I'm not surprised. I grew up in an Evangelical church, in a Southern Baptist church, as a matter of fact, and I know exactly how this works. So does Dr. Moore, I suspect, from his upbringing in a Southern Baptist church and from what he has seen and experienced during his own rise to prominence within the denomination.
Just for the sake of discussion, to become an executive director, or president, of entities in the Southern Baptist Convention takes an awful lot of knowing the right people, saying the right things and going along with the small oligarchy of self-appointed leaders who call the shots and run the denomination in spite of its constitution calling for that to happen at the annual convention meeting. In becoming the Executive Director of the Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission, which is the denomination's political lobby in Washington, D.C., Dr. Russell Moore had to know, and gain the confidence of some of the more important members of the SBC's inner circle.
Once there, in any SBC executive leadership position, which includes the presidency of each of its six seminaries, the CEO's of its two mission boards, the President of Lifeway Christian Publishers and the single most powerful officer, the President of the Executive Committee, the occupant must tow the denominational party line. This includes its staunch defense of its belief in the inerrancy and infallibility of the Bible as the "written word of God." It also includes, not openly talked about but tacitly expected, being a loyal Republican.
The inner circle Southern Baptist leader who helped Dr. Moore get to the leadership of the ERLC was Dr. Al Mohler, the President of the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, the largest of the SBC's six theological schools and its flagship institution. That's pretty high level influence. So it was quite surprising, when Trump announced he was running for President in 2016, that both Dr. Mohler and Dr. Moore came out in opposition to him as a candidate, mainly because they could not support a candidate for leadership of the nation who gave off such an un-American ethos, and for Evangelical Christians, who was so immoral and unethical in the worldly limage he projected.
It's been even more surprising that someone as steeped in Southern Baptist doctrine, theology and church culture as Dr. Moore, and who has such an extensive Southern Baptist pedigree would buck the political status quo, the "party line," if you will, and stick to his original position that a man of the kind of worldly, unethical, unscrupulous character and actions of Trump was completely unqualified to serve in American politics. He is staying loyal to a conclusion that the Christian gospel is incompatible with Trump Republicanism and that Christians supporting Trump are going against the principles of their faith in order to do so. On top of that, Trump's own words continue to identify him as unrepentant and non-Christian, claiming to never have done anything requiring God's forgiveness.
Moore is the kind of person whose network of influential, powerful friends in the religious world help him land on his feet when there's controversy or problems. Ultimately, as his unrelenting stance against Trump's candidacy, which extended through the four years of his Presidency and has continued, unabated, since then, led to his resignation from both the ERLC and from his membership in a Southern Baptist church, his talents and his convictions got him on staff of Christianity Today, and also on to the ministry staff of Immanuel Church Nashville, platforms from which he can continue to point out the inconsistency between Trumpism and Biblical Christian faith and practice.
Churches in Shambles
Moore has observed that the fading distinction between the church's theology and doctrine, and right wing politics, in most white Evangelical churches has led the churches into a crisis. My own conclusion calls this a crisis of apostasy. Moore has found pastors who tell their congregations about the teachings of Jesus found in the Sermon on the Mount are being asked where they got those "liberal" ideas. His conclusion is that if members of churches are asking that question, then that's a sign the church is in crisis.
It's my opinion, based on my own personal observation and experience, that this might be an understatement. The crisis started when Jerry Falwell, Pat Robertson and James Robison embraced Ronald Reagan, a secular politician whose religious views turned out to be much more New Age, according to his wife, rather than Christian, over Jimmy Carter, who is without doubt the most sincere and sound born-again Evangelical Christian to occupy the White House. Rather than following the Biblical guidance and principles they claim as inerrant and infallible when it comes to choosing their leaders, political Evangelicals seem to prefer religious liberals like George H.W. and W. Bush, and "nones" like Reagan and Trump.
Embracing Trump has opened the door to apostasy.
For certain intruders have stolen in among you, people who long ago were designated for this condemnation as ungodly, who pervert the grace of our God into licentiousness and deny our only master and Lord, Jesus Christ. Jude v. 4
Moore's observations and reports of what is happening in conservative churches make these words from the Apostle Jude, in his short but very pointed epistle, extremely prophetic for churches that are still holding the line against this heresy. Moore seems somewhat surprised to see this kind of thing happening among Evangelicals, but I'm not. Trying to make the Bible fit one's preconcieved ideas and beliefs is a very common practice. It happens from the pulpits of churches all the time. So when an intruder comes along, in the form of a politician, it's not hard to make themselves the savior and throw Jesus under the bus.
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