I am disappointed in Al Mohler for a great many reasons. But the Doug Wilson podcast appearance last week is an unsurprising development in a pattern of disappointments.
Mohler has a proven history of disregarding the very people he is supposed to serve.
About a decade ago, I was employed by my local Southern Baptist association. That association was made up of 140 Southern Baptist churches in a largely unreached, post-Christian region. Many of those churches were struggling to reach their community or find well-trained ministers, two problems a respected seminary president could help address.
Matt Johnson
Instead of engaging with any of those 140 Southern Baptist churches (composed of people whose sacrificial giving pay his salary and deserve his support), Mohler came to the area to set up a pipeline for discounts to Southern Baptist Theological Seminary for members of a nondenominational church. Imagine what this communicated to the people who do pay his salary. This was my firsthand experience of his apparent apathy toward regular Southern Baptists.
This is not new. Most of the SBC laity and clergy are in the non-Reformed camp. An estimated 80% of Southern Baptists are not Calvinists, yet the good Reverend Doctor allies himself with Master’s Seminary (non-SBC) and John MacArthur (non-SBC) who, like Doug Wilson (non-SBC), believed slavery was biblically justifiable. Christians should not throw stones at a man’s personal parsing of soteriology, but they can rightfully critique a seminary president using his influence to tie the denomination to beliefs that a majority of its congregants and ministers do not hold.
When Beth Moore essentially made Lifeway Women the blockbuster revenue-generating business for the SBC’s publishing house, Mohler would appear onstage multiple times with a man who said the SBC “caved on the issue of Beth Moore” and further told her to “Go home.” Imagine what this communicates to the countless women of Southern Baptist churches who have grown in their faith because of Beth Moore and cheerfully support the Cooperative Program but cannot pick out Mohler in a police lineup.
When the messengers to the 2024 Southern Baptist Convention annual meeting did not cast enough votes to clear the so-called “Law Amendment,” he apparently thought: “Surely the people who finance my seminary are wrong,” and brought the same idea forward again this year.
“Mohler jumped head first into a churning maelstrom of controversy yet again by choosing to appear on Doug Wilson’s podcast.”
Then he reportedly staged one of his own allies at every microphone to stifle debate after only 5 minutes of conversation. Shutting down debate is a tactic his proteges have learned well. Former SBC President Clint Pressley, a close associate of Mohler, shut down a concerned Cooperative Program giver when that messenger asked how the Truth and Unity Amendment will affect the 44,000 churches in the SBC. Pressley curtly replied, “It says what it says.”
Now, after his amendment passed the first hurdle, Mohler jumped head first into a churning maelstrom of controversy yet again by choosing to appear on Doug Wilson’s podcast. If Mohler truly cares about truth and unity among his denomination, he could use his platform to clarify the amendment, help churches understand what women can do to serve the Lord in Southern Baptist contexts and ease concerns among various SBC ethnic and affinity groups who employ women in ministerial roles.
That would have been the pastoral thing to do. Instead, he associates himself with Doug Wilson (yet another non-Southern Baptist) who advocates repealing the 19th Amendment, praises the Stonewall raids and identifies himself as a “paleo-Confederate.”
As a reminder, in spite of its troubled beginnings, today the SBC has more than 11,000 non-Anglo churches in it and is one of the most ethnically diverse denominations in America.
Mohler has no issue with his buddies throwing stones at other Southern Baptists. He has no issue stifling debate among Southern Baptists. He has no issue engaging in “friendly dialogue” with white supremacists and misogynists. The only thing with which he does apparently take issue? Engaging in good faith with Southern Baptists.
Apparently, nobody dislikes Southern Baptists as much as the president of their own flagship seminary.
Matt Johnson is a Southern Baptist pastor serving in Oklahoma. Previously he served in youth and family ministries in California and Nevada. He is married to Rebecca, who he believes is a far more talented contributing writer for BNG.
Related:
Bulletin: Debate cut short on Mohler amendment
Al Mohler cozies up to Doug Wilson | Analysis by Mark Wingfield