One of the brag points about our Grand Old Convention, back when we were doing well enough to think about bragging and strutting, was that the SBC in annual session was The World’s Largest Deliberative Body. Everyone has a vote and can speak and stuff like that.
Now we excel at doing stupid stuff like passing motions that led to incredible, wasteful and perhaps endless squandering of assets, all of that for no discernible benefit at this time. Add to that the recent announcement that the SBC is “losing members at a rate that we have never experienced in modern American Christianity.” (Ryan Burge, https://baptistnews.com/article/sbcs-losses-exceed-membership-in-other-denominations-burge-says/)
Add to that the absurdity of a snap amending of our venerable statement of faith, the Baptist Faith and Message. The BFM was changed twice in almost a century but took about two seconds to mutilate it two years ago with a three word, double-slash monstrosity: pastor/elder/overseer. What deliberative body changes their most cherished document on a whim in a few seconds? Well, Southern Baptists do, that’s who.
After the fact, serious/sober/solemn/staid Southern Baptist leaders intoned that they agreed with the change but not the process and led the convention to change procedure so that critical documents could not be changed without referral to the Executive Committee which would allow for some deliberation and delay on voting. We’re great at closing the barn doors after the horses are out.
Come we now to 2025 and the zombie SBC constitutional amendment. The earlier amendment proposal was known as the Law amendment after it’s author and leading zealous advocate, Mike Law. it failed to achieve the two-thirds majority vote of messengers for two consecutive annual meetings. The amendment would expedite expulsion of churches that have women as preschool pastors. It’s all about vocabulary, would not help anything in the SBC except to accelerate the decline. Proponents speak of biblical fidelity. Realistically, the matter is infused with misogyny, sexism, and chauvinism along with a measure of job protection for underperforming church staff males.
The amendment is back. Texas pastor Juan Sanchez resurrects the newest amendment, prefacing the introduction by stating that “he is no expert in the area of what should or shouldn’t be placed in an organization’s charter documents…”
Ignorance and inexpertise never slowed down any SBC leader wannabe. Not being an expert is, apparently, is the best qualification for fiddling with our charter documents. Thus the stated proposal to dispense with the rule to refer to the EC on this amendment. A simple majority vote to overrule the chair can do this. The world’s greatest deliberative body need not deliberate. It is insanity triggered by seeing lipstick on a sub-senior pastor. Idiocy masquerading as so called biblical fidelity.
All this to get on with the matter of targeting long-suffering, faithful, long serving women in our churches and on our church staffs.
The run-up to this years convention includes, you could see it coming, individuals grabbing screenshots of faithful women whose autonomous church uses the term “pastor” for their job. This is misogynistic targeting of these women. It is unchristian, unkind, and deplorable.
One can see now how the SBC loses its mind when it comes to women. “I’m no expert, but…” One also hopes that Sanchez and allies don’t decide to take up a scalpel and do brain surgery.
We will, thanks to the zealots, have a convention held together by spit and bailing wire. I doubt it will accomplish much.
______________
The CP is in a two-generation decline. Let’s have that party and be done with it.
This is a repost from earlier this week. I didn’t want to walk over Mark Terry’s interesting article.
