SBC 2021 (Part 3): Moore or Less

 A few weeks ago, I got sucked in to watching the current reboot of the old game show “To Tell the Truth.”  In one round, one of the three panelists trying to persuade the celebrities that he was the person being described told in the reveal that he used to work as an undercover law enforcement operative.  It had been a matter of life and death for him to know who was lying and who was telling the truth.  Then they went to the next round, but after the celebrities made their guesses, they brought back the undercover guy to get his guess and what clues gave away the imposters.  I was fascinated as he was right on the money.

Dr. Russell Moore has been the head of the Southern Baptist Convention’s (SBC) Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission (ERLC) since 2013.  Dr. Moore tends to be a polarizing figure in SBC life - many people are fans and many others are definitely not.  Last month, he announced that he would be resigning from the ERLC.  Within days of this announcement and within only a couple of weeks of the SBC’s annual meeting, two letters written by Moore were “leaked.”  These letters were both highly critical of some other SBC leaders, one of which is a current candidate for the SBC presidency.  Those that Moore is accusing in his letters, primarily Mike Stone, have responded with flat denials.  Others have come along to corroborate Moore’s version.  This was then followed by those who expressed affirmation of Stone’s narrative as well as his character.

So who is telling the truth?  Honestly, I have no idea.  I wish I had the skills of the law enforcement operative.

There are those that have pointed out that the accusatory letter puts Moore in a precarious spot.  Moore makes allegations that Stone and others are actively working to cover up sexual abuse within the SBC.  If his accusations are true, then besides what he may have said internally within the ERLC, he would effectively be complicit in the cover-up.  In the months that this has supposedly been an issue, rather than standing up against evil deeds or making the issue publicly known, he sat on it and looked for his next job.  And if the accusations are not true, well, obviously that’s not an ethical position either.

So why was the letter released, then?  If you ignore the conundrum it puts Moore in, it actually carries a couple of big benefits for Moore.  First, for those inclined to be fans, he looks like a hero, championing the cause of the sexually abused.  This is a great way for him to enter into his next position, writing for Christianity Today.  And second, he gets to stick it to his political enemies on his way out the door.

SBC 2021 (Part 2): Race to Win

 The history of the Southern Baptist Convention (SBC) includes many accomplishments for the Kingdom of God.  But it also contains several things which stand in stark contrast to those accomplishments.  Chief among those stains on the SBC is the issue of racism.  Founded in a split over the question of slavery in the mid 1800’s, the SBC has time and again wrestled with the issue of race.  The SBC has officially apologized for its history with slavery and racism, yet forms of racism continue to rise up within the convention.

The SBC in general is anxious to shake off any hint of racism.  This is why, I believe, Resolution 9 was adopted at the annual meeting in 2019.  Resolution 9 was entitled “On Critical Race Theory and Intersectionality,” concepts that most of the people in attendance had very likely never heard of.  But they saw that this resolution seemed to have to do with fighting against racism, so it would be wrong to vote against it.  In the time since then, CRT has exploded, not just in Southern Baptist discussions, but in various avenues of public policy.  And many see the concepts of CRT to be anti-Biblical, and the wrong way to address racism.

However, there are those that see pushing back against CRT as a form of racism, an attempt to shut down what might be a useful tool in the fight against racism.

Dealing with Resolution 9 and with CRT in general will be delicate matters.  One wrong move can be all the impetus some need to leave the SBC, as intentions will be assumed instead of understood.

SBC 2021 (Part 1): Gender Again

The annual meeting of the Southern Baptist Convention (SBC) is taking place this week in Nashville, and it looks to be a very active business meeting.  COVID prevented last year’s meeting, so we have two years’ worth of concerns, much of which has been unproductively battered around on social media, to try to settle in one way or another.  And the stakes may be high, as the votes may send one group or another out from under the SBC tent.

So what are the issues that loom darkly over the SBC?  There are several, and I’ll try to give some thoughts on the big ones.

Back in the late 1970’s, the SBC went through something called the Conservative Resurgence.  Recognizing that some leaders were moving the convention in a more liberal theological direction, an effort was begun and eventually accomplished to move things back to the right.  One of the liberal positions pushed back by the Conservative Resurgence was the idea of ordination of women.  In 2000, the SBC adopted a revision to its statement of beliefs known as the Baptist Faith & Message (BF&M), and one of the changes to that document was the statement that “the office of pastor is limited to men as qualified by Scripture.”  This statement is based on multiple passages, such as I Timothy 3:2 and I Timothy 2:12.  While the BF&M doesn’t specifically mention it, the latter text would also disqualify women from preaching or teaching to an audience that included men, such as a Sunday morning service.

Since the last annual meeting, it has been observed that there are multiple church plants that were invested in by the North American Mission Board (NAMB) that have women listed on their websites with a title of “pastor” or “co-pastor.”  Is NAMB not paying attention to the churches they are helping to start, or do they know and not care, or worse, desire to see this despite its contradiction to the BF&M?

One of the most prominent women teachers in Southern Baptist life has been Beth Moore.  Her beginnings are noble - a woman digging into Scripture to teach God’s truth to other women.  Along the way, some significant issues came up, and one of those was that she began to allow her audiences to include both male and female.  There were even times when she was asked to speak for the Sunday morning worship time.  While not technically violating the BF&M, it violated the underlying Scripture.  Just a few months ago, she had heard enough of people telling her she shouldn’t do that and took herself out of the SBC.

A little over a month ago, a megachurch within the SBC had what they called an “historic night” by ordaining three women as pastors.  The chuch is Saddleback Church in California, and its lead pastor is Rick Warren.

How the convention will respond to this issue is crucial - it will either be stopped or it will expand markedly.  There is no chance that it will stay at only what we see today.  This is a battle that we have already fought.  It seems strange to need to be fighting it again.

After Easter

 After Jesus was resurrected, hundreds of people saw firsthand evidence of it, and thousands more heard sufficient evidence of it, and believed in Jesus.  But many, many people did not believe, despite the evidence being available if they wanted to pursue it.  They chose not to pursue the evidence, and some immediately devised a story to contradict the evidence, claiming that the disciples had stolen the body.  Why would they do that?  Because they didn’t want anything to do with Jesus, even if He did exactly what He said He was going to do and even if He was exactly who He said He was.

Besides being a preacher, I am also an apologist.  And as an apologist, I see that the argument for Jesus’ resurrection is incredibly strong.  It is tempting to think, “If I keep presenting this information, with more evidence and more passionately, people will see the truth of it and come to Christ.”  But as I’ve been thinking about it, the issue isn’t apologetics.  It would change nothing to build a stronger case or present it more urgently.  People aren’t rejecting the truth of the argument.  Like the Pharisees on the day after Jesus was resurrected, they are rejecting Jesus.  The truth is irrelevant.  The cost of accepting the truth is the issue.

Jesus (of course) understood this.  He was a terrible salesman.  He urged people to count the cost, and made sure everyone understood there was no riding the fence.

It’s the day after Easter.  What will you do with Jesus?

I've Been Shot!

 It’s been a LONG time since I last wrote a blog post.  In fact, just a few days over ten years.  TEN years.  What all has happened in that ten years?  Lots of stuff.  The birth of my third child.  Graduation from seminary.

But for the past year, the big news has been COVID.  It has impacted so much - church, school, going out to eat, going to the grocery store.  For a little while we were using disinfecting wipes to pump our gas.

There is probably lots I could say about this pandemic.  And I may come back and say some of that.  But I’ll start off with this:  one week ago I got my shot.

My reaction was pretty mild.  That night I had chills, and the next day I had a bit of a headache and body aches, and was pretty exhausted.  But that was about it.  I’ve been a little extra tired all week, but I’m not sure I can blame that on the shot.

I thought a bit about the shot before getting it.  I wasn’t in any particular rush to get it, but at the same time, I wasn’t particularly afraid of getting it.

I don't consider myself very high risk.  I'm not around a lot of people most of the time.  And I'm in pretty good health - although COVID doesn't always make sense, occasionally sending young and healthy people to the hospital or worse, and occasionally having only the mildest of symptoms to those who don’t fall into the “young and healthy” category.   But thinking in terms of obvious risk, there are others who I would have loved to give my place in line because they are obviously more at risk than I am.  But it doesn't work that way.  So I took my place and got my shot.

I’m not concerned about the shot’s safety.  There was concern about how quickly the vaccines were developed.  But what we have is not just a result of one year's work, but of many years of studying similar viruses.  Also, Operation Warp Speed provided a lot of money to work with that is normally not available for this kind of thing, which allowed among other things more testing to be done simultaneously.  There is no reason to believe there is any sort of microchip in the vaccine shots.  Finally, based on what I've read, I had no reason to expect to have an allergic reaction to the vaccine, although some might need to be concerned about that.  In short, I think the shot is reasonably safe.

I'm not concerned about the shot ethically.  This gets sticky, and all the more so with the Johnson & Johnson shot that I had.  The main issue here is in the use of embryotic cells from aborted babies to develop and test the various vaccines.  It is frustrating that this kind of ethical question has to be raised at all, because there are options that do not involve the same ethical dilemma.  But all three of the current vaccines did use embryotic cells to various degrees.  Therefore, we have to concern ourselves with the question of is it morally right to utilize something that was created by the death of a baby?  This article can deal with the whole issue better than I can (ERLC | Explainer: COVID-19 raises concern about abortive fetal cells in medicine), but the TL;DR (that stands for “too long; didn’t read”) answer is that it is similar to receiving an organ donation from someone who was murdered.  Morally, we are not complicit in that murder.

I'm not concerned about the shot as a Christian.  I don't think getting the shot makes me a better Christian or more loving than someone who may choose not to get the shot.  Nor do I think it makes me a worse Christian, one who doesn't trust God enough (that would actually be presumption, along the lines of Jesus throwing Himself off the pinnacle of the temple because He trusts God to take care of Him).  And, I need to say this because I have seen it too many times, the shot is NOT the Mark of the Beast.  Nothing about this shot is preventing anyone from buying or selling.  But even if that comes up, if some crazy law comes along that you can’t enter Walmart without showing your vaccination card, that still does not make this the Mark of the Beast, because there is nothing about anyone or anything being worshipped involved with getting this shot.  You can get the shot and say, “Praise Jesus.”  

I do think the shot will allow me to see some things return to a more normal way sooner.  Things like seeing extended family, hugging folks at church, and grabbing lunch with someone.  Those days can’t come soon enough.

I Just Had to Write

Wow. It has been about two and a half years since I have written anything on my blog. It's been so long, I had forgotten how to log in. Well, there is a reason for that. I'll have to explain sometime. But right now I have a fire lit under me and I just have to blog.

I am a relatively active user of Facebook. Although I try to be careful of the things I post, I enjoy making a witty comment about my world or the world, for all the world to see. And I have Facebook friends of all stripes, and I don't think I have ever defriended anyone, even when I found some of their postings to be personally offensive.

I saw a link to an article with a purposefully provocative title, "Why Evangelicals Hate Jesus". So I just had to read it. And after reading it, I just had to write. I would normally labor over my blog post a little more than I am this one. I may come back to it later for that. Right now, I just want to get it out there. Here is my response to this article.

Wow - I don't know where to start with this article. As an overarching comment, I would say that Jesus' teachings applied to individuals, not governments. Governments have responsibilities and capabilities that individuals do not, and vice versa.

The first accusation this article levels against evangelical Christians has to do with Jesus' teachings about mercy. It is not the government's job to show mercy, but to bear the sword, as Paul states (as he gives the principle of Jesus' pronouncement that Pilate had the power to crucify Him because God gave him that power). It is in the context of a government that shows some semblance of justice that the mercy of an individual can be demonstrated. Biblical Christians must demand justice for evil from their government (i.e. Amos 5:15), even as they show love and mercy and forgiveness to evildoers.

The second accusation has to do with Jesus' teachings about peace. Again, there is the intertwining of government and individual responsibilities. But there is also a misunderstanding about peace. But Jesus said there would be. He said, "My peace is not like the world's peace" and "Don't think that I have come to bring peace into the world. I have not come to bring peace but a sword." Jesus did come to bring peace, but it is a peace between a sinful individual and the Holy God. As for Jesus being completely non-violent, take a look at Luke 22:36 - he instructs us to buy a sword. Our Founding Fathers knew it was important to be able to be armed, and codified it as the Second Amendment. And as for the government, it has a responsibility to protect us from those who would kill us. We can't just say "Let's not fight" if the other side isn't willing to say the same thing. This is not war-mongering, this is protecting the people under its care.

The third accusation has to do with Jesus' teachings about money. In this section, there is an outright lie that Jesus condemned the rich. He did warn in very strong terms that riches have a way of making us not dependent on God, and thus it is very hard for a rich man to put his trust in God and thus go to Heaven. But keep in mind, Abraham, Job, David, and Solomon were all blessed by God with riches (among other things). This is the same God in both testaments. And God did not give governments the responsibility to be generous as he did individuals. If I give my money to the poor, it is charity. If the government takes my money and gives it to the poor, it is theft. By taking my money from me, the government robs me of an opportunity to be generous. And remember that the Bible also says he that doesn't work doesn't eat.

But even though this article completely misunderstands Christianity and the teachings of Jesus, there is a point that Biblical Christians are not perfect followers of God's commands. But they are not complete failures either. Southern Baptists were one of the biggest groups giving help of all sorts (clearing debris, feeding, providing showers, etc.) after Hurricane Katrina. We have been responding in very significant ways to some of the world's biggest crises, like the earthquakes in Haiti and Japan.

So social scientists say evangelical Christians are failing, but they are looking at our results with the wrong answer sheet. And that's to be expected. If they really understood what Christianity was all about, they would be one.

Lessons on a Train

10/27/2008

Son,

I'm missing you while I'm out of town for a few days for the Missouri Baptist Convention. I got up early this morning so I could ride a train to St. Louis. I know you would have really liked to have been on the train with me. It seems like you have always liked trains. I was reminded of a few things, a few life lessons, while making my trip.

First of all, I was amazed by how cheap I was able to travel by train from Lee’s Summit to St. Louis. It was definitely cheaper than if I had driven, even with the cheaper gas prices. How is possible for it to be so cheap? Because there are many people on the train. It makes me think about how God wants us to work together, like when He says that “Two are better than one, because they have a good reward for their labor” (Ecclesiastes 4:9-12). And then when He talks about how we’re all supposed to work together in the church, when He compares the church to the body: “For as the body is one and has many parts, and all the parts of that body, though many, are one body – so also is Christ” (I Corinthians 12:12-31). God can accomplish much through the church. But that only works if they are all Christians and there is unity. If we were all trying to go different directions on the train, it really wouldn’t have worked very well.

It is a chilly fall day today, but we rode past a golf course, and sure enough there were some golfers out there (some in stocking hats). You know I don’t do much golfing, but when I do, I prefer it to be a nice sunny day, not too hot and not too cold. I guess golfing must be important to these folks out there on the fairway today. If it’s important, you stick with it no matter what the weather. That’s why Paul said to Timothy, “Preach the Word! Be ready in season and out of season” (II Timothy 4:2). God’s Word is the important thing. Don’t ever forget or minimize how important God’s Word is.

Along the way, we had to stop from time to time to let a freight train go by. I think there were also times when a freight train had to wait for us to get by. Everybody has to wait. Sometimes it’s hard to wait. But if nobody waited, we would have crashed into the freight train. And then we would definitely be waiting. Jesus says the ones who want to be first will end up being last (Mark 10:31) and Paul reminds us to put others ahead of ourselves (Philippians 2:3).

There was a lot of pretty scenery today. There were wonderful woods with creeks winding through them. There were fields of recently harvested corn and what looked to me like ready to be harvested beans. And there were several towns that we rode past, some of which I would describe as “struggling.” But I would imagine that they have been that way, doing what they’re doing, for so long that they don’t think of it as struggling anymore. It’s just the way life is. And maybe they’ve grown to be content with what they have. There’s a lot of financial worries out there these days, but God wants us to be content with whatever He gives us, like Paul learned to be (Philippians 4:11-13).

One thing I noticed that struck my attention was a basketball court, a slab of concrete and goals at either end. From the brief and distant look I got of it, it looked like it was probably built 30 or 40 years ago, and was suffering from neglect. It was set off a little ways from a row of houses. I’m sure some of those houses must have been homes to families with children old enough to enjoy a good game of basketball. But no one was taking care of this place. I’ve not been very good at teaching you to take care of your stuff. But God has given you some very important stuff, too (and I believe He is going to give you other very important stuff in the future as well). And I hope you will not let those things become neglected and forgotten. Paul reminded Timothy to “do not neglect the gift that is in you” but encouraged him to focus on this gift from God and use it (I Timothy 4:14-16).

The scenery was nice, but I was really hoping for some pretty fall foliage. I didn’t notice much for quite a while. There were various shades of green, and then some dull oranges and browns, but no vibrant reds and oranges and yellows. And then, very late in the trip, this glorious clifftop full of reds appeared. So be patient; wait for God’s beauty. If you settle for what comes along at the first, you may miss what God has coming up. God “is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think” (Ephesians 3:20-21).

There were all sorts of people on this train ride with me to St. Louis. There were young people, old people, families, people like me traveling alone. There were young men who should have been old enough to know that the seat of their pants belongs on the part of the body that hits the seat. Sometimes, people that are different can make us uncomfortable, for no other reason than just because they are different. When we all get to Heaven, the Bible tells us that there will be people from every group there (Revelation 7:9). So I guess we need to get started now trying to move past that uncomfortableness to getting to know more about these different people.

At one station that we pulled into to let people off, I noticed families reunited – adult children helping their parents with their things, grandchildren rushing to give their grandparents a hug. The joy of those reunions displayed on their faces makes me think about how exciting it is going to be when we are reunited with those who have gone to Heaven before us, that we have been missing while we were still on earth (I Thessalonians 4:13-18).

There was one little boy, maybe three years old, who was so excited to be riding on a train. He made me think of you, of how excited you used to be about trains when you were younger like him, and how you are a little less interested in them now that you are older. I know you are not saved yet, but I pray that someday you will be. And it is quite likely that sometime after you become a Christian, that being a Christian will not seem like such an exciting thing to you. People often tend to grow in their relationship to God in spurts – there is a time of drifting away from God that reaches a point where we are pulled back to Him. I wish you would always have a very close relationship with God, or that you would always have a relationship with God that was growing closer. But that probably won’t be the case. Like you have drifted from your interest in trains, you will probably drift away from God some. When that happens, I hope you will be able to quickly recognize it, and pray as David did for God to “restore to me the joy of Your salvation” (Psalm 51:12).

The train was way too bouncy to do any reading, and I couldn’t find a comfortable position to sleep in. Sometimes when God won’t let you sleep, and works to keep you from getting distracted, He may be trying to teach you a lesson. Or reminding you of a few.

I love you, Son.

-Dad

P.S. Whenever someone tells you that it should just be about a mile and it should be an easy walk, don’t believe them. "For many deceivers have gone out into the world..." (II John 1:7)