The Current Political Landscape and My Encouragement for Southern Baptists

The Current Condition of the Southern Baptist Convention

This is a post for all you Southern Baptists. I'd like to share what I believe the truth is about the current condition of your denomination, and where effective leadership and resistance to the leftist onslaught can be found.

I want to encourage you because I'm encouraged after what I've seen over the last few days. Now don't get me wrong, I still believe the flood of conservative churches exiting will continue. And if I were an elder at a Southern Baptist church, I would be encouraging leaving.

That said, it is beneficial to still have a strong resistance at this moment to false teaching from within the denomination, in order to help open the eyes of those still waking up to the leftist blitzkrieg.

Also, perhaps by some miracle God will restore the denomination, though I'm very skeptical of this. But if God is going to restore the denomination, men like Russell Fuller are the ones that will be used to restore it.

Two Camps of Conservative Voices

This is my analysis of the current landscape on the conservative side, for whatever it is worth. There are basically, and generally, two polarized groups of public voices attempting to lead in opposition to doctrinal compromise.

The first group consists of men with institutional or ministry platforms. We can call them the conservative elites, though they're not accepted in the actual elite circles of the denomination. On them rests the hopes of Southern Baptists wanting to restore the denomination to orthodoxy.

They've taken a few hits for making general statements about the dangers of social justice, and perhaps critiqued a few of the most radical voices in the denomination, but usually after other non-elites made it somewhat possible to do so by taking the first round of arrows from the woke mob.

They are generally much more ministry-minded than politically savvy. They never asked to be the leaders of the resistance, but after a series of developments over the course of years, that is where they found themselves.

Many of them have been slow to understand the conflict they're in and slower to inform their supporters about the concrete dangers they see. I have absolutely no ill will toward this group, but I have been reluctant to personally put hope in them to lead a successful resistance.

The small taste I've had of the world they're used to is filled with caution, calculation, cultivating one's image. We can all slip into this, including myself, whether knowingly or unknowingly, but it is a great weakness for someone who wants to be an effective leader against what amounts to a Marxist revolution.

This is where some will get mad at me, but here it goes. I am saying this for laymen asking for understanding, not with the goal of being liked or platformed. There is also a more vocal group of public voices without institutional platforming who have understandably had enough of what they perceive to be weakness and lack of resolve from those claiming the leadership mantle by default.

Unfortunately, some of them have demonstrated either an unwillingness or inability to fully appreciate what they can about flawed leaders. As a result, they've somewhat contributed to fostering greater ineffectiveness among the already somewhat sensitive and cautious conservative elites, who I perceive resent taking orders from those who fail to encourage them in the stands they have taken and are uninitiated to the pressures of their world.

Perhaps we can call them the anti-social justice warriors. They tend to cultivate, perhaps a little forced at times, an image of masculinity and courage, though they do not have as much to lose as those with national or international ministries.

The reason I know all this is because, to some extent, I have roughly inhabited both circles. None of my descriptions are absolute, they are general. And to be fair, I've found myself exhibiting some of the undesirable traits attributed to both groups at times.

I understand what it's like to be viciously attacked and misrepresented by the left and rejected by some on the elite right, afraid to associate with someone they may think of as anti-social justice warrior.

The wine and dine strategy has also been tried on me by some on the left, who mistake my attempt at graciousness for weakness. I've experienced cold shoulders from those on the institutional right I thought of as friends.

There's plenty of reasons I have to be cynical of the vast majority of the leaders on both sides of this debate. I am in no wise a victim, though, or someone to be admired as if I transcend the weaknesses of both these groups.

I only bring myself up to show that I understand to some degree the situation, though my knowledge is not exhaustive. My goal is this, as I said, is to give you some hope. Not hope in horses and chariots, but hope in the Lord, and what He is doing through faithful, fearless, but fallible men.

Why the Conservative Baptist Network Discussion Gave Hope

Last night I watched a discussion, sponsored by Conservative Baptist Network, which gave me great reason to hope. I appreciated every man on stage and the contributions they made, even those I was not familiar with.

What struck me was the way men on the conservative side, who have often had disagreements over how to handle the ongoing crisis, came together and mutually encouraged each other to aggressively pursue the enemies, Satan, false gospel, corruption, and the men who have served as accomplices.

What particularly struck me was the way one man's courage was infectious. That man is Russell Fuller. Fuller named actual names of those actively giving cover to a false gospel within the denomination.

Names that if said publicly in conservative elite circles up until recently would have been treated with an inhuman benefit of the doubt if uttered at all. Fuller demonstrated an ability to work with others not as aggressive as himself.

He appreciated the contributions of those, but did not hold back from speaking hard truths and issuing strong warning. The effect was remarkable. Others started sharing in Fuller's resolve, made possible by his wake.

Private stories, which many Southern Baptists have been dying to hear about the state of their denomination, were making their way to the surface publicly. I believe a combination of the left's baseless attacks and utter hypocrisy, combined with Fuller's willingness to take risks and arrows with an encouraging smile, made the dynamic different than any other event I've seen thus far from conservative elites.

Perhaps I'm putting too much weight on Fuller. After all, everyone on the panel is responsible for their own words, and they chose to speak them. I appreciate it. And I appreciate every single one of them.

Still, Fuller modeled something regular, decent Southern Baptists have been hungry for. He showed the resolve and bravery highly prized in both the word of God and by social antisocial justice warriors.

At the same time, he was encouraging to some who have perhaps needed an extra boost of courage during this conflict. Conservative Baptist Network chose to platform the much hated by the left Russell Fuller and Randy Adams, who had been about as knowledgeable and aggressive on the issue of corruption as anyone in the SBC.

They also stood their ground when threatened by the woke Southern Baptist mob inhabiting the Twitter echo chamber. They are currently being maligned by the mainstream media for endorsing enemies within the church, which they haven't actually endorsed.

They've allowed the film to be shown as a potential actual analytical tool to help shed light on areas in which Christendom is being compromised. The film even talks about the corruption of the Roman Catholic Church, hardly an institution Conservative Baptist Network endorses, but a story they can learn from as the same Marxist tactics are being used against them.

This is what an actual analytical tool looks like, as opposed to buying into pagan assumptions about reality in order to use critical race theory as the left wing of the Southern Baptist Convention wants to do.

Standing Firm Against False Teaching and the Court of Heaven

The point is, CBN stood its ground. It's ready to take hits. It is taking hits, and false ones at that. Jesus said, blessed are you when people insult you and persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me.

My resolve right now is to be like Jesus, to think about the court of heaven and not the approval of man. My resolve is to become more like Russell Fuller, a spirit filled man who models both gentleness and bravery, two qualities I need to grow in.

I hope that's your resolve as well. Stay strong and look to men like Fuller. Become men and women like Fuller. If the Southern Baptist Conservatives can do this, no matter what the left says, what names it uses, what dirt it attempts to dig up to distract from its evil, the SBC will be saved and all credit will go to God.