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Voddie Baucham

Why Voddie Baucham should not be nominated for SBC President

Coming out against the hypothetical, though very possible, nomination of Voddie Baucham for president of the Southern Baptist Convention seems counterintuitive for a Christian to take. I am not writing this as an outright rebuke of Voddie Baucham and his stateside church remaining in the SBC, though they should exit. However I am writing this as a warning that nominating Voddie Baucham is a bad strategy to achieve the outcomes the Conservative Baptist Network is aiming for, or at least claims to aim for.

Voddie Baucham is the latest high profile addition to the bloated Conservative Baptist Network Steering Council, indicating a growing relationship between the two camps. In 2021, the Conservative Baptist Network and Founders Ministries joined forces to elect Mike Stone president of the Southern Baptist Convention. Ultimately, Mike Stone was not up to the task and was perhaps pushed for a role he was unfit for. he’s not a fighter. Moreover, the Conservative Baptist Network had terrible messaging surrounding the stakes at play in the convention.

Among the latest news surrounding Baucham, Capstone Report had an interview with him that has trickled out into multiple articles. The most recent is a column floating the idea of Voddie Baucham for SBC president, the first high profile Baptist platform to do so. This is effective propaganda meant to sow the seeds in the Conservative Baptist Network. However, I must disagree with Capstone Report’s optimism for this idea.

The first pressing problem with this approach is the celebrity angle. Voddie Baucham would not be nominated because of his ability to drain the SBC of corruption or effectively wield executive power. He would be nominated because of name recognition and skin color (because let’s face it, boomercons will totally make this a primary reason.)

This is about owning the heretics and generating clicks, not instituting long overdue reform. The reliance on these elements denotes an inability to win on the issues.

In 2021, Mike Stone failed to win on the issues, primarily because the messaging of his campaign was too deferential towards Litton and Mohler, his liberal opponents. Similarly, the convention doubled down on Resolution 9. Time is short for educating on the issues in order to effect change utilizing the parliamentary procedure of a business meeting. Nominating Baucham would create a campaign entirely dedicated to electing him as opposed to saving the convention at the expense of opposing the liberal resolutions of the committee.

In similar fashion towards the smear campaign executed on Mike Stone, Voddie Baucham will face the same. However, the existing discrepancies with Baucham and his book Fault Lines, while not as emotionally manipulative as baseless sex abuse coverup claims, does contain a morsels of truth.

At best Baucham stands to energize a base to Anaheim whereby the messengers will be subject to vaccine passports and other Branch Covidian measures. But is there enough to make up the 20 point liberal advantage that was experienced in Nashville?

The most obvious solution for churches would be to exit the SBC. Such nomination provides two-fold false hope. The first being an overinflated sense of electability. A vaccine passport system will surely expand the existing 20 point gap, along with the price differential. The only hope would be in Ed Litton’s disgrace catching up with him.

The second is a false confidence in Baucham’s ability to usher in a Conservative Resurgence 2.0. In losing to Ed Litton the SBC is already another year behind the timeline needed to complete such a maneuver. Baucham was in the Founders Ministry camp prior to also being in the Conservative Baptist Network. Founders Ministries has hardly been quick to acknowledge the enemies within the church, like Al Mohler, Daniel Akin, and Adam Greenway. So there’s reason to believe that Baucham will struggle to do the same.

The Southern Baptist Convention is poised to go even more woke this year and bringing Voddie Baucham out of a hiatus from SBC national politics is a tacit admission of defeat that will only waste time and resources.

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5 Responses

  1. Totally agree. While I love Voddie Baucham’s preaching, it is still very clear he is one of the old guard who refuses to confront corruption which is public in a public manner. Whoever would be effective as a leader needs to be a true out and out fighter who calls out the corruption without apology. No such leader exists. Therefore, leaving the SBC is the logical and proper option for churches which do not which to throw their money away on woke causes and double/dipping grifters or worse.

  2. Despite the hope to restore conservativism within the SBC; it will never be restored to what it once was. Way too much tongue speaking and other heresies with SBC Churches and there is NO discipline. Sad to say the least. The Apostasy is only getting worse. If it is not liberalism; then it is Pharisaic legalistic conservativism with an ecumenical trend. When a SB minister basically minimizes the Inquisition, the signs of the times really show how many Baptists and Protestants are starting to align with Rome.

  3. What exactly is meant by legalistic? Holding to what the Bible clearly identifies as sin?

    1. I think the comment was referring to Southern Baptists view of drinking, smoking, R rated movies, rock music, things that the Bible does not say are sins.

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