{"id":1525428,"date":"2022-06-21T20:19:29","date_gmt":"2022-06-22T00:19:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1525428"},"modified":"2022-06-21T20:19:39","modified_gmt":"2022-06-22T00:19:39","slug":"a-theologically-liberal-drift-conservative-pastors-endure-heavy-losses-at-southern-baptist-convention","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/a-theologically-liberal-drift-conservative-pastors-endure-heavy-losses-at-southern-baptist-convention\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018A Theologically Liberal Drift\u2019: Conservative Pastors Endure Heavy Losses At Southern Baptist Convention"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">26<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fa-theologically-liberal-drift-conservative-pastors-endure-heavy-losses-at-southern-baptist-convention%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1525428&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><p>The annual meeting of the Southern Baptist Convention (SBC) witnessed a major shift at the expense of theological conservatives.<\/p>\n<p>Pastors and congregants assembled in Anaheim, California, last week to serve as messengers for their churches to elect new leadership and debate key issues. This year, hot topics for America\u2019s largest Protestant denomination included a move from several churches to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonpost.com\/religion\/2021\/05\/11\/saddleback-ordain-women-sbc\/\">ordain<\/a>\u00a0female pastors, as well as a <a href=\"https:\/\/static1.squarespace.com\/static\/6108172d83d55d3c9db4dd67\/t\/6298d31ff654dd1a9dae86bf\/1654182692359\/Guidepost+Solutions+Independent+Investigation+Report___.pdf\">report<\/a> from investigative firm Guidepost Solutions \u2014 which garnered controversy for <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/GuidepostGlobal\/status\/1533872616812978176\">lauding Pride Month<\/a> on social media \u2014 outlining instances of sexual abuse within the denomination.<\/p>\n<p>A conservative <a href=\"https:\/\/wehaveabook.com\/endorsements\">coalition<\/a> of pastors and theologians endorsed Florida pastor Tom Ascol as president of the SBC, African Christian University Dean Voddie Baucham as president of the pastors\u2019 conference and Georgia pastor Javier Chavez as recording secretary. All three candidates lost, with Texas pastor Bart Barber taking the mantle as SBC president.<\/p>\n<p>Many pastors <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2021\/06\/16\/us\/southern-baptist-convention-evangelicalism.html\">view these trends<\/a> as symptoms of a broader progressive drift in the SBC, which has a reputation for maintaining firm convictions on the fallen nature of man, salvation through Jesus Christ alone and the inerrancy of Scripture.<\/p>\n<p> What Is a Pastor? <\/p>\n<p>Article VI of the \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/bfm.sbc.net\/bfm2000\/\">Baptist Faith and Message<\/a>,\u201d a statement of faith adopted by the SBC in 2000, makes plain that \u201cthe office of pastor is limited to men as qualified by Scripture.\u201d As a result, messengers <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonpost.com\/religion\/2022\/06\/15\/saddleback-remains-southern-baptist-now-after-surprise-appeal-by-rick-warren\/\">proposed a motion<\/a> to disfellowship Saddleback Church \u2014 a California-based, multi-site megachurch led by pastor Rick Warren \u2014 over its decision to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonpost.com\/religion\/2021\/05\/11\/saddleback-ordain-women-sbc\/\">install three females<\/a> into pastoral roles last year. Warren and his wife, Kay, also <a href=\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/news\/2022\/june\/rick-warren-retirement-saddleback-church-pastor-andy-wood.html\">tapped<\/a> Andy and Stacie Wood as \u201cGod\u2019s couple\u201d to lead the congregation after Warren\u2019s upcoming retirement.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe church has maintained meaningful, albeit not uniform, consensus on what a pastor is for approximately 2,000 years,\u201d Jeff Wright, pastor of Midway Baptist Church in Cookeville, Tennessee, explained to The Daily Wire. \u201cNow, at the same time the broader culture has found a way to become confused on what a woman is, the SBC has become confused on what a pastor is.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>In response to the disfellowship motion, the SBC\u2019s credentials committee recommended studying the issue of female pastors further \u2014 an offer that was <a href=\"https:\/\/www.baptiststandard.com\/news\/baptists\/credentials-committee-withdraws-study-recommendation\/\">withdrawn<\/a> after Southern Baptist Theological Seminary President Al Mohler denounced the move.<\/p>\n<p>Tom Buck, senior pastor of Faith Baptist Church in Lindale, Texas, pointed out to The Daily Wire that 1 Timothy 2:12 and other passages quoted by the \u201cBaptist Faith and Message\u201d are by no means unclear. \u201cA pastor is someone who teaches and exercises authority in the church, and Scripture prohibits women from holding that office and performing the function of that office,\u201d Buck said. \u201cThe fact that the members of the credentials committee are unable to discern this from Article VI only demonstrates how woefully unqualified they are to serve the SBC in this capacity.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Mike Harding, pastor of Regeneration Church in Millersburg, Ohio, noted to The Daily Wire that \u201cChristians are textualists and not deconstructionists.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThere is irrefutably no wiggle room in our confession for calling women \u2018pastors\u2019 or giving them the office of pastor,\u201d Harding said. \u201cThis unfortunately, in my humble opinion, demonstrates that we are in fact in a theologically liberal drift.\u201d<\/p>\n<p> Weaponized Accusations <\/p>\n<p>Last year, the SBC commissioned Guidepost Solutions to chronicle and investigate instances of sexual abuse from pastors and other denominational affiliates. This week, the SBC greenlit <a href=\"https:\/\/www.baptiststandard.com\/news\/baptists\/sbc-abuse-task-force-seeks-3-million-for-reforms-website\/\">recommended resolutions<\/a> from its sexual abuse task force to create a separate \u201cAbuse Reform Implementation Task Force\u201d as well as a \u201cMinistry Check\u201d website to centralize vetted information about alleged abusers.<\/p>\n<p>Yet <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/TomBuck\/status\/1532024249677922314?s=20&#038;t=nZ8FaYtPSfaSJEIQ-quQqw\">many pastors<\/a> argue that the website violates biblical standards of justice such as due process and two or three lines of independent witness \u2014 as communicated by passages such as Numbers 35:30, Deuteronomy 19:15, and Matthew 18:16.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cPutting someone on a database simply because they have been accused is presuming guilt rather than innocence,\u201d Buck said. \u201cThe SBC has as much a responsibility to protect the potentially falsely accused as they do the potential victim\u2026 We must take every accusation seriously and take great care to discover the facts and act accordingly. But putting someone on a list simply because they were accused is not biblical justice \u2014 it\u2019s actually injustice.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Indeed, a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dailywire.com\/news\/southern-baptists-metoo-moment\">new report<\/a> from The Daily Wire\u2019s Megan Basham detailed how the subject of sexual abuse in the SBC has morphed into \u201ca political football that various factions have been leveraging to settle bitter scores and sway the direction of the denomination.\u201d Basham found that Guidepost investigators failed to ask important witnesses for statements or evidence, nevertheless referring to one accusee as an \u201cabuser\u201d rather than an \u201calleged abuser.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Harding concurred that \u201cnaming a person a sex abuser outside legal conviction runs ahead of Scripture and the legal process in our country for establishing guilt.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt slanders the individual<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The annual meeting of the Southern Baptist Convention (SBC) witnessed a major shift at the expense of theological conservatives. Pastors and congregants assembled in Anaheim, California, last week to serve as messengers for their churches to elect new leadership and debate key issues. This year, hot topics for America\u2019s largest Protestant denomination included a move &#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":99,"featured_media":1525430,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1525428","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1525428","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/99"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1525428"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1525428\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1525430"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1525428"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1525428"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1525428"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}