One resolution against abortion wasn’t enough for this year’s Southern Baptist Convention annual meeting.
After messengers (voting members) to the SBC gathering in Nashville on June 15 adopted a strongly worded resolution opposing abortion and calling for continuation of the Hyde Amendment that has prohibited federal funding for abortions, they eagerly adopted a second — and stronger — resolution the next day calling for the “immediate abolition of abortion without exception or compromise.”
That second resolution is the most strident language ever used in an SBC resolution against abortion and is so strongly worded that the SBC’s own Committee on Resolutions had declined to bring it forward.
That second resolution is the most strident language ever used in an SBC resolution against abortion.
The fight to consider the resolution
According to SBC practice, messengers are allowed to submit proposed resolutions in advance of the annual meeting. Those resolutions are then reviewed by the Committee on Resolutions, which often combines similar ideas into single resolutions or declines to advance all the suggestions. Within the SBC, resolutions are non-binding but generate lots of news as the sentiment of the gathered body that year.
This year, a small group of pastors organized a campaign for a resolution on “abolishing” abortion in America. Hundreds of members from a small number of churches reportedly bombarded the Resolutions Committee with suggestions for the same language.
Nevertheless, the strongly pro-life Resolutions Committee declined to advance that language for reasons that were not publicly explained.
However, one messenger, William Ascol of Oklahoma, made a motion to require the Resolutions Committee to report out the resolution on abolition of abortion. That motion passed, and the committee was forced to present the resolution as submitted.
Nine co-authors
The resolution in question listed nine co-authors: William Ascol, Bethel Baptist Church, Owasso, Okla.; Brett Baggett, Ekklesia, Muskogee, Okla; David Van Bebber, First Baptist Church, Buffalo, Mo.; Blake Gideon, First Baptist Church, Edmond, Okla.; Darrick Holloman, High Point Baptist Church, Mayfield, Ky.; Dave Hughey, Geyer Springs Baptist Church, Little Rock, Ark.; Jon Speed, First Baptist Church, Briar, Texas; Derin Stidd, Harmony Baptist Church, Frankfort, Ind.; and Russell Threet, First Baptist Church, Mena, Ark.
Ascol was the front man for the resolution, speaking most frequently and answering messenger questions about it. His brother, Tom Ascol, who is leader of a group of SBC Calvinists called Founders Ministries, had written about the proposed resolution earlier. In a post on the Founders Ministries website, he explained that the resolution was to have been submitted at the 2020 annual meeting, but that event got cancelled due to COVID.
“It is time for Southern Baptists to repent of their complicity in searing the conscience of a nation that has yet to cease the slaughter of unborn innocents,” Tom Ascol said in the post.
History of resolutions on abortion
The SBC in annual session has passed more than 27 resolutions about abortion since 1971, the most recent being at the 2019 annual meeting commending state legislatures for “pro-life legislation.”
The SBC in annual session has passed more than 27 resolutions about abortion since 1971,
The nature of those resolutions has shifted dramatically through the years. The first one, in 1971 — two years before the U.S. Supreme Court’s Roe v. Wade ruling — called Southern Baptists to “work for legislation that will allow the possibility of abortion under such conditions as rape, incest, clear evidence of severe fetal deformity, and carefully ascertained evidence of the likelihood of damage to the emotional, mental, and physical health of the mother.”
More recently, and especially since the so-called “conservative resurgence” of the 1980s, all SBC resolutions on abortion have opposed the procedure but typically with nuanced language.
Strong language
There is nothing nuanced about this year’s second resolution. And nor should there be, Bill Ascol told messengers.
“Scripture tells us to rescue those who are being taken away to death,” he said in asking messengers to vote for the resolution. “The Lord is weighing our hearts today.”
He introduced a woman standing beside him at the microphone as a “post-abortive mother” who “lives with the trauma and the scar that she murdered her own children” but has since sought God’s forgiveness.
He introduced a woman standing beside him at the microphone as a “post-abortive mother” who “lives with the trauma and the scar that she murdered her own children” but has since sought God’s forgiveness.
“Can we not rise and stop the holocaust?” he pleaded.
The text of the resolution acknowledges the many previous SBC resolutions on abortion but adds: “we have yet to call for the immediate abolition of abortion without exception or compromise.”
The resolution also states: “We affirm that the murder of preborn children is a crime against humanity that must be punished equally under the law” and that “we humbly confess and lament any complicity in recognizing exceptions that legitimize or regulate abortion.”
An attempt to amend the resolution and slightly soften its language was adopted, but an attempt to kill the resolution by tabling it indefinitely failed.
The argument against the resolution
Messengers spoke both for and against the resolution.
Brett Baggett, one of the resolution’s authors, joined Ascol in defending the strong language. “Child sacrifice, which in our day is called abortion, must not be regulated,” he said. “Abortion must be eliminated immediately without compromise.”
“Abortion must be eliminated immediately without compromise.”
Sarah Hester, who described herself as a victim advocate for sexual abuse survivors in Marion, N.C., asserted it is “our job to protect victims of sexual abuse and (ensure) that they would not be victimized again by the atrocity of abortion.”
Women who face crisis pregnancies should not have to make decisions about whether abortion is appropriate in their circumstances, she added.
Those who opposed the resolution did so with repeated caveats that they, too, vehemently oppose abortion but found the language of the resolution objectionable.
Alan Branch of Liberty, Mo., said he opposed the resolution “because it advocates a particular political strategy” that would be discouraging to “godly politicians” who are trying to gain even a little ground against abortion.
“This is a poorly worded resolution,” he added. “I thought about trying to amend it, but as a seminary professor it would take me too many hours to straighten it out here on the floor.”
David Norman of San Antonio, Texas, opposed the resolution because he said it “requires that we walk back from every pro-life resolution we’ve passed.”
Ascol refuted that claim. “This resolution doesn’t walk anything back. It walks us forward toward the immediate abolition of abortion without exception and without compromise.”
The most impassioned argument against the resolution was given by a staff member of the SBC’s own Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission, which has been a staunch anti-abortion advocate.
“This resolution, while it is aimed in absolutely the right direction, is the wrong resolution.”
“This resolution, while it is aimed in absolutely the right direction, is the wrong resolution,” said Josh Wester, director of research for the ERLC. He noted the SBC is on record as being “resolutely against abortion” as a “heinous evil, a grievous sin.”
He objected to the absolutist language of the resolution that could discourage politicians and policymakers from doing what they can to reduce or eliminate abortions even if they are powerless to outlaw it entirely.
The Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission was scheduled to give its annual report to the convention soon after the body had dealt with the abortion resolution. Interim Executive Director Daniel Patterson used his entire report to talk about abortion and how the ERLC is working against it, specifically by donating 50 units of imaging equipment to be used in clinics across the county in the fight to reduce abortions.
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Text of Resolution on Abolishing Abortion
As adopted by the SBC annual meeting in Nashville, Tenn., June 16, 2021
WHEREAS, from the moment of fertilization, all humans are created in God’s image by, through, and for Jesus to the glory of God, and all souls belong to Him (Genesis 1:27; 4:1; 21:2; Isaiah 7:14; Colossians 1:16; Romans 11:36; Ezekiel 18:4), and
WHEREAS, as God’s image-bearers, all humans both display His divine worth, power, and attributes, and possess equal, objective worth before God, not varying based on incidental characteristics; such as ethnicity, age, size, means of conception, mental development, physical development, gender, potential, or contribution to society (Rom 1:19-20; Gen 1:27; 9:6; Matthew 18:6), and
WHEREAS, to murder any preborn image-bearer is a sin, violating both the natural law of retributive justice as set forth in the Noahic covenant, as well as the sixth commandment forbidding murder, and as such, is ultimately an assault on God’s image, seeking to usurp God’s sovereignty as Creator (Gen 9:5-6; Exodus 20:13; Proverbs 6:17), and
WHEREAS, God’s Word declares that all human life is a sacred gift and that His Law is supreme over man’s life and man’s law (Psalm 127:3-5; 139:13-16; Rom 2:15-16; Acts 10:42; 17:31; 1 Corinthians 4:5), and
WHEREAS, God commands His people to “rescue those who are being taken away to death” and holds them responsible and without excuse when they fail to do so (Prov 24:11-12), and
WHEREAS, God establishes all governing authorities as His avenging servants to carry out His wrath on the evildoer, and commands these authorities to judge justly, neither showing partiality to the wicked, nor using unequal standards, which are abominations (Psa 82; Prov 20:10; Rom 13:4), and
WHEREAS, in 1973, the Supreme Court of the United States rendered an iniquitous decision on Roe v. Wade, and in doing so deprived the innocent of their rights, and usurped God, who sovereignly ordained their authority (Isa 5:23; 10:1-2; Psa 2; Matt 22:21; John 19:11; Acts 4:19; 5:29, Rom 13:1), and
WHEREAS, in the Roe v. Wade decision, the Supreme Court of the United States subverted the U.S. Constitution namely, the Preamble, as well as the Fifth and Fourteenth Amendments without any legal authority (Article 6, Clause 2 “Supremacy Clause”), and
WHEREAS, governing authorities at every level have a duty before God to uphold justice asserting their God-ordained and constitutional authority to establish equal protection under the law for all, born and preborn, by intervening, ignoring, or nullifying iniquitous decisions when other authorities, such as the Supreme Court, condone such injustices as the legal taking of innocent life (Daniel 3; 1 Kings 12; 2 Kings 11; Jeremiah 26:10-16; 36:9-31; 37:11- 21; 39:7-10), and
WHEREAS, over the past 48 years with 60+ million abortions, traditional Pro-life laws, though well intended, have not established equal protection and justice for the preborn, but on the contrary, appallingly have established incremental, regulatory guidelines for when, where, why, and how to obtain legal abortion of innocent preborn children, thereby legally sanctioning abortion, and
WHEREAS, since 1980, the SBC has passed many resolutions reaffirming the importance of human life at all stages of development, but we have yet to call for the immediate abolition of abortion without exception or compromise, and
WHEREAS, our confessional statement, The Baptist Faith and Message, according to Article XV, affirms that children “from the moment of conception, are a blessing and heritage from the Lord”; and further affirms that Southern Baptists are mandated by Scripture to “speak on behalf of the unborn and contend for the sanctity of all human life from conception to natural death,” now, be it therefore
RESOLVED, that the messengers of the SBC meeting in Nashville, Tennessee, June 15-16, 2021, do state unequivocally that abortion is murder, and we reject any position that allows for any exceptions to the legal protection of our preborn neighbors, compromises God’s holy standard of justice, or promotes any God-hating partiality (Psa 94:6; Isa 10:1-2; Prov 24:11; Psa 82:1-4), and be it further
RESOLVED, that we will not embrace an incremental approach alone to ending abortion because it challenges God’s Lordship over the heart and the conscience, and rejects His call to repent of sin completely and immediately (Gen 3:1; John 8:44; Rom 2:14-15; 2 Corinthians 11:3), and be it further
RESOLVED, that we affirm that the murder of preborn children is a crime against humanity that must be punished equally under the law, and be it further
RESOLVED, that we humbly confess and lament any complicity in recognizing exceptions that legitimize or regulate abortion, and of any apathy, in not laboring with the power and influence we have to abolish abortion, and be it further
RESOLVED, that as Southern Baptists we will engage, with God’s help, in establishing equal justice and protection for the preborn according to the authority of God’s Word as well as local and federal law, and call upon pastors and leaders to use their God-given gifts of preaching, teaching, and leading with one unified, principled, prophetic voice to abolish abortion, and be it finally
RESOLVED, that, because abolishing abortion is a Great Commission issue, we must call upon governing authorities at all levels to repent and “obey everything that [Christ] has commanded,” exhorting them to bear fruit in keeping with repentance by faithfully executing their responsibilities as God’s servants of justice, and working with all urgency to enact legislation using the full weight of their office to interpose on behalf of the preborn, abolishing abortion immediately, without exception or compromise (Mark 6:18; Matt 28:18-20; Rom 13:4, 6).