The transmogrification of the SBC: When Baptists no longer are Baptist

Not unlike King’s assassination, in killing Jesus, many religious leaders of the day believed they were silencing someone who challenged their power and character.

If Baptist churches decry the scourge of gun violence, speak boldly against unjust travel bans, stand with immigrants against thinly-veiled bigoted rhetoric from the highest levels of power, but have nothing to say of the more than 650,000 girls and boys created by God with divine purpose who, each year, see their lives cut short in the womb, our ethic is blown wide open for a watching world to see.

I’m surprised to be at the Comedy Cellar because — and I know how this sounds — I’m a minister. Saying that you’re a minister shuts down conversations with barbers, waitresses and the person sitting next to you on the plane. That last one is helpful.  

If Christianity is to be a force for good in the world by helping to heal our deep psychic, personal brokenness, to restore estranged relationships often marked by betrayal and contempt, to transform us into more loving, compassionate persons who care for others, then Western Christianity, and American Christianity in particular, must undergo a new reformation.