Day 2 of the Southern Baptist Convention came after a demoralizing defeat for the Conservative Baptist Network. Bart Barber was elected SBC President and the SBC has become a meme for not knowing what a pastor is.
Day 2 was surprisingly anticlimactic where much action could have been had. In the early session, a vote took place on whether to abolish the Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission. The vote failed.
After the lunch, the convention resumed with several conservative motions being ruled out of order by the committee. These include a motion calling for a forensic audit of the North American Mission Board and disclosure of Cooperative Program executives salaries and pay structures.
The Committee on Order Of Business determined that motions calling for an entity to take action were out of order, despite the fact that the forensic audit of NAMB at a minimum could have been referred to the NAMB trustees.
Overall this came across as a rebuke of the Southern Baptist messengers who take ownership of the convention. The messengers were effectively told they have very little collective power.
Resolution 7
The Resolutions Committee brought forth Resolution 7, a highly contentious resolution anticipating the overturn of Roe v Wade.
RESOLVED, That we commend the Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission’s frontline work on the pro-life cause and urge all Southern Baptists to continue our faithful pro-life advocacy by partnering with local, state, and federal governments to enact pro-life and pro-family policies that serve and support vulnerable women, children, and families; and be it further
The Resolutions Committee congratulates the ERLC, an organization that signed a letter opposing the Louisiana abolition bill. Brent Leatherwood serves as the interim president of the ERLC. The ERLC has had a long history of being an ineffective pro-life organization.
The first person to be recognized to speak called the question thus attempting to curtail the debate on the resolution. Even the platform was reluctant to move forward, explaining to the convention that they did not want to look like they were curtailing debate, explaining that parliamentary procedure dictated that a vote take place. The convention overwhelmingly voted to end debate and then adopt the resolution.
An attempt was made to bring forth a resolution on equal protections for the unborn out of the committee’s reject pile. The messengers voted against the motion, thus solidifying a feminist drift on abortion.
Trolling The ERLC
The ERLC then gave a presentation on “Making Abortion Unnecessary” a tacit admission that abortion is necessary. By a moderating mistake, a conservative messenger asked why they would sign a letter opposing abolition bills if they believe abortion was murder. Brent Leatherwood replied by stating that the ERLC does not support punishing women who procure or perform abortions however knowingly or willfully, claiming that this is not a pro-life position. When the proper time to ask the ERLC questions arose, messengers repeated the same line of questioning. A state senate candidate in Idaho asked whether they would sign letters opposing pro-life bills in Idaho when he’s elected. Another messenger asked what commandment mothers who murder their babies violated.
The ERLC was sufficiently trolled as a last Christian counterattack in an otherwise demoralizing convention.
One Silver Lining
The Lifeway report featured a positive and inspiring story about how they translated the Bible to one of India’s main six languages.