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James Merritt and Danny Akin

Beware of Gaslighters and Their Tactics

James Merritt

In 2021 prior to the SBC Annual meeting in Nashville,

More than 1300 Southern Baptists submitted a “Resolution on the Incompatibility of Critical Race Theory and Intersectionality with The Baptist Faith and Message” to the Resolutions Committee. Did the committee honor the requests of these hundreds of Baptists? No. It crafted a substitute resolution (Resolution 2) and offered it to the convention instead.

Resolution 2 doesn’t even mention CRT or intersectionality by name. Go to page 7 of the Tuesday, June 15, 2021 Daily Bulletin to read [it].…

No one favors racism, but Southern Baptists have repeatedly passed resolutions against it and apologized for institutional racism in the denomination’s past. Kevin Apperson, pastor of North Las Vegas Baptist Church in North Las Vegas, Nevada, spoke against Resolution 2 because he objected to its not addressing by name the issues that desperately needed to be addressed. James Merritt, pastor of Cross Pointe Church in Duluth, Georgia, and chairman of the Resolutions Committee, responded in palpable anger.

Rev. James Merritt

This was inexcusable, especially since, as Rev. Merritt observed, the world was watching. Hear the eye-opening exchange in this clip from the convention, courtesy of Jon Harris and his podcast, Conversations That Matter.

After playing a video clip of this exchange on his podcast, Jon Harris described how disgusting, offensive, and manipulative Merritt’s response was.

Greear aided and abetted Merritt in his manipulative rant. Note that Greear reprimanded messengers for being disrespectful, but not Dr. Merritt.

Danny Akin

More recently, James Merritt defended his son Jonathan as a preacher of the gospel, despite his son’s being openly gay and refusing to repent.

After receiving some pushback, Dr. Merritt doubled down.

Merritt doubled down again — and he used a gaslighting tactic to do so. John Kaleo called him out for it.

Just a few days earlier, it had been announced that Dr. Merritt, along with several others, would become a visiting professor at Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary. This raised eyebrows as well as questions. Does the SBC and do SBC institutions support preachers who are openly gay and refuse to repent? It was a question that Allen Nelson, pastor of the Second Baptist Church in Perryville, Arkansas, among others, specifically asked Dr. Danny Akin, president of SEBTS. Other issues regarding Dr. Merritt also arose. Still, Dr. Akin stood by Dr. Merritt through the entire ordeal.

Next: Ed Stetzer

 

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Copyright © 2021 by B. Nathaniel Sullivan. All rights reserved.