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Liberal Drift Dominates SBC21: Ed Litton elected President

The heated annual Southern Baptist Convention of 2021 concludes the most eventful day with a slew of decisive defeats for the Conservative Resurgence 2.0. All of the anger against Resolution 9 was quickly assuaged when the elites of the SBC gave the messengers the runaround. But the most obvious defeat was the election of Ed Litton, the most woke candidate over Mike Stone.

SBC Election

The analysis by Evangelical Dark Web that Mike Stone was the frontrunner was correct. After a massive smear campaign by Russell Moore and others, Mike Stone won the first round with 36%.

  • Mike Stone 36%
  • Ed Litton 32%
  • Al Mohler 26%
  • Randy Adams 4%

Upon winning the first round Al Mohler’s base would be the determine who could build a coalition to reach majority on the runoff. This third place finish for Al Mohler is embarrassing for him. All this influence but discernment bloggers, like Jon Harris, did major damage to his reputation by exposing his deeds. Al Mohler’s base overwhelmingly split for Ed Litton.

  • Ed Litton 52%
  • Mike Stone 47%

The woke have gained a decisive victory over the Conservative Baptist Network.

Resolution 1

All Resolutions in their original unamended text can be found here.

Resolution 1 was an “it’s okay to vote democrat” resolution that calls for people to be nice on social media.

RESOLVED, That we will not permit our personal, social, theological, or political interests to supersede the urgency of evangelism and distract us from the task of the gospel’s advancement through the whole world; and be it further
RESOLVED, That we exhibit Christ-honoring patience and kindness upon those with whom we disagree; and be it finally
RESOLVED, That we protect the witness of Jesus Christ before a watching world by wise use of all forms of communication, whether in verbal speech, written word, or social media, so that others may see Christ in us and desire to know Him personally.

The issue with this resolution is that it fails to recognize politics as a mission field. Political junkies, Democrats, and Republicans need the gospel as well. Furthermore this resolution is tone police. Context matters and that frames how we should view all of these resolutions. The context of this is a call for unity because Trump lost.

Resolution 2

Resolution 2 makes no mention of Critical Race Theory by name. An effort was made to combat this and ultimately failed. The Resolutions Committee rejected several resolutions submitted in an attempt to condemn CTR/I. Moreover, this resolution codifies the arguments that Critical Race Theorists within the church make, that they are not undermining the sufficiency of Scripture. By leaving this issue ambiguous, this resolution doubles down on Resolution 9. But James Merritt would not have it. Instead, he would give Southern Baptists the runaround claiming that this resolution is a one size fits all for numerous ideologies that challenge the sufficiency of Scripture like Darwinism. The Southern Baptist fell for it. A vote to end debate quickly followed and the resolution was passed as presented.

This was the biggest defeat of the Conservative Resurgence 2.0. they were fueled by Critical Race Theory and Intersectionality via Resolution 9. Yet many of these same messengers would affirm the sequel to Resolution 9 from SBC2019. This is a complete betrayal of the trust of the congregation that sent them with the mandate to condemn Critical Race Theory and not elect a woke president. Both of these objectives thus far failed abysmally.

Resolution 3

This was a meaningless amendment to defend the Hyde Amendment. The Hyde Amendment does nothing to prohibit taxpayers from funding abortion since taxpayers still fund the people who commit abortions. I call this the “Evangelicals For Biden Resolution.” This movement emphasized Biden’s past support for the Hyde Amendment and that is the context for this resolution.

RESOLVED, That Southern Baptists should work through all available cultural and legislative means to end the moral scourge of abortion as we also seek to love, care for, and minister to women who are victimized by the unjust abortion industry

This language implies that women who murder their children are victims. It is incredibly weak. It’s pro-life feminism in action. An amendment was proposed to strengthen this language was met by the teary woman of the Resolutions Committee. The amendment was rejected by Southern Baptist who then affirmed the resolution.

Resolution 4

Resolution 4 condemned the Equality Act but not for the fundamental reason that codifying transgenderism in to law is wrong however. The original language of the resolution affirmed ideologies such as sexual orientation. Amendments were proposed to remove this language were surprisingly accepted. It seems that after adopting Critical Race Theory and voting for a functional egalitarian as president, the SBC is hesitant to compromise on homosexuality.

Resolution 5

This resolution addressed sexual abuse.

WHEREAS, Scripture says that pastors, elders, and overseers are to be “above reproach” (1 Timothy 3:2) and “blameless” (Titus 1:6); and
WHEREAS, The Baptist Faith & Message says that pastors should be “qualified by Scripture”; and
WHEREAS, Sexual abuse is an action repugnant to the teachings of Scripture and reprehensible even to those who are not believers; now, therefore, be it
RESOLVED, That the messengers to the Southern Baptist Convention, meeting in Nashville, TN, June 15-16, 2021, believe that any person who has committed sexual abuse is permanently disqualified from holding the office of pastor; and be it finally
RESOLVED, That we recommend that all of our affiliated churches apply this standard to all positions of church leadership.

This amendment does not specify whether someone who committed this sin before professing Christ counts. Obviously, pastors who commit sexual abuse are disqualified from ministry, but this distinction should have been made. An amendment was made to strengthen the resolution to include those who fail to report sexual abuse to the police would be disqualified. The Resolutions Committee rejected this amendment! The Southern Baptist followed suit. It appears all the talk about sex abuse and cover ups by the theological liberals was a massive virtue signal.

Resolution 6-10

Six was procedural dribble that was quite confusing. The messengers voted without a clear understanding of this resolution. Seven is the anti-Trump resolution and was tabled for the 16th. Eight and Nine were bundled together and passed. 8 addresses Chinese government’s genocide of the Uyghur population. Nine mourns for COVID without condemning lockdowns or standing up for small businesses. Ten was a thank-you to Nashville which was a frivolous waste of time when there was a time constraint. It could have been bundled with the prior two.

Lone Victory

William Ascol stepped forward to call for his resolution to be brought fourth for a debate and vote before the messengers. The resolution calls for the abolition of abortion. This motion passed and will be dealt with on the 16th. Perhaps a real resolution condemning Critical Race Theory will also be up for debate.

Closing Analysis

Conservatives got spanked. Many of their messengers betrayed them on the resolutions. They were outmanned and got outplayed. The Southern Baptists lapped up the words of the elite like dogs. This is the consequence of a movement to save the convention that does not name enough names. The Southern Baptist Convention cannot be saved and this all in hand was a bust. It’s time to leave.

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4 Responses

  1. Ah, sometimes one hates to be right. (pun intended)
    In 1977, I predicted a leftward shift at Biola after they hired a bunch of Student Affairs staff from the already compromised Azua-Pacific. The next year, some boys were running drugs and prostitutes out of their dorm. It has been downhill from there.
    The definition of “conservative” has shifted so far left that the definitely Far Leftist move of the SBC appears close to centrist by today’s (not yesterday’s) standards.
    It will be a Long March (h/t Mao) back to Biblical Evangelical Christianity.

      1. To them, he is. He may not want open borders and abortion on demand.
        Or does he?

  2. @Mr Fava,
    I have no dog in this fight as I’m an Eastern Orthodox Christian (Antiochian Orthodox), and I’m clearly an outsider looking in from a distance, but I watch the trends in the Southern Baptist denomination as a sort of litmus test, or pulse check, of where I believe other evangelical Protestant groups may be heading in America. For whatever it’s worth, I commend those like yourself and others who are fighting to preserve your traditional faith confessions, and to push back against the woke encroachment plaguing your faith traditions.
    I hope that the Southern Baptists won’t go the way of other mainline Protestant denominations.

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