I’m sorry to hog up the posts recently, but after sitting on it for a week, I feel it is necessary to say something about a tweet that I came across during the SBC Annual Meeting last week. It comes from Liberty Baptist Theological Seminary president Ergun Caner and is in regards to the continuing SBC debate over what the Bible says concerning alcohol consumption.
At 10:50 PM on June 23rd, erguncaner wrote, “If there is no difference between imbibing [drinking] and getting drunk, can I just smoke a little pot? It’s good for the stomach (they say)…”
Wow!
I know this is supposed to be funny (?), but let’s get serious. This is a man who we are supporting with CP dollars (the almighty CP) to run a school with the intention of training the next generation of church leadership, and he feels that this level of sophmoric, unedifying, unbiblical reasoning is appropriate for the alcohol debate? I would hope that Dr. Caner knows this argument is a non-sequitur seeing as how the primary charge against “smok[ing] a little pot” in the American context is because it is illegal (and thus in violation of Romans 13) and not because of it’s physical effects.
Can you even imagine Al Mohler, Danny Akin, or Paige Patterson saying such a thing?
With all of the firestorm against Mark Driscoll and his leadership as pastor of a non-SBC church and church planting network, I believe we should spend a little more time focused upon the poorly behaved leaders within our own camp, of which Ergun Caner could be first on the list.