Ed Litton won the SBC presidential election by a total of 556 votes out of 13,112 total votes counted.
That’s pretty close.
I read that it wasn’t really close, that there are reasons to conclude that the margin of victory, less than three percent, didn’t represent the level of support that the CBN candidate had.
I’m not buying that.
After asking people I knew who were involved in SBC politics what they thought would be the outcome of the election, I can’t recall a single one feeling confident about making a prediction. Now that the votes have been counted everyone is an expert.
Nobody knows nuthin’ until the votes are counted. Now we know and one can say that it was a very close election. Everything beyond that is conjecture and opinion.
- Young pastor Michael Linton (no age given but he has an 18-year old son, so he’s not all that young) tried to make a case for it not being close. Nothing like facts to undermine your opinion. It was close. [And SBCV disavowed and edited his extreme language, and Linton apologized for it which I appreciated. I’m not linking the article.]
- Our Brent Hobbs wrote of a narrow election but reminded readers that there had been a “two-year propaganda and get-out-the-vote effort trying to convince people” about CRT being a live or die issue. He didn’t say it but I’m guessing a lot of us wonder if the all-out effort can be repeated or enhanced. But, it was close this year.
- Jon Glass opined on the election. He was seated next to what he said was a group of ten from one church who were voting Stone. Apparently, the group was motivated to come by being convinced the SBC was going lib. Not sure how long that message can sell and motivate people.
- Aaron Swain, another youngish staff pastor and Litton supporter, said a good bit about Patterson being behind the CBN vote. I have no idea how he impacts an actual vote. This one was close. Next year, who knows?
I can agree with about everything we have put here, one notable exception, but whatever the reasoning the election was very close.
Several years ago I wrote that I’m not enthused about another long battle for control of the SBC. A decade of what we’ve had the last couple of years will shrink if not sink this ship. I thought the election important enough to have spent my own money to attend the convention in Nashville. I voted for Ed Litton, a man I had never heard of until a year or so ago.
It pleases me that he won. On an optimistic day I think there is a chance we can harmonize the SBC tribes. Those days don’t come that often but today is one of them. It makes no sense to go down this road every year.
It was close.
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I understand that we have a couple of CBN guys who will have their articles posted here. I look forward to reading them.