's happening, none of which have anything to do with the leadership in the denomination but then, in Trumpworld, nothing connects to reality or facts, either. These are the apparent issues:
- The SBC appears to be heading toward a measure of "wokeness" because it didn't adopt an almost word-for-word resolution on Critical Race Theory from an ultra right political source filled with inaccurate, misleading falsehoods and instead, adopted one that reflects a more accurate perspective of what CRT really is. The convention resolution that was adopted still, by the way, did not acknowledge CRT as legitimate.
- They cite the presence of programs and instruction in their seminaries, most notably Dr. Walter Strickland, who heads the "Kingdom Diversity Initiative" as a vice-president at Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary, as evidence of "wokeness" and CRT being taught at the seminaries. Yes, Dr. Strickland is an African-American, and was on the resolutions committee that adoped the resolution which did not acknowledge CRT's legitimacy.
- They claim that the denomination has become more accepting of women in pastoral and preaching roles. They cite the ordination of two women on the staff of Saddleback Valley Community Church in California, which is, by membership, the largest church in the Southern Baptist Convention, and the ministry of Beth Moore, a popular author and teacher of women's ministries.
- They cite the ongoing investigation into the clergy sex abuse scandal recently exposed by The Houston Chronicle, as evidence of the "confusion" and misdirection of the SBC's leadership. But they fail to acknowledge that one of the founding steering council members was serving as President of the Executive Committee when it launched two unauthorized investigations into the Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission, attempting to shut down their response and undermine their attempt to minister to the victims by creating awareness in the convention of what had occurred.
Tilting at Windmills
So far, in spite of a social media barrage of accusations, CBN supporters have turned up no evidence to prove that anything they're complaining about is actually happening in the SBC, or that it is connected in any way to the current denominational leadership. Many of their steering committee members have been involved in multiple SBC trusteeships, committee memberships and officer positions for several decades, so if they are accusing the SBC leadership of causing "all of this confusion", which includes "declining numbers of baptisms and church membership" and the sexual abuse scandal, it seems more than a little counterproductive to have some of these same people they claim are responsible as founding directors of their own organization.
Since they can't really come up with a factual list of examples, they've couched their complaints in nebulous, vague terms aimed at convincing Baptists who don't keep up with their denomination's politics that the "liberals" are in charge. One of the better phrases, not because it actually describes what it going on but because it is both duplicitous and hypocritical at the same time, is to accuse "current SBC leadership" (which includes at least half of the CBN's current sterring committee) of "The functional embrace of worldly ideals and practices."
Who's Embracing What?
The two real issues at the bottom of CBN's organization and effort are both based on personal loyalty to an individual rather than on any real problems that are occurring in the SBC. The first individual is Paige Patterson, the former President of Southeastern and Southwestern Seminaries, and perpetual SBC officer and committee member who was one of the "architects" of the original "conservative resurgence" movement in the SBC. The other is former President Donald Trump.
It wasn't an accident that the CBN was organized in Patterson's personal library in his home. He was "retired" from service as President of Southwestern Seminary after mis-handling several cases of reported sexual assault, both at Southwestern and prior to that, during his term as president of Southeastern. He had long ago worn through the good will that came with being one of the two men who started and helped sustain the ten-year effort to put like minded conservatives on the committees and boards of the SBC's entities and seminaries and "save the denomination from liberalism."
CBN is made up of Patterson loyalists who, after all of the shenanigans that were revealed came out, realized that their chances of advancing themselves on the coat-tails of his influence were jeopardized by his absence from convention politics. Almost every member of CBN's steering committee who are either currently or have been recent members of an SBC trustee board, committee or the executive board owe their presence there to Patterson's influence. And that's about half the steering committee, some of whom have served on those boards and committees literally for decades.
It's difficult to reconcile the inconsistency of a group of self-proclaimed "conservatives" whining about a few issues in the denomination that have nothing to do with conservative theology while supporting someone who essentially drove one of their flagship theological seminaries into a financial and enrollment crisis, and hid evidence of his misdeeds from a trustee board that he had used his influence to stack in his favor and who continued to act in an unethical manner after leaving.
But, open support for the former president by SBC leadership is still an issue for CBN, not mentioned specifically, and it, too, characterizes their own "functional embrace of worldly ideologies and practice."
One of the big issues that made the rounds of social media with many CBN supporters had to do with Dr Russell Moore, the executive director of the SBC's Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission, which is the lobbying voice of the SBC in Washington and as such, its most politically connected entity. It's former executive, Dr. Richard Land, was unapologetically partisan far right, with connections to the Bush administration.
Dr Moore, whose background includes a hefty dose of Southern Baptist theological education, could not bring himself to ignore the former President's corruption, lack of any ethical influence or moral compass and who built his personal and business reputation on what the Bible calls "debauchery." And so, he became the target of those on the SBC executive board who wanted to remove him from his position at the ERLC, including the board's president, who was CBN's candidate for the SBC presidency last year. That's why I see the connection here.
Don Junior recently told a group of Republicans at a political gathering in Arizona that the reason Christians were losing their influence in political, social and business institutions in America was because they bought into all of that "turn the other cheek" stuff. He claimed to "sort of" understand where that was coming from, but encouraged his audience to abandon that approach if they intended to, as he put it, "get anywhere in the world." So it stands to reason that a Christian denomination, one that claims to believe the Bible is inerrant and infallible and "the only authority for faith and practice," and claims to preserve the conservative values of Christianity, would openly reject a political candidate who bragged about adultery and his ability to sexually assault women, operates vice-oriented businesses like casinos and strip clubs, demonizes anyone who doesn't demonstrate personal loyalty and who has rejected repentance and forgiveness, claiming he has done nothing to require it.
I would have to conclude that support for a political party which condones violent insurrection and ignores the debauchery of political figures simply because they promise to do things for them, and which demonizes certain groups of people which is against the commands of Christ himself, would be functionally embracing worldly ideologies and practices. So would imitating those practices.
When CBN's candidate for President of the SBC failed to get elected last June, it did not take long for critics to attack the candidate who was elected, Alabama pastor Ed Litton, for plagiarism. Litton had borrowed and preached, with permission, a sermon series authored by previous SBC president and pastor J.D. Greear, but did not give any specific acknowledgement to Greear in his sermons. So, the accusations began to fly. Litton followed the Biblical instruction for his actions, apologizing, acknowledging his error, and asking for forgiveness. But from CBN's corner, the response was to dig into his church's sermon archive and look for any little hint of another incident. Some attack blogs, whom CBN says aren't connected to them, invented evidence and made further accusations. There was nothing resembling the "seventy times seven" instruction in scripture, given by Jesus himself, from any CBN quarter.
Last month, a Florida pastor, Willy Rice, announced his candidacy for SBC president. Rice is not aligned with CBN, but is a staunch, conservative and solid Southern Baptist. Someone, not yet known or named, approached Rice, complaining about a deacon his church had ordained who had been involved in a sexual relationship with an 18 year old student when the deacon had been a 27 year old high school teacher. The deacon was repentant, the incident occurred long before he joined Rice's church and he had been open about his past. But the incident forced Rice to reconsider his candidacy and has caused a disturbance and disruption not only in his church, but for the deacon and his family.
In all fairness, the individual who brought this up hasn't been identified as being connected to CBN. Maybe it was a tactic, maybe not. But it is something that didn't happen in the SBC prior to the influence of the politics and tactics of FP45 on Evangelical Christians. It is certainly a new experience in the denominational politics of the SBC. And it represents a clear embrace of worldly practice.
The SBC is as Conservative as it has Ever Been
Nothing has changed in the SBC since Paige Patterson and Paul Pressler introduced the "conservative resurgence" by electing presidents with appointive powers. The denomination's agencies, its mission boards and seminaries, are as conservative as they have ever been. There's been no widespread teaching or embrace of CRT, far from it. There are few churches, mostly on the fringe and not really among the actively participating congregations, that have female pastoral leadership not under the authority of a male pastor, or in a position of authority over men.
But it isn't problem free. Two million members of its churches have left in less than a decade, the number of new converts to Christianity that its congregations baptize each year is down by more than 70% of what it was at its peak. The number of career missionaries has dropped 20% from its peak and a reorganization and restructuring of its North American Mission Board was a major downsize. Its publishing house, Lifeway, downsized and relocated, and after just a few years, is now once again planning to sell its property, downsize further and is staying afloat on the value of its real estate and investments.
The last thing it needs is a fight brought into the middle of its problems over a secular politician who couldn't care less about what they do, and is only interested in the votes he can get from them. And it doesn't need a faction, identifying as "conservative," that is really capitulating to the Trump and conspiracy theory culture and functionally embracing worldly ideologies and practices.
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