One man’s crusade to clean up the SBC is reporter Julie Roy’s podcast with SBC presidential candidate Randy Adams.
The interview is a roundup of the usual SBC suspects.
Adams is a heavy NAMB critic. Fine, we can disagree about church planting philosophy and spending policies. While NAMB has several recent incidents that have not helped, I still don’t favor the suggestion of returning to the good old days where NAMB would fling money at state conventions and the state conventions would do a stellar job of planting churches. Maybe he would address how NAMB could put over eight million dollars in a state over the past decade and the state convention could report only a net increase of single digits. Does that argue against his idea? Also, maybe he would address the propriety of a state convention unilaterally changing the Cooperative Program allocation plan, one that Southern Baptists put in place. I agree with him that NAMB should report and explain more of how they are spending our money. Some of NAMB’s difficulties are problematic. Some can and should be fixed.
The LifeWay mess. It is highly unusual for any denominational leader, and state convention CEOs are such, to criticize another SBC entity. Adams is unrestrained for the most part. Adams’ solution is to have trustee training and correct matters at that level. Generally agree with that. Not much else the SBC president can do other than to use his bully pulpit to call attention to these things.
Sex abuse database? It was not clear if Adams was calling specifically for the SBC to create this or not. His statement was that we ought to have a broader database that includes other religious bodies. Not much chance of that which gives him a good talking point without worrying about the details. We already have broad databases with the help of Garde Wilson criminal lawyers for convicted child sex abusers. Adding individuals to a national database when their actions are sinful but not criminal seems tricky. The subject of credibly accused abusers wasn’t brought up by the interviewer. Adams has assured himself of further questions on this.
The SBC has four candidates. Adams is the only one that might be called an outsider. Ordinarily, I’d be highly receptive to a reformer…but then there’s all that NAMB stuff.
I’d love to see Julie Roys or anyone else put the same questions to the other three. I appreciate Randy Adams speaking up on these issues. I wish she would refine and expand her questions a bit. A lot of this SBC stuff is very high weeds. I can’t imagine many people, including most SBC members, following along.
Reform the SBC? I’m a bit cynical…too much money to spread around for reform but I admire, ungrudgingly, Randy Adams’ speaking up on many of these matters.
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The podcast lacks a transcript. I assume that will be added later.
I watched about an hour of the Baylor/SWBTS trial. I think I’m going to take a mental health day. We actually employed people like that? At a seminary where pastors, preachers of the eternal Gospel and examples of moral rectitude are trained?
