Can conservatives save the Southern Baptist Convention?

On Tuesday messengers to the Southern Baptist Convention named Ed Litton as their president, embracing a moderate pastor who says Critical Race Theory is nothing to worry about.

Litton defeated Georgia pastor Mike Stone, favored by conservatives but fiercely opposed by woke Baptists, basement dwelling Twitter Baptists and left-wing religion news propagandists.

The New York Times headline summed up the day's events: "Southern Baptists Narrowly Head Off Conservative Takeover."

As one dejected Christian told me, Biden Baptists won the day.

Messengers rejected a proposal that would have explicitly denounced Critical Race Theory. Instead, they approved a watered-down measure that doesn't mention it by name but rejects any view that sees racism as rooted in "anything other than sin."

One white messenger was rebuked after he urged the SBC to denounce CRT by name, saying it held him "guilty because of the melanin content of my skin."

"If some people in this room were as passionate about the Gospel as they are about Critical Race Theory, we would win this world to Christ," retorted James Merritt, chairman of the resolutions committee.

For a decade now, a number of young pastors have been indoctrinated in some Baptist seminaries, their minds filled with ideas like social justice.

Conservatives made a crucial mistake during those years: They did not mind the store. They just ignored the problem. Had they taken the time to attend annual meetings and engage in the process, conservatives might have been able to snuff out the wokeness before it infected the SBC.

In response to the leftward drift, thousands of Christians joined the Conservative Baptist Network. They mustered a noble fight – but at the end of the day it was too little, too late.

The other side rallied mean-spirited Baptist Twitter bullies and heathen journalists at the Washington Post to wage a disgusting political smear job on Pastor Stone and other conservatives.

They were brutally slandered by their woke brethren – accused of being misogynists, racists and xenophobes. Baptist Deplorables. It's an ugly business when Christians behave more like political operatives than ambassadors for Christ.

When Baptists have problems with one another they should go to the Gospel of Matthew, not the Washington Post.

While there's no doubt that the nation's largest non-Catholic denomination is on a slippery slope to liberalism, all is not lost.

The Conservative Baptist Network demonstrated in a very short amount of time that thousands and thousands of Baptists are not keen on the current direction of the SBC. I suspect their numbers will only increase over time as the denomination becomes even more woke.

It's going to take a lot of work to repair the damage that's been done, but we must stay the course.

Because as the Southern Baptists go, so goes the nation.

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