This Year's Southern Baptist Convention Further Distances Denomination from "Biblical Christianity"

Here's What Didn't Happen At This Year's Annual Southern Baptist Convention 

The Southern Baptist Convention's 1,000 Word Resolution Covers Nine Hot Topics

The core, foundational principles of the Christian gospel, revealed by Jesus Christ through the narratives of four gospel writers in the New Testament, start with a foundational, theological statement that Jesus made when he was asked by a lawyer to define which commandment is the greatest.  That was somewhat of a trick question, since giving a "wrong" answer would have branded him as a heretic.  But Jesus not only answered the question correctly from a Jewish theological perspective, his answer defined the core principle of the Christian faith.  

"Hear, O Israel, the Lord Our God; the Lord is One.  Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.  The second is this: Love your neighbor as yourself.  There is no commandment greater than these."

So the defining characteristic of a Christian, the faith practice that expresses the core value of the gospel of Jesus Christ, is the visible love for one's neighbor.  And to make the point just a bit clearer, Jesus further defined the definition of "neighbor" by using a parable in which a Samaritan, a member of the ethnic group that the audience to whom he was speaking actually hated and resented the most, is the prime example.  He is a pagan, a "half breed" who demonstrates a love for his neighbor regardless of his ethnicity or religious beliefs, or the known hatred and bigotry the man he helped may have held for Samaritans.  It was pretty clear to those who heard him, and it's pretty clear from looking at the principles of the Christian gospel that "neighbor" equals "fellow human being."  

There are no exceptions to be found.  Jesus made it crystal clear, in his preaching, teaching and by the example that he set, that the way we treat others, regardless of their race, ethnicity, or personal circumstances, is the basic means by which our Christian faith is identified.  

An Old Saying, But Applicable Here, "Hypocrisy Knows No Bounds" 

For certain individuals whose condemnation was written about long ago have have secretly slipped in among you.  They are ungodly people who pervert the grace of our God into a license for immorality and deny Jesus Christ, our only Sovereign and Lord."  Jude, v. 4 

The "Largest Protestant denomination in the United States" just finished its annual meeting in Dallas yesterday.  A list of resolutions condemning what they see as the social and moral ills of the country is usually forthcoming.  This year, the formal complaint about all that they perceive is wrong with this country came out in one long, 1,000 word resolution that was brought to the floor of the convention, got every little debate, and passed.  

They condemned gays, lesbians, childless couples, people who remain single, and transgendered persons by pointing out how pervasive all of these things have become in our culture.  

They left out the fact that for the past six years, they have been stymied by their inability to deal effectively with a sexual abuse crisis within their own denomination, in which hundreds of pastors and other church leaders, including those working with youth and children, have been reported for abusing members of their churches.  In many cases, because Baptist churches are independent and autonomous, abusers have been able to move on from a church where they've been exposed, to another congregation that is not aware of the abuse.  

Many of these cases were reported to the denomination's Executive Committee, which not only kept them confidential, and did nothing to stop the abuse, but which actually wound up protecting abusers by claiming that, because they have no ecclesiastical authority over any local church, they could not take any action.  

Of course, when this story broke, in an expose done by the Houston Chronicle called "Abuse of Faith," back in 2019, many of those attenting the Southern Baptist Convention as messengers from the churches were horrified, demanding that the leadership do something about it.  But over the course of the past six years now, any effort to bring about a solution has met with stiff resistance from denominational leadership, who have done everything they can from attempts to undermine the independent investigation that was commissioned, to accusing the victims of lying, and of participating in a "satanic plot" to undermine these good men of God and their ministries, as well as hurt the work of the denomination. 

Year after year, the rhetoric from out of the annual meeting was whining and complaining at the increasing legal costs to the denomination, which used up a significant amount of its capital reserves paying legal fees and now must come up with several million more out of their "missions money," to pay what they still owe.  There has been almost no remorse, and no consideration whatsoever given to the hundreds of victims who have suffered the abuse.  Those who have attempted to put together resources to help churches minister to victims of sexual abuse have been  harrassed and eventually pushed out of their positions for calling attention to the scandal.  The denomination, along with most of the churches where the abuse has been perpetuated, have abandoned the victims, leaving them to recover on their own.    

So here we have this year's orchestrated, cut and dried resolution, complaining about what ails our culture and society, and whose fault that is, a political manifesto from the blending of extremist right wing politics and conservative Evangelicalism, but not a peep about the hundreds of rape and abuse victims left behind by Southern Baptist pastors in Southern Baptist churches. 

And they failed to address Trump's adultery, rape, pathological lying, moral bankruptcy and making God a liar by denying his own sinful nature, as a prime example of a morally bankrupt culture.  Leaving out all of that, which is more of a threat to public decency and morality than anything their resolution named, makes them hypocrites and leaves their resolution without merit, and useless.  Southern Baptists are just another group of pseudo-Christians caught up in extremist right wing politics.  They and their resolution are meaningless.

Apparently, "Loving Your Neighbor as Yourself," Has Been Downgraded in Southern Baptist Theology

I grew up in a Southern Baptist church, and I was always taught that "Jesus is the answer."  We were taught to live our lives in a way that reflected those values of the Christian gospel, specifically to find ways to show our love for our neighbor as a means of also demonstrating the love we have for God.  There were no ulterior motives involved, it was just an expectation, to be identified by others as a Christian because of this visible, sincere love that is the core value of Christian faith and practice. 

So where does a resolution that writes some of our neighbors out of the greatest commandment come from?  I'll tell you.  It comes from an intrusion of "licentiousness," the influence of a secular, political demagogue who, as Jude verse 4 says, "has stolen in among you."  

Perhaps the presence of individuals Southern Baptists want to publicly label as "sinners" instead of neighbors is something they see as an indictment of themselves, because of their ineffectiveness in their ministry of evangelism, winning converts to Christ who then reflect what they consider to be the values of the Christian gospel.  They've got some idea that God is going to judge the country because it does not collectively adhere to a specific religious practice and because of the presence of certain kinds of sinners.  So God is going to judge America because of gays, lesbians, and transgendered persons, along with childless couples and single people who choose not to marry, but not because of Southern Baptist pastors and youth leaders who rape and abuse members of their congregation, or Presidents who are serial adulterers, liars, rebellious insurrectionists and rapists?  

The failure of this denomination to condemn, and put a stop to the sexual abuse crisis within its own ranks, and its failure to publicly condemn Trump's immorality and demagoguery nullifies the validity of their 2025 resolution, and makes the Southern Baptists who approve of this pseudo-Christian hypocrites.