The Evangelical Dark Web published a slate of predictions ahead of the Annual Southern Baptist Convention. It’s time to break down how they went and why the outcome was what it was.
0-1 Voddie Baucham President of the PC
Voddie Baucham narrowly lost his bid to be president of the Pastors Conference. This would end up being the high water mark of the Conservative Baptist Network slate of candidates. I had figured that the Conservative Baptist Network would get an initial win to boost their hopes in time for a massive disappointment. But the reality would be more cynical than the dramatic events I predicted.
1-1 Bart Barber Wins
Bart Barber may not be a liberal, but he is certainly a pragmatist. Despite the rousing nominating speech by Mike Stone, Tom Ascol would underperform his predecessor in both the first round and the runoff votes. The Conservative Baptist Network simply did not have the turnout to win any election. The status quo will continue.
2-1 Cooperative Program to fund liability
The Southern Baptist Convention’s response to the foundationally flawed Sex Abuse Task Force Report was quite predictable. After the MeToo Movement has lost its steam with the general public, the Southern Baptist Convention would signal its virtue to fall on every grenade, even in cases where clearly no sex abuse occurred. Send Relief a joint venture of NAMB and IMB does not constitute a technicality that disqualifies this prediction from being correct.
2-2 Liberal resolution tabled
The Resolutions Committee would get through all nine of its resolutions. Resolution 8 was tabled and was an odd attempt to call homosexual attraction sinful and speak to mass shootings in the same resolution. Yet when a messenger wanted their resolution on opposing pedophilia, the messengers assented. Yet instead of the submitted resolution on pedophilia, the Resolutions Committee brought back Resolution 8. Aside from that the SBC approved of the liberal Resolution 6 and the self-congratulatory and feminist Resolution 7.
2-3 Vaccine Mandates Resolution Rejected.
Disappointingly, no one submitted a resolution on vaccine mandates. Resolutions could have been submitted on this. Even six months ago this was a pressing issue. However, there were multiple resolutions on sermon plagiarizing rejected by the committee, unsurprisingly. This was admittedly a bolder prediction, but I’m still stunned it never came to be.
3-3 Ukraine Resolution
The SBC passed a resolution supporting Ukraine as well as calling for the United States to take in Ukrainian refugees.
Conclusion
When I erred, I apparently did so on the side of optimism with exception to the tabling of a liberal resolution. The Resolutions committee focused on sex abuse rather than advancing a woke agenda in other areas. Most other stuff was boilerplate. Ultimately, the situation was worse than initially forecasted and far less dramatic than anticipated.