Southern Baptist Convention

The Southern Baptist Convention's Albert Mohler outdoes Pat Robertson by declaring that God does, in fact, hate Haiti in his blog post entitled "Does God Hate Haiti?" in which he explains that God is judging the nation, just as he judges every nation on Earth so that they may all come to know Jesus Christ:

In truth, it is hard not to describe the earthquake as a disaster of biblical proportions. It certainly looks as if the wrath of God has fallen upon the Caribbean nation. Add to this the fact that Haiti is well known for its history of religious syncretism -- mixing elements of various faiths, including occult practices. The nation is known for voodoo, sorcery, and a Catholic tradition that has been greatly influenced by the occult.

Haiti's history is a catalog of political disasters, one after the other. In one account of the nation's fight for independence from the French in the late 18th century, representatives of the nation are said to have made a pact with the Devil to throw off the French. According to this account, the Haitians considered the French as Catholics and wanted to side with whomever would oppose the French. Thus, some would use that tradition to explain all that has marked the tragedy of Haitian history -- including now the earthquake of January 12, 2010.

Does God hate Haiti? That is the conclusion reached by many, who point to the earthquake as a sign of God's direct and observable judgment.

God does judge the nations -- all of them -- and God will judge the nations. His judgment is perfect and his justice is sure. He rules over all the nations and his sovereign will is demonstrated in the rising and falling of nations and empires and peoples ... Does God hate Haiti? God hates sin, and will punish both individual sinners and nations ... The earthquake in Haiti, like every other earthly disaster, reminds us that creation groans under the weight of sin and the judgment of God ... In other words, the earthquake reminds us that the Gospel of Jesus Christ is the only real message of hope.

Last week I wrote a couple of posts about the fact Southern Baptist Convention recently decided to kick Broadway Baptist Church out of the SBC due to the fact that the church was insufficiently hostile to gays.

But instead of taking my word for it, let's let Broadway's interim pastor Charlie Johnson explain it (via Box Turtle Bulletin):

We explained before the Committee that Broadway has never entertained any formal order of business before the congregational body that constitutes an endorsement of homosexual behavior. We further explained that church membership and congregational service in no way denotes ratification of the behavior of the individual holding that membership and performing that service.

Discussions were candid and thorough. More conservative voices on the Executive Committee wanted Broadway to do something clearly not required by the SBC Constitution: take formal congregational action to condemn homosexual behavior. This extraordinary measure has not been required of any other SBC church. It would be unprecedented and unauthorized. Such requirement repeatedly surfaced in our deliberations, and each time the Executive Committee backed off it.

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The breakdown came when those advocating the more rigorous constitutional test won the day. It became clear several weeks ago from the Executive Committee that Broadway would have to implement measures to identify, isolate, and distinguish our gay and lesbian members from the rest of the congregation in order to be found in friendly cooperation. Of course, conscience, congregational autonomy, and common decency prohibit us from doing so.

Now, it appears that the constitutional language as presently stated in Article III is not sufficient. It is not enough for cooperating Southern Baptist churches simply to take no action to affirm homosexual behavior. They must now take formal action explicitly to disapprove such behavior.

Every Southern Baptist church of any size has homosexual members. These friends pray with us, sing with us, give with us, serve with us, and take the Body and Blood of Christ at the table of the Lord with us. Will the test imposed upon Broadway by the denomination now be required of all the churches?

The recommendation to disfellowship Broadway was unanimously passed in the Executive Committee. It was approved by the Convention without discussion. Not even one lone solitary dissenting voice. Such uniformity of thought and silence of conscience means that the SBC remains Baptist in name only.

The moral legalism inherent in the Southern Baptist Convention's decision indicates the spiritual disease infecting and destroying our Baptist body today. Instead of focusing our energies of love on a lonely and hurting world, we are obsessed with endlessly parsing out arcane legalities designed to assert our own moral purity and superiority.

It is a sound and fury signifying nothing.

There is always one thing I can be sure of when Mike Huckabee addresses an audience: That the listeners will get an extensive lesson on what it means to be "moral" and "righteous." Sparingly will I hear Huckabee articulate an in-depth economic position or how he believes we can get out of the current recession.

It may have something to do with the fact that he was a pastor for a great deal of his adult-life and obtained a Bachelor's degree in Religion before going to Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary for a year. He's simply not too well versed in economics or economic theory.

Speaking at the Southern Baptist Convention, however, Huckabee has come up with his explanation for the turmoil on Wall Street. De-regulation? No. Sub-Prime Lending? No. It's a lack of morality and righteousness. Apparenty, there's still enough money to go around; there's just not enough morality.

"Wall Street did not melt down because it was a money problem," Huckabee said. "It melted down because there was a moral problem, and it's high time we address that what really is breaking this country is not a lack of money. It's a lack of morality, and without righteousness and character our nation will perish."

While I'm not sure how this could be molded into an economic agenda, there's no doubt in my mind that Huckabee will figure it out before the 2012 presidential race.

Thankfully, he had some positive thoughts at the end of the speech. Huckabee assured the audience that even if the far-right doesn't achieve their goals legislatively, they will win in the end:

"The Bible makes it very clear that the outcome is a good one -- maybe not as we see it here, but in the end, Jesus wins," Huckabee said. "And I'm willing to say that for those of us who will, standing with Him is never a mistake. Standing for what He stands for will never lead us wrong. . ."

Yesterday I saw an article reporting that as the Southern Baptist Convention gathered for its annual meeting, one of its key priorities was how to "boost flagging membership and baptism rates."

If I may offer a suggestion, one easy way not to lose members is to avoid kicking out a church for being insufficiently hostile to gays, as the SBC is now considering:

The Southern Baptist Convention's Executive Committee recommended in a unanimous vote Monday afternoon that the denomination cease its relationship with Broadway Baptist Church, a Fort Worth, Texas, congregation that has been the source of controversy over its stance on homosexuality.

The Executive Committee's recommendation will be considered by SBC messengers during the annual meeting Tuesday or Wednesday.

At issue is whether the church is in violation of Article III of the SBC Constitution, which states that churches "which act to affirm, approve, or endorse homosexual behavior" are not in friendly cooperation. Broadway Baptist has approximately five open homosexual members, including two male couples, according to church leaders. Some of the homosexuals serve on church committees.

The controversy over the church began last year when the question arose as to whether the homosexual couples should be pictured in a church directory. In the end, the church voted 294-182 to publish a directory without family portraits but with candid shots of members involved in various ministries and activities.

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Stephen Wilson, a member of the Executive Committee and vice president for academic affairs at Mid-Continent University, emphasized to Baptist Press that the denomination encourages churches to reach out to people struggling with homosexuality. The issue with Broadway Baptist, though, is over a church allowing members who are homosexual and unrepentant.

"If churches are ministering to homosexuals, they are doing nothing more than what our own convention's task force has asked us to do," Wilson told Baptist Press. "But in Broadway's case … the church was in effect saying that it was OK to have members who are open homosexuals."

The Executive Committee's recommendation says that the committee "recommends that the cooperative relationship between the Convention and the church cease, and that the church's messengers not be seated, until such time as the church unambiguously demonstrates its friendly cooperation with the Convention under Article III."

Apparently the controversy began back in 2007over the idea of including gay couples in the membership directly and then expanded to include several other issues, leading to pastor to resign in mid-2008.

For it's part, Broadway insists that "has never taken any church action to affirm, approve, or endorse homosexual behavior" but members of the Executive Committee don't seem to buy that defense and have now recommended booting the church from the Southern Baptist Convention.

If the SBC is looking for ways to stem is declining membership, ousting churches for not being anti-gay enough seems like an odd first step.