The Southern Baptist Convention, which bills itself as "the Nation's Largest Protestant Denomination," and which is the largest denomination among Evangelical Christians, is still reeling from revelations of a clergy sexual abuse scandal that rivals that of the Catholic church to the extent that it has affected local churches and denominational entities. One of the revelations of the investigation and report commissioned by the convention at its 2021 meeting in Nashville involved a former denominational President and suburban Atlanta megachurch pastor.
The pastor is very well known, both inside and outside the SBC. Like many of his ilk, he has used his position as a pastor to establish his reputation, promote his media ministry, and feather his own nest, so to speak. I don't know the financial details, either of his pastorate or of his other ministry enterprises, but I will note that everything he's involved with has a price tag on it. And in spite of the fact that his name, and the details of his behavior, were revealed in the Guidepost report given to the Southern Baptist Convention in Anaheim this past June, his ministry is still planning events and collecting money.
This pastor--and I'm not mentioning his name on purpose, you can find it in the link--claimed, as they all do, that he didn't commit any sexual abuse. But he did admit that the incident that was uncovered and reported in the investigation was "consensual". And business goes on as usual. He's holding some kind of conference. For a fee, of course.
I'm a personal accountability kind of guy. I'm not going to register for a conference, regardless of the topic, conducted by a pastor who admitted to "inappropriate" behavior with a woman who wasn't his wife. Sorry, that's just the way I am. Personally, these "conferences" and meetings and gatherings aren't something I'd bother with anyway, because they are designed to sell books and make money peddling Christianity in a way that dishonors and cheapens the gospel of Jesus Christ. And frankly, I wouldn't normally waste the time or cyber space discussing it here, either. If someone I knew mentioned it to me, I'd have trouble keeping a straight face, but there's something going on here that is worth mentioning.
This is a Characteristic Attitude of the Religious and Political Right Wing
There will be people who register and attend this pastor's "conference," whatever he's pushing or promoting. And the fact that he continues to plan to do this, and the denominational leadership either doesn't speak up, or refuses to, is the best evidence I can point to to illustrate this attitude that exists in segments of Evangelical Christianity that are connected to right wing politics, where it spills over. From a Biblical perspective, this pastor is disqualified to continue serving in a church office. And while that should include continuing to give conferences, the Southern Baptist Convention hides behind the fact that its churches are "independent and autonomous" in denominational matters, and if people sign on to this stuff, it's their business, not the convention's.
That's how they've deflected any responsibility for the sexual abuse crisis that they now face. This is the kind of thing that has led to turning a worldly, pagan, adulterous, lying, con artist into an Evangelical hero. The gospel of Jesus Christ and the church are just tools to use in the acquisition of the kind of worldly power that Jesus was tempted to display before he started his public ministry, but turned down in favor of what he described as God's will.
Trump, Bannon, Stone and their cronies act as if the people in their base of support are the most ignorant, uneducated, easily duped fools anywhere in the world. And they are, because they buy into the misogyny and the lies. And when I see something like this, involving a megachurch pastor who was, and may very well still be, a big-shot, good-ole-boy insider elite in the Southern Baptist Convention turn up as a perpetrator in an investigation into sexual abuse among Southern Baptist ministers, admit to the impropriety as consensual rather than abuse, and keep his regular ministry schedule going, I see moral bankruptcy and selfish ambition on a major scale.
There may have been a time when the Southern Baptist Convention was made up of sincere Christians who were loyal followers of Jesus Christ, but the infiltration of secular politics started eating away at that, and the embrace of Donald Trump, clearly not because of his faith, but because of his power, is evidence of apostasy. Along with other Evangelicals, this alliance of the religious right and the extreme side of the GOP has turned Christians into heretics and divided the country in a manner that it has not seen since the years before the Civil War.
How Do We fix This?
I'm not writing to promote books, but those who are most familiar with Evangelical Christianity and all of its quirks, including the common elements with extremist right wing politics, it takes an insider to understand all of what's involved, expose it, and provide solutions to weaken the influence of the political side of the movement. There's no "fix," this is ingrained ideology. And one of the best references on the subject is Jesus and John Wayne, by Kristin Kobes Du Mez. She's an Evangelical insider who knows, and has done a lot of research, on what we see happening on the right and the phony, imaginative world they've created around them.
There are some things we can do to mute the influence and minimize the damage to the country that these people now pose. These are my recommendations based on my reading, so they come from experience, not from someone with a sociology degree, who probably wouldn't help much anyway.
- Defeat as many far right and Republican candidates as is possible during every election cycle.
- Take their threats of violence seriously and encourage government and law enforcement to handle this the same way they handled January 6th, not in the over-running of the Capitol, but in arresting the leaders and hold them accountable to the fullest extent of the law, in jail where they belong.
- Get familiar with all of the talking points and the whole scope of white Christian nationalism. Know who its leaders are and what any local group might say.
- Fight the intrusion of this ideology in your church, if you have one. If it has already overwhelmed the pulpit and ministry, make a public exit.
- Did I say make a plan and put it into action so that you will go show up at the polls and vote straight Democrat?
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