With all of the focus on the deranged character now occupying the White House, you’ve probably been too busy scanning the horizon for a mushroom cloud to stop and ask yourself, “What’s that bunch of nutjobs at the Southern Baptist Convention up to?”
I suppose that whether the latest is good news or bad news depends on your perspective.
Do y’all recall this item from December, remarking upon the heat that Russell Moore was getting for his frank criticisms of Donald Trump during the recent election?
Seriously: How can you not love this? The only Southern Baptist leader who had the nerve and moral compass to say frankly that voting for Donald Trump is to disgrace oneself is being publicly eaten by other Southern Baptists — the overwhelming majority of whom did vote for The Donald.
The attacks against Moore are heating up, with Prestonwood Baptist, a megachurch, escrowing a donation of $1,000,000.
Prestonwood Baptist Church has announced its decision to escrow gifts previously forwarded to support Southern Baptist cooperative missions and ministries while the congregation discusses concerns about the direction of the Southern Baptist Convention.
Mike Buster, executive pastor for the Plano, Texas, church, provided a statement to the Baptist Message explaining that the action had been taken because of “various significant positions taken by the leadership of the Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission that do not reflect the beliefs and values of many in the Southern Baptist Convention” and that it is a temporary move “until a decision can be made on current and future funding.”
That’s as subtle as a club: “Moore has to go if the SBC wants our million bucks.”
I can’t help feeling sympathetic to Moore. He did the right thing regarding Trump. A second complaint about Moore is that he gave ERLC support to a mosque that was denied a construction permit because, you know … MOOZLIMS!!
So Moore is friendly with a false religion, and disapproves of a ‘baby Christian.’ Y’all can see the problem, I’m sure.
But my sympathy for Moore is checked by the same thing that checked my sympathy for Larycia Hawkins, the Wheaton College professor who got fired for saying that Christians and Muslims worship the same god. Russell Moore is not a kid, and he’s got no excuse on earth for not knowing what sort of mean-spirited, simple-minded characters he works for. As Winston Churchill so famously said once, if you try to ride a tiger you stand a good chance of being eaten.