The SBC’s Scandalous Year

Southern Baptist messengers from all over the country are gathering in Anaheim this week for the 2022 Annual Meeting. Much has happened since James Merritt reminded us that “the world is watching” and played the gospel card at last year’s meeting. Here’s a quick recap:

Moore Departs

Leading up to the 2021 meeting, the president of the Ethics and Religious Liberty Convention (ERLC) and lifelong Democrat Russell Moore finally left the SBC for woker pastures (despite his claim to be a “lifelong Baptist”), but not before he rolled a #metoo grenade under the SBC’s “big tent.” This grenade took the form of a “leaked” letter to then-president JD Greear, in which Moore claimed to be aware of multiple cases of sex abuse in SBC churches and entities (that he somehow failed to report to civil authorities) and that “some people” in the SBC wanted him to “live in psychological terror.”

Conservatives celebrated Moore’s exit, as his true nature as a theological liberal and SBC swamp creature had been well known to us for years and we welcome any development that helps evangelicals see the true beliefs of embedded institutionalists. Yet Moore’s letter provided the accusatory ammunition – largely directed towards unspecified SBC actors – for Moore’s progressive allies to open fire on anyone not sufficiently committed to their growing list of worldly, progressive demands on the SBC.

2021 Convention’s “October” Surprise

Attacks from Moore’s allies culminated in the “October surprise” of conservative presidential candidate Mike Stone being questioned in the convention halls by Hannah-Kate Williams, who later claimed to be brought to tears by the interaction with Stone and that SBC messengers were calling her a “whore” while walking by in the hallways.

Williams’ narrative was uncritically accepted and leveraged by insiders like North Carolina pastor (and ERLC “Religious Liberty Award” winner) Griffin Gulledge and Tennessee pastor Grant Gaines. Gaines brought Williams up to cry next to him at the convention microphone while he presented the motion that created the Sex Abuse Task Force to investigate the SBC Executive Committee – the same Executive Committee that Russell Moore had unspecifically accused of widespread wrongdoing (Mike Stone filed and later withdrew a $750,000 lawsuit against Moore). Messengers overwhelmingly voted to commission the task force in a motion that included a demand for the Executive Committee to abandon the common law practice of attorney-client privilege.

Sermongate

The messengers (with a healthy boost from cooperative program-funded NAMB plants) narrowly elected Alabama pastor Ed Litton – a man who planted his ministerial flag on racial reconciliation in response to the false “Hands up, don’t shoot” Michael Brown narrative. Almost immediately after Litton’s election, it was revealed that he had been plagiarizing sermons from other pastors including previous SBC president JD Greear and Gospel Coalition founder Tim Keller. A subsequent investigation revealed the widespread employment of Docent Research Group by pastors looking to outsource their sermon preparation to largely theologically-compromised seminary graduates. Litton’s plagiarism was subsequently excused by pastor Bart Barber, who claimed that Litton shouldn’t be in trouble for not citing sources (despite the fact that the issue was Litton copying entire sermons and claiming others’ personal stories as his own).

Abortion was also on the menu at the 2021 meeting, with the James Merritt-chaired (and Bart Barber-membered) Resolutions Committee bringing a pragmatic abortion resolution before the messengers that targeted abortion doctors while absolving abortion-seeking women of any moral responsibility. The messengers responded with a forceful rebuke, bringing to the floor and passing a morally-consistent resolution that recognized the culpability of mothers choosing to abort their children.

Of note: Barber – now running for SBC president – continues to support the morally indefensible pragmatism of treating mothers as unwitting victims of the (clearly male) operators of the abortion industry. His FAQ pushes a strawman version of abortion abolitionists as those who “dishonor” the pro-life movement, he promotes the false claim that ectopic and life-of-the-mother premature births are abortions (which would necessitate abortion remaining legal in some cases), and he deceptively leaves out the fact that SBC messengers passed an “abolitionist” resolution in 2021 as he refers only to the fact that the weaker Hyde Amendment resolution was not amended to include abolitionist language.

Deacongate

Fast forward nearly a year, and Ed Litton announced he would not be running for a second term as SBC president, breaking with the tradition of a president serving two years. SBC institutionalists immediately put forward Florida pastor Willy Rice as their choice for president. Soon after, Rice revealed in a video that his church had employed a deacon who had abused (groomed and committed adultery with) a student years ago, that Rice’s church had determined that the sin happened prior to the deacon’s conversion, and that the deacon was fully repentant and that he had been serving faithfully for years. Yet due to a “new understanding” of abuse dynamics, he was being removed from service as a deacon. The man was later determined to be Jeff Ford.

Subsequently, it was revealed that Texas pastor Tom Buck was the one who brought the issues with Jeff Ford to Willy Rice in private prior to Rice going public with the video dismissing “the deacon.” Rice initially did not believe the accusations about Ford, but upon confirming their truth (and discovering that Ford had more likely than not committed his sin after professing faith in Christ), Rice pulled his name from consideration and took up residence on Victim Place, changing his stance that Tom Buck had done the right thing to a claim that Buck was trying to “score points” against him. Following the same pattern of next man up, SBC insiders called in Bart Barber to take Rice’s place.

“Pridepost” Solutions

The Sex Abuse Task Force unanimously chose Guidepost Solutions in September of 2021 to conduct the investigation into the Executive Committee motioned by the messengers at the 2021 Annual Meeting, and after wrangling with the Executive Committee on the particulars of waiving attorney-client privilege began the formal investigation in November.

In May, Guidepost released the final report, which contained largely known instances of abuse and approximately 400 people currently or formerly connected with the 14 million-member SBC that were convicted or credibly accused of sexual abuse. Guidepost offered recommendations to the Task Force that mostly boiled down to creating a list of likely abusers to be voluntarily referenced by SBC churches in hiring and a compensation fund for apparent victims pulled from money given to the Cooperative Program – a recommendation that effectively holds innocent churches accountable for the misdeeds of others.

The big “bombshell” in the report was the revelation that pastor Johnny Hunt stood accused of forcing himself on another pastor’s wife while on vacation – an incident the wife claims was forced but that Hunt claims was mutual. Hunt was recently suspended from his position at his church.

Most importantly for the scope of the investigation, it was clear that there was no organized coverup or malfeasance from the Executive Committee, even as former EC General Counsel Augie Boto was revealed to have been keeping a list of established and potential abusers with connections to the SBC while claiming (correctly) that the SBC had no authority over cooperating churches.

Soon after the release of the full report, it was discovered that many of the cited documents in the report were inaccessible via the published hyperlinks and that the report contained quotes and information about pastors who had never been contacted by Guidepost during the investigation. Guidepost stealthily retracted at least one paragraph quoting a conversation between former ERLC vice president Phillip Bethancourt and Jim Richards of the Southern Baptists of Texas Convention concerning scheduling. The conversation seemed to be included to reinforce the divisions between leaders in the SBC, but had nothing to do with sex abuse according to Richards.

Mere weeks after the release of the full report, Guidepost Solution’s commitment to the LGBTQ agenda was brought to the attention of Southern Baptists, causing many to question why a Christian organization would commission a secular firm holding views hostile to scripture would be allowed to investigate churches. The revelation forced the Sex Abuse Task Force into damage control, with SATF Chair Bruce Frank and Vice-Chair Marshall Blalock explaining that Guidepost’s spiritual convictions do not matter in the face of the company’s professional reputation. Yet the damage was done, and multiple state conventions including Georgia, Tennessee, Kentucky, Alabama, and Florida publicly called for the SBC to cut ties with Guidepost.

Guidepost’s recommendations to the Executive Committee included direct attacks on Baptist church autonomy, notably including a recommendation to form a so-called Offender Information System (OIS) which would track “known offenders,” including not only ministers who have been convicted of crimes but also those who have been “credibly accused,” which according to the report simply means an accusation is “not manifestly false or frivolous.” The recommendations also suggest creating a “Survivor Compensation Fund Program,” which would use Cooperative Program giving from churches to pay the alleged victims of abuse at other churches. Selling of SBC properties to replenish the fund was recommended. In total, Guidepost offered seventeen recommendations to the Executive Committee and sixteen to the Credentials Committee.

SATF Recommendations

In response, the Sex Abuse Task Force boiled down Guidepost’s recommendations to two:

• Creation of an Abuse Reform Implementation Task Force (ARITF), which would study the recommendation to establish a survivor compensation fund and the recommendation to create a new, permanent SBC entity for the express purpose of dealing with abuse in the convention. The ARITF would report to the 2023 Convention.
• Creation of a “Ministry Check” website, which would be “a record of pastors, denominational workers, ministry employees, and volunteers who have at any time been credibly accused of sexual abuse and who have been or are associated with a cooperating Southern Baptist church or entity.” The recommendation does not outline specifically how a determination of “credibly accused” will be reached, but it does specify that local Baptist churches or entities wishing to investigate someone may apply for grant money if needed to fund the investigation.

Left Versus Right

For years now, two general coalitions have existed in the SBC.

Conservatives, who have lined up behind pastor Tom Ascol of Founders Ministries, remain concerned with the encroachment of Critical Race Theory in SBC institutions, social justice, ministerial egalitarianism (Rick Warren’s Saddleback Church, for example), and the SBC’s seemingly insatiable appetite for bending to the demands of the prevailing culture around it. Churches and pastors in this camp are more likely to be Calvinist, hold to the regulative principle of worship, and emphasize the sufficiency of scripture. This camp was much more suspicious of government intrusion into the church during COVID, and many churches in this camp grew during the last two years.

Progressives – now represented by former ERLC official and institutionalist poster child Bart Barber (who claims conservatism) and partnered with the Evangelical Intelligentsia – are concerned about winsome engagement with the culture, racial reconciliation as a primary component of Gospel ministry, and moral disconnection of the church from secular politics. This camp is populated by SBC institutionalists, seminary graduates, and megachurch pastors, and emphasizes a “big tent” version of the SBC that welcomes anyone not explicitly denying the foundations of the Gospel (and even some who do). This camp is strongly Arminian, holds to an unapologetically innovative normative principle of worship, and while claiming to hold scripture sufficient often moves beyond it to synergize with the dominant political leanings of the day. This camp resents conservative Christian involvement or alignment with Republican politics, and often claims a “third way” exists which allows professing Christians to vote any way they want without any effect on their Christian witness. Southern Baptists who are Gospel Coalition contributors are exclusively in this camp, and they united in opposition to churches that remained open when the government tried to force them to close.

The next few days will likely reveal the future trajectory of the SBC. Will there be a similar resurgence and return to general faithfulness in the face of a hostile, demanding, and lost culture? Or will the SBC continue its precipitous slide into capitulating compromise and land the organization (ironically) among the largely irrelevant and apostate mainline denominations?

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David Morrill

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