The demoralizing defeat of the Conservative Baptist Network at the Annual Southern Baptist of 2022 calls into question the feasibility of saving the Southern Baptist Convention as well as the competence of the leading voice of opposition. The campaign motto for Tom Ascol’s failed presidential campaign was “change the direction.” Post convention, JD Greear would put out a victory tweet.
The Southern Baptist Convention went hard adopting the MeToo Movement when the secular culture has grown wise to it. Megan Basham of the Daily Wire wrote an article that not only pointed out how Jennifer Lyell was not a sexual abuse victim but that the Sex Abuse Task Force Report had a glaring conflict of interest in including her legal counsel, Rachael Denhollander as an advisor. Resolution 6 would formally apologize to Jennifer Lyell, among others (Note: not to be taken as a rejection of their abuse claims).
JD Greear’s victory lap celebrates the rising tide of feminism in the Southern Baptist Convention, that has fully embraced the MeToo Movement, subverted the pro-life movement, and is debating female pastors like it’s 1979.
It’s also a dig at Tom Ascol while celebrating the 2021 mantra, “the world is watching” as it appeals to the Houston Chronicle.
Change The Direction
While most informed people know that the SBC is headed in the wrong direction, it’s questionable how many messengers did. The “change the direction” slogan fails to resonate because it lacks direction. In contrast, Make America Great Again resonates because there is both a sentiment that America is in decline while also a nostalgic and romantic recollection of a previous era where America was freer and had a thriving middle class. Change the direction failed to point in the direction that the call to action was meant. And thus the Conservative Baptist Network wasted a year on a general feeling rather than articulating the dangers in the SBC. Hint: it’s the wolves.
JD Greear shrewdly coopted their language to celebrate his ecclesiastical victory. And the joke is on the Conservative Baptist Network for crating such a vague mantra.
2 Responses
Of course, Greear is wrong because they did not change the direction. They are going down the same path they were already on (I get the implications of his post). I’m curious how or why so many messengers are uninformed? They are the ones being sent, shouldn’t they be informed before they go? Perhaps they are ignorant, or perhaps they are simply in agreement with the direction. Either way, hopefully this will put the nail in the coffin and conservatives will exit the SBC en masse.
I left the Southern Baptist denomination and evangelicalism late in life. I saw the writing on the wall over twenty years ago, so none of this comes as any shock to me. These guys have always been goofy and liberals.
Sometimes you have to cut your loses, vote with your feet, and walk.