Whining About the Disruption of Worship Services at St. Paul's Cities Church Needs to be Put in Perspective

 Rick Pidcock: Let's Talk About How Cities Church Treats Women

Let's take a look at the perspectives here.  

Southern Baptist Seminary President Al Mohler was, in 2016, opposed to Trump's nomination.  He, along with Russell Moore, who was President of the Southern Baptists' Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission at the time, were the only two Southern Baptist leaders who showed any Christian conviction, or backbone at all in refusing to support an agenda and candidate who was so openly antichrist, and diametrically opposed to any Christian practice or values.  That, in a conservative Evangelical denomination that has completely lost its way because it cannot discern that right wing politics is antichristian, was highly unusual.  

But if the Southern Baptist Convention ever had any characteristics of the Christian gospel, and having been raised in a Southern Baptist church, I would say that it never really did, it has lost every vestige of it with its turn toward support for right wing politics.  Mohler wanted to be President of the Southern Baptist convention, and realized that being a Trumper was the key, not only to winning elected office in the denomination that is more of a political power structure than a Christian ministry organization, but to hanging on to his well feathered and financed nest as President of the denomination's flagship theological school.  

So he flipped.  But the fact that he wasn't committed enough to the Trump cult at any point cost him the Presidency of the Southern Baptist Convention, though it may have saved him from being forced to retire as President at SBTS.  But this makes his comments on the disruption of worship at Cities Church by protesters worthless.  So, then, are the comments made by another Southern Baptist seminary President, Danny Akin, of the Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary in Wake Forest, North Carolina.  

But, this is to be expected.  Cities Church is affiliated with the Southern Baptist Convention.  So they don't see the complete inconsistency in a pastor who works for ICE, and who participates in the immoral injustice that they are perpetrating.   Nor do they see that Biblical Christianity and being a supporter of MAGA Trumpism are mutually exclusive.  It is not possible to be faithful to the principles of the Christian gospel, and a supporter of MAGA, and Trump.  

And that's not a judgment.  It's simply an observation.  

But, what is to be expected in a denomination that was founded for the purpose of defending slavery, rebelling against the biblically founded restrictions on sending slaveowners out on their behalf as missionaries, adopted by the Triennial Baptist Convention of Philadelphia.  And, one that did not repudiate or apologize for its role in promoting the evil, ungodly practice until 1995, 150 years after it was founded because of its support for slavery.  

I didn't hear either one of these seminary presidents speak out against the murder of Renee Good.  Nor have they spoken up against the brutal treatment we have all seen that has been a trademark of ICE raids and alleged "enforcement" of immigration law everywhere they've been.  To be fair, I've never heard Akin preach, nor have I read anything he's written.  I have heard Mohler, his podcast, and his pompous pontifications on everything he thinks his audience needs informing from his perspective.  And I can't find any reference to their complaining about ICE agents interrupting church services to abduct worshippers.  

If this protest, calling out the hypocrisy of this church, is a problem, then so is ICE entering a church to drag off and arrest people in the congregation.  Why not speak up about disrupting worship in general, instead of whining about this calling out of hypocrites?  The leader of the protest was arrested, and the attorney general, Pam Bondi, stated, "We will not tolerate attacks on places of worship."  

Really, Pam?  So you are a two faced liar, and hypocrite too, as if we didn't already know this, given your bottomless corruption.  Does this mean you will not tolerate ICE agents entering churches to drag out congregants and send them to detention camps?  Will we hear, from your office, orders prohibiting ICE agents from attacking houses of worship?  

I'm not really in favor of a church becoming a place of protest, or at least, not in favor of disrpting a worship service.  If it's outside, I don't have a problem with it.  The hypocrisy we are seeing from so many of these conservative Evangelicals needs to be called out, for the sake of those inside who don't want their church over-run by right wing, anti-patriotic, unAmerican, anti-Christian ideology.  Calling out a pastor who is in error is the responsibility of those who are members of the church.  But there's nothing wrong about an outdoor display that doesn't disrupt worship, but makes the point clear, especially to the congregation.  

But as long as ICE agents are invading churches and dragging off people just because of suspicion, and without proof, then a church that has a direct connection to ICE, via its pastor, is at risk for being called out.