Al Mohler Finally Addresses Ed Litton’s SermonGate Scandal

Ed Litton’s emergence over Al Mohler to become president of the Southern Baptist Convention came as a surprise to many, but it sealed the liberal drift of the once conservative denomination. But shortly after, Ed Litton’s serial plagiarizing came to light. Now, Al Mohler has remained reticent up until a recent Q&A session where a seminary student asked for Al Mohler’s position on Ed Litton’s plagiarism as a pastor and the implications of this as a convention president.

The question was framed as the student understood that Southern Baptist Theological Seminary took plagiarism seriously what is the applied principle as it relates to Ed Litton. Al Mohler decided to condescend by taking several minutes to explain what plagiarism is to seminary students and then touches up on the the Docent Research Group revelations. Ultimately he rants on for about fifteen minutes before circling back to the actual question. He answers the question about Ed Litton by saying that it seems that he is guilty of what he was accused of, while stating how commonplace the problem is. He makes no implication as to Litton’s qualification as a pastor. Furthermore, Al Mohler uses his failed candidacy in the run for SBC president as an excuse to recuse himself from answering the second part of the question. He defers to the convention that voted him to the office, and brushes off his responsibility or platform as a seminary president to speak more clearly on the issue.

Analysis

This was not a Joe Biden press conference. Al Mohler was caught off guard by being asked to address Ed Litton. This is why he rambled as opposed to answering the question directly. Al Mohler recognized his place in SBC politics and fell in line. But ultimately, Al Mohler was being a weasel. The host of The Briefing took sixteen and a half minutes to answer a hard but simple question.