Jon Whitehead
@jrwhitehead
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Attorney. Mostly charities and religious groups in litigation. Some #legaltech . @NYTimes , @AmReformer , @MOLawyersMedia , @KCstar
Kansas City, Mo
Joined February 2009
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Astounding. Gather round for a little SBC history, to understand just how much Russell Moore has deconstructed. 🧵
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@joelrainey
Maybe Rosaria was just giving pastors a solid challenge, like the other English Lit PhDs you appreciate.
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Please,
@elonmusk
, protect X’s town square function. Don’t turn it into a red light district.
Just say no to porn.
I have something to say to
@elonmusk
: don't allow porn.
Doing so is intrinsically wrong, but it also is destructive of X's true and unique value proposition.
X is a public forum. We likely share the desire that it function as such, as an optimal platform for free political
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Vote to bring out Rhett Burns’ 990 motion. Transparency now.
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@EricRichards22
Yes. Kindly say “no thanks.”
Then invite them to go a with you to an estate auction, where someone’s trinkets are all laid out and nobody wants them. So … much … junk.
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Has the SBC followed Moore in becoming more liberal in recent years?
One measure is this: Adrian Rogers would have excoriated Moore like he excoriated James Dunn and PFAW.
It will be interesting to see if any SBC leaders warn about this latest rerun of an old liberal trope.
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To get a feel for the disgust, here’s Adrian Rogers on Lear in 1983
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Six weeks ago, the Law Amendment wasn’t needed because female pastors hardly exist in the SBC.
Now the same guy predicts 4,000 churches must be struck because the credentials committee must act without discretion.
He’s panicky and not thinking clearly.
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But shockingly, we have another SBC ethics leader deciding to join the Lear-ite parade and defame conservatives — while staying silent about his new friends’ support for abortion and the sexual revolution.
It’s Russell Moore.
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I’m sorry, let me be more precise:
Former complementarian, former conservative, and failed internet lawyer
@andrewhebert86
has staked his career on SBC liberalization.
It was a bad bet.
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So here we have Norman Lear’s “son” running the very same play as Lear’s PFAW: using a wide array of leftists to “warn” Americans about the very scary rise of Christian Nationalism, who believe the same things Christians believed 40 years ago — the last time this play was run.
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Norman Lear had faithful followers in the next generation.
Moore drifted so far left in recent years, he’s James Dunn’s ideological son, not the son of Al Mohler or Richard Land.
I am positive Moore understands the symbolism. It’s a passive aggressive raspberry to the SBC.
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Really disappointed that the first three major actions in Dr. Iorg’s tenure — against Law amendment, against financial transparency, and editing the BOR — have been opposed to improving the SBC’s transparency.
Political capital should be spent to go forward, not backward.
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So will SBC leaders unify around Mohler’s position here, or resist it and divide?
Would this statement be accepted as a friendly amendment to this year’s “religious liberty” resolution?
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The questions were slanted; the moderators repeatedly tried to cut off rambles by Biden; they gave Biden rebuttals they denied Trump.
I think it *seems* more fair because the format reduced socially awkward/aggressive moves. It was more polite.
The debate moderators were very good tonight. Perhaps the best moderated debate I can recall.
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Sorry to these folks, but this looks like a huge conflict of interest.
You can't impartially advise the SBC to give $2.5m to a new nonprofit you control. Are there any disinterested TF members?
Wester names the incorporators of the nonprofit: Josh Wester, Marshall Blalock, Mike Keahbone, Brad Eubank, Jon Nelson, Melissa Bowen.
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Here’s super salesman Zig Ziglar at the 1984 Pastor’s Conference.
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The EC has a fiduciary duty to uphold the BFM, not just uphold the constitution.
We may be at the point where honorable men would resign.
The
@BaptistReview
has published an article by an executive committee member who makes the case that the New Testament allows for women to serve as pastors.
For that reason, he contends that we should reject the Law Amendment.
My response is here:
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The BJC/SBC relationship blew up in 1987, after several years of conservative disgust. A key issue was Dunn’s membership on the board of People for the American Way.
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Lear, too, was seen by conservatives as the vanguard of social decay via TV. Especially in his support for abortion and the sexual revolution.
In 1975, Lear sued to get rid of the FCC’s family hour rules that imposed limits in prime time.
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In 1987, the SBC removed its funding from BJC, and gave the DC assignment to the Christian Life Committee, now the
@ERLC
.
And, of course, Moore took over the ERLC in 2013, leaving under fire in 2021, and staking out increasingly liberal positions.
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In the 80s, the SBC’s “DC” work was performed by the Baptist Joint Committee. BJC was run by nine Baptist denominations, but mostly funded by the SBC. It was led by attorney James Dunn.
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Imagine seeing this gender theory take over all our public institutions and *still* arguing against
@sbcamendment
.
The Biden Admin has just officially abolished Title IX as we knew it. Now, sex = gender identity.
In a nutshell, the new rewrite means:
- men can take academic AND athletic scholarships from women
- men will have FULL access to bathrooms, locker rooms, etc
- men could be
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You don't have to agree with Tom Ascol, but he asks the right questions.
When people tell me they'd like an SBC without Founders, it's often because Tom has asked a question they don't want to answer.
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The release of the film “Oppenheimer,” directed by Christopher Nolan, prompts a reminder: no matter how much our country might have benefited from the decision, the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki can not be squared with biblical morality.
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@gsstansell
Moore has now taken positions contrary to what he earlier said was required by Biblical inerrancy. So I think that’s true by inference.
But “deconstruction” doesn’t have to mean rejecting any of those five things.
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PFAW had been created by Hollywood producer Norman Lear, and quickly became a progressive opponent of the “religious right.”
Indeed, some later historians said Lear had almost invented the religious right.
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The UMC this week shows what happens when conservatives go home and don't show up.
Similar cultural trends face conservative Baptists. Don't let frustration keep you home!
Don't give up, show up. See you in Indy!
@BaptistLeaders
“Well, that didn’t take long: The United Methodists quickly abandon Biblical Christianity” — my new article
@wngdotorg
today.
The UMC just marched off the map of orthodox Christianity.
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SBC religious liberty primer, 1946:
"The goal of all Christian endeavor, the transforming of the kingdoms of this world into the Kingdom of our Lord and Christ, must ever be kept in view. ... furthering the conquest of Christ over all social agencies [including] Government."
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Wolfe, Vought, Pompeo, Heritage — a ‘Christian Nationalism‘ so broad, it covers practically every evangelical.
Trump allies prepare to infuse ‘Christian nationalism’ in second administration
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May 19, 2021 — Moore leaves ERLC for CT, leaks 2020 letter.
May 22, 2024 — Iorg releases planned article against
@sbcamendment
, with help of NAMB, SEBTS, James Merritt.
20 days to Annual Meeting.
These guys know the emotional play worked last time.
Will it work again?
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This, of course, is a passive criticism of the removal of the same church from the SBC.
This trajectory, unfortunately, shows a theological change, not just a personality or enneagram number issue.
“…yet it is always true that there is nothing more offensive to an established religion as the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ.”
- Jeremiah Moore (1746-1815), founding pastor, First Baptist Church, Alexandria, Va.
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PFAW and Dunn were both critical of a Reagan-era proposal for a Constitutional amendment to cement the right of voluntary prayers in schools. The SBC supported the amendment in 1981, but the BJC opposed it.
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No coincidence that JD Greear has called the SBC’s Law Amendment “fundamentalism run amok.”
Complementarianism as an ideal is fine, but not as a rule.
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A lot of people seem to believe in a market theory of candidates, where the price signal is their own strong feelings.
Others believe that if they withhold their vote like billionaires withhold money, the clear signal to candidates is to chase them.
Neither theory is true.
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Just yesterday, Reiner told the NY Times that Lear was like a second father to him. (Lear passed away in this week.)
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Lear’s PFAW became increasingly left wing. But it was supported by many of Lear’s closest friends, including the father-son duo of Carl and Rob Reiner.
The younger Reiner famously played the role of Meathead in Lear’s All in the Family.
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@toddbenkert
Abuse reform advocates, Todd Benkert asked ERLC trustees to pull back an already approved study of abuse in the SBC.
He was afraid it might reflect badly on his friends.
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"This [
@sbcamendment
] is an issue of Biblical obedience ; this is not just a question of Biblical interpretation."
Exactly right.
@BaptistLeaders
A Statement from R. Albert Mohler, Jr. on Doctrinal Clarity Before the 2024 Annual Meeting of the Southern Baptist Convention.
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A thread on how the SBC cooperation committee seems set to undermine abuse reform: 1/
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Pretty close to my own thoughts. Take 24 hours to grieve the loss and the step backward from 80%, and the leadership that caused it.
But 61% knew the Word IS the mission, not a distraction. With His grace, it can grow.
Dear SBC friends
We're disappointed by the outcome of the convention. My advice, for what it's worth, is to take a few days and cool off. This is not the time to make impulsive decisions about your future involvement with the SBC.
Be sober-minded. Don't get drunk on your
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It's kind of genius that all the comedians will call this speech too long ... but it's free media for his stamina.
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It is a truly strange way of showing commitment to BFM Art. VI to call a committee to figure out ways to undermine it.
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Other Christian charities do this. It’s a shame the SBC’s entities do not.
"All that
@rhett_burns
and other Southern Baptists are asking for is what most organizations do without being asked in an effort to serve their donors and constituents."
@tlloydcline
w/an outsider's perspective on financial transparency in the
#SBC
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Reminder: They have my resume, and I can prove I went to Harvard.
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Former complementarian and former conservative
@andrewhebert86
has staked his future on SBC liberalization.
This is a good word about what took place this week. Thankful for
@andrewhebert86
helping explain things in an accessible way for Southern Baptists in the pew.
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Imagine trying to run an SBC seminary if the official position of the SBC is that “pastor” is a very confusing word.
“Your calling is a very confusing thing to us…let us teach you how to be confused!”
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For crying out loud. The correction is wrong, too.
If nobody voted on this topic, the report has no basis to say the Committee has decided to "report" a prior position to the '24 Convention, either.
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Friends, I would expect a disingenuous amendment to try to add “elders and overseers” to
@SBCAmendment
. Thus, Danny’s language here.
This kills the Amendment; the same language must pass twice in a row.
Pass the amendment first.
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If you respect David Platt, read the emails obtained in litigation, where he stresses the importance of McClean being able to get “credit” under NAMB, while doing nothing different.
It feels like a skymiles program, except with missions money. Among respected guys.
The most frustrating thing about the narrative that NAMB is buying votes is how little it thinks of godly men who plant churches, thinking such men don’t know their own minds or conviction and can be bought with a few pieces of silver like Judas.
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Happy to sit with all these men to discuss the importance of this race.
Great panel with
@LewisRicherson
,
@jrwhitehead
,
@DrDavidLAllen
, and
@jaredhmoore
on “The Importance of Electing a Conservative SBC President.”
@BaptistLeaders
x
@FoundersMin
luncheon at
#SBC24
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@JaredCBurt
@griffingulledge
So you’ve not noticed any of the pastors being removed for sex abuse, or the articles written to justify it, or the constitutional amendment passed to clarify it.
You’re blind, not wise.
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The questions asked by
@samwebb1876
are important for all SBC Trustees.
I voted against this proposal, as the job of a Trustee is to hold the entities to the Convention’s written rules — and I see no way for this to meet those rules.
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I, for one, would like to see the name on the bank account that funded
@lifeway
's research.
It’s 2024 and SBC entities—this time
@Lifeway
—are STILL partnering with the George Soros-funded and subversive Evangelical Immigration Table
Truly astounding. What will take to get the SBC to break all ties with Soros-funded outlets?
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@BaptistPress
.
@jaredhmoore
is rock-solid on key issues facing Baptists. Glad to see his hat in the ring.
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Supporters of
@sbcamendment
: don’t fall for last-minute, bad-faith “amendments.”
This year, amendments are poison pills that kill the motion or delay it.
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The pulpit is the Thermopylae of Christendom: there the fight will be lost or won.
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SBC Messengers really should get more than 4 minutes of Q & A from each SBC Entity.
Twelve-minute reports(!) with only 1/3rd for questions (4 mins.) is easily gamed.
A speaker gets up to 3 mins., so it's one Q & one A in practice.
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This ignores the possibility that Yancey’s version of Evangelicalism is, in fact, being pulled into a more mainline position.
It did so intentionally (say Keller and Meador) and unintentionally (by being unprepared to actually discuss race or gender).
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Honestly, this is even worse. It’s one thing if staff got carried away.
If leaders stared at the problem in the face and MADE UP ANOTHER ACTION THE COMMITTEE DID NOT TAKE… I can hardly bring myself to say it.
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Everybody imagines they’re the next Mohler, but the odds say they’re probably the next Greenway.
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Hearing more and more about people ready to go to Indy next summer and pass
@sbcamendment
.
It’s the last week to give money to the SBC and get messengers in Indianapolis.
If you’re on the fence, give a few dollars.
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Let’s remember that
@edlitton
lied about his personal experiences, but was not allowed to resign as president because that might let ARITF include people not named by Wellman/Greear.
And now he’s in charge of race reconciliation.
This crew is snakebit. Expect more of it.
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If nobody can tell Congress what Southern Baptists believe, except (maybe) one guy who is too busy to call back a congressman …
We need 10,000 Baptists telling Congress what Southern Baptists have said. It’s amazing what gets done when you don’t care who gets the credit.
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10k messengers still makes
@sbcamendment
a close call.
If you’ve ever thought about coming to an annual meeting, this is the year! Settle something important!
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Oklahoma friends, Dusty would be a great addition to your state senate.
I know a lot of thought and prayer has gone into this decision.
I am running to be your Oklahoma District 32 Senator.
For years, I’ve watched as dangerous, immoral policies coming out of Washington, D.C. and even Oklahoma City have hurt my family and the members of my church. I intend to put a stop to it.
I don’t say that as a politician
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If scripture, the constitution and the BFM aren’t definitions of what the SBC broadly believes, do we have limits beyond the almighty dollar?
By including a slim minority of the Cooperation Group who have disagreements with the BF&M on matters of present controversy within our Convention, I have followed the clearly expressed will of the messenger body and the unmistakeable wording of the motion.
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The ARITF obviously did ask ERLC to stop forward progress — the pause that would never be unpaused.
And the ERLC officers “deferred” to their lead. They believed no more evidence about SBC abuse would be necessary or helpful(!)
Neither Todd Benkert, nor ARITIF, ever asked us to stop in regard to his resolution, nor did anyone on our board ever suggest we stop, but pause. The article you attached records our sentiments well, as we recognized the will of the messengers in appointing ARITIF. 2/4
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Is ARC what Guidepost recommended? No, despite what you're told on this
@BaptistReview
podcast.
A thread:
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Before there was a motion on the floor, and before there was a committee, the SBC ‘managers’ had plans to head off the Law amendment. (8:05)
But they haven’t released any language; Baptists can’t judge their plans.
This undermines and contradicts principles of Baptist polity.
An update: a few thoughts about Mike Law’s proposed amendment to Article III.
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The most telling response to the Cooperation Group recommendations will come from these accounts.
My sense is that the final report didn't look much like they expected.
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@dschadt
@andrewhebert86
Others have kindly shown that he is seeking to make the SBC functionally egalitarian.
If his pastoring is commendable, great.
But steady efforts to lead Baptist bodies away from scripture, into complicity in sin, is contemptible and divisive. It earns my blunt rejection.
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SBC leaders:
Believe the definition of pastor is clear, but …
Believe pastors should write their own sermons, but…
Believe Trustees are watching carefully over CEOs spending, but…
Believe in the BFM, but …
Believe in Credentials Committee reform, but …
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Jared’s committee voted to clean up the SBC rolls no more than once a year.l, using messengers.
This monster came to light a few days ago — so they’ll be SBC for months. Odd to lash out at a less formal network on a Saturday night, given his call for the SBC to act more slowly.
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I appreciate
@bartbarber
saying that churches have a right to know about SBC finances, and warning against a “how dare you!” attitude.
But let’s peel the onion about reasons for not disclosing the top 5 salaries, as the 990 motions would require …
Part of the trust problem in the Convention surrounds the use and misuse of NDAs and questions about financial transparency at our entities.
We asked
@BartBarber
about both in the third part of our interview with him.
Listen to his answer:
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In 2019, the SBC condemned the “wolves” who misuse church autonomy as a license to cover and overlook sins of ministers.
Some of the same men now claim church autonomy gives us license to overlook sins of ministers.
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ARITF's conflicts of interest are off the charts.
They're asking the Convention to let Jeff Iorg give SBC Committee members permanent contracts for running a private database.
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Opponents of
@sbcamendment
introduce new branding effort: Baptists America.
“Pastoring is for everyone.”
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Wowzers.
If you don’t like messenger questions, there’s a church group for you, but it isn’t the SBC.
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JD's ecclesiology compounds his errors. (Women) members don't have authority to make Summit's ministers vulnerable, as they would in a normal Baptist church.
So, he must invent positions in which women of his choosing might.
It's a downgrade but he thinks it's an improvement.
@jdgreear
"The evangelical church in the west has suffered...too often we've only had 1 perspective at the table...I can't help but wonder if this sexual abuse crisis...might have been avoided...if those sitting around the table...had experienced knowing what it's like to be vulnerable."
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Depriving people of confidence in the Cooperative Program and the SBC is an unfortunate hobby of some of its leaders.
Sam Rainer says three factors are unraveling our cooperation: decline in evangelism and mission in the post-CR era, a CP system past its prime and resistance to sexual abuse reforms.
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Not unlike the SBC-CBF of the 80s, there is a liberalism that doesn’t yet understand its own liberalism.
But it is liberalism just the same.
In which I cite Machen, Ryle, and Carson alongside
@WBLittlejohn
,
@jamesrwoodtheo1
,
@JoshDaws
,
@megbasham
,
@DennyBurk
(et al.) to critique “an evangelical progressivism that hasn’t yet realized what it is or where it’s headed.”
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@JaredcWellman
@NateSchlomann
You RECOMMENDED cleaning up rolls only once a year at the SBC. Has it been a year?
Why give the (wealthier, more formal) SBC months to remove churches from their list, but dump on this loose network a few days later?
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Compare the
@NYTimes
/
@davidafrench
version to this version, and ask why they are so different.
"What the investigation found after looking hard to see if they could find a time when the convention or the executive committee knew about abuse and failed to report it, or facilitated an abuser being able to continue to abuse, they didn't find any instances where the convention
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BuT hE’s NoT a BaPtIsT.
Well I still don’t have my bag, but I have my ballots, and that what counts for the SBC
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Important: any more amendments should be rejected.
PSA for SBC Messengers:
Any seemingly friendly change to the Law Amendment should be taken as an unfriendly amendment, because it only delays obedience to God’s Word.
If you support the
@sbcamendment
, you should be ready in Indy to reject any such amendments.
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Grateful for these brothers. Healthy churches for a healthy convention.
Mark Dever comes out in support of the Law amendment here.
Also, Juan Sanchez and I argue for it here:
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@jchasedavis
And so when you see liberation theology praised, and phrases like “Jesus is on the side of the oppressed and opposed to the colonizers” get trotted out, you know what that will be used to excuse.
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@JaredCBurt
@griffingulledge
You missed this 2021 resolution saying “any person who has committed sexual abuse is permanently disqualified from holding the office of pastor.”
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@JaredCBurt
@griffingulledge
You ignored the time spent passing a constitutional amendment like the law amendment, to avoid confusion that yes, indeed, disqualified pastors can be removed.
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@dandarling
Former head of the Texas Ethics & Religious Liberty Committee.
Even supporters of Ukraine funding can agree, this issue is
@ERLC
mission creep.
1. Neither BF&M nor SBC resolutions back funding for Ukraine.
2. No biblical principle binds SBs to advocate, or even agree.
3. CP-funded advocacy divides SBs & makes ERLC a lightning rod (again).
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