It may be true that no man is an island, but the Southern Baptist Convention is working hard to isolate itself from the world.
After a decade of holding back the most strident far-right forces in the convention, this year voting “messengers” opened the gate and let them saddle the horses. And they did so through blatantly political processes.
The entirety of today’s SBC exists within the rightmost portion of the continuum of American religion. But there’s “conservative” and then there’s “more conservative.” It is the “more conservative” forces that left Orlando emboldened this year.
What Southern Baptist leaders seem to miss is that on their most liberal days, they exist to the right of most Americans except their fellow evangelicals. But the arrogance of this crowd makes them convinced they are the earth and the sun rotates around them.
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Anti-Galileans
The chief anti-Galilean in the SBC is Al Mohler, president of Southern Baptist Theological Seminary and the denomination’s chief interpreter of all things theological. You’d think no one else in the denomination held a Ph.D. in theology, the way everyone defers to his wisdom and influence.
But Mohler is wrong about some things — flat-out wrong. Yet he speaks with such authority and such certainty that people believe him. He is the Professor Harold Hill of Southern Baptists, warning them about the dangers of “pool” that starts with “P” which rhymes with “T” and stands for “trouble right here in River City.”
“I’ve been listening to Mohler speak for 33 years, and it’s easy to spot his formula.”
I’ve been listening to Mohler speak for 33 years, and it’s easy to spot his formula. He names an issue that bothers him (like abortion or same-sex relations), then finds a Scripture to support his bias, claims his interpretation of said Scripture is the only orthodox view, then finds some historical precedent he claims is definitive in supporting his position and urges listeners to return to the old ways of truth and joy.
When he became president of Southern Seminary in 1993, Mohler declared he would return the school to the beliefs of its founders and their 1858 “Abstract of Principles,” a doctrinal statement that does not reflect modern biblical scholarship or culture. Conveniently for Mohler, the “Abstract” was written by Calvinists — which allowed him to turn back the clock to his preferred theology that Southern Baptists had outgrown and moved on from.
The script applied to women
Thus, when Mohler stood to speak at the SBC annual meeting in Orlando June 10 and defend his proposed constitutional amendment officially barring women from the “office” and “function” of pastor, he followed his usual script. Here’s the flow:
He gave his amendment a name — the “truth and unity” amendment — even though he did not always speak truth and did not seek unity.
He warned of encroaching liberalism, as always. “There’s a great line that divides liberal and biblical evangelicalism and you can see it on this very issue,” he said, implying liberalism leads to decay and conservatism leads to growth. He ignored the reality that the SBC is hemorrhaging millions of members and has not been spared from the decline afflicting all U.S. religious bodies.
“He warned of encroaching liberalism, as always.”
He declared the SBC knows better than anyone else and is more faithful to God: “The Southern Baptist Convention in adopting the Baptist Faith and Message in the year 2000 stated confessionally that the office of pastor is limited to men as qualified by Scripture.”
He whipped up another threatening menace: “The subsequent 26 years have demonstrated that we need constitutional clarity on this issue.” Even there are no publicly reported cases of SBC churches employing women as senior pastors.
He claimed historical precedence: “This motion makes very clear that we affirm the historic Baptist understanding of the pastor/elder/overseer. The structure of the language I have brought goes all the way back to the 1689 Baptist confession where the office and function of the pastor are clearly delineated.” He referred to the “Second London Confession” which is one of the most Calvinistic faith statements ever written by Baptists, even though there other historic Baptist faith statements that take different approaches. For flourish, he added: “I think we want to say truths consistent with what Baptists have believed going all the way back to the 17th century.”
He declared his view to be the authoritative view approved by God: “We stand upon the authority of God’s word. We stand for truth, yes, and that truth produces the unity of our convention.”
This is classic Mohler arrogance. And the messengers to this year’s convention bought it hook, line and sinker.
Making things old or making things new
One of the greatest flaws in Mohler’s worldview is the assumption that returning to some mythical past always is the thing that pleases God. There’s no recognition of the very words of Jesus: “Behold, I am making all things new.”
“One of the greatest flaws in Mohler’s worldview is the assumption that returning to some mythical past always is the thing that pleases God.”
My former colleague and friend George Mason has often pointed out that Jesus did not promise to make all new things but instead to make all existing things new. This is a passage — one of many in the New Testament — about renewal. And renewal is not about conserving the past; it is about growing and changing and moving into the future with new insights and understanding.
Mohler is leading Southern Baptists backward, not forward. Because he thinks backward is pleasing to God. But the overarching narrative of the New Testament is about change, growth, new understandings, the illuminating work of the Holy Spirit.
An army of supporters
Truth is, Mohler does not have to be elected president of the convention to get his will enacted. He just needs to have an army of true believers who will do the work for him. That’s why he had men stationed at every microphone June 10 to speak in favor of his amendment and then move to cut off debate — which is exactly what happened.
This year’s messengers then handily approved the first reading of Mohler’s amendment and elected a president who shares Mohler’s views. Remember it was just five years ago that Mohler ran for SBC president and didn’t even make the top two candidates in a runoff.
It turns out he didn’t need the presidency to get his way. All he had to do was show up in a three-piece suit like Professor Harold Hill and scare people into buying his instruments and uniforms, his confessions of faith and amendments.
What Mohler and most Southern Baptists seem to fear most of all is modernity. While the rest of the world learns and grows and adapts, they want to retreat to a place of previous comfort where they can erect strong border walls and keep out the influence of the Galileos of our time.
Because, you know, they are the center of their own universe — small though it may be.
John Donne has a word for them just like his warning that no man is an island: “Ask not for whom the bell tolls; it tolls for thee.”
Mark Wingfield serves as executive director and publisher of Baptist News Global and is the author of Honestly: Telling the Truth About the Bible and Ourselves.