Reflections on the Southern Baptist Convention in Nashville, 2021

I cringed repeatedly in Nashville at this year’s SBC. Here were some incidents I believe to be cringeworthy.

1. 1. The failure on the part of leaders to address legitimate concerns raised by messengers. I believe that many times this was intentional.
  2. The raw and blatant attempts of leaders to manipulate messengers with emotional rhetoric.
  3. The bandwagon mentality shown by both leaders and messengers to support popular and even legitimate causes (opposing sexual abuse and opposing racism are two excellent examples) without weighing carefully the consequences of the specific approaches recommended or taken to address these issues.
  4. The applause in response to leaders’ manipulative rhetoric. Discernment was in short supply.
  5. The use of carefully chosen words on the part of leaders to wrap pet causes in “gospel-centered” language so they were harder to argue against, even with facts and biblically-based reason.
  6. Leaders’ shaming messengers who were raising legitimate concerns.
  7. Tacit acceptance of liberal politics (effectively promoting unbiblical policies) in the name of being apolitical.
  8. A loud claim among leaders to hear women and minorities, but as it turned out, they were heard only when they had messages those leaders wanted to hear. Just ask Carol Swain and Sandy Vandevender McRaney about this.
  9. The use of time constraints to ram things through without adequate discussion or debate.
  10. Finally, in the aftermath of the Nashville meeting, the deafening silence of leaders regarding a pattern of plagiarism (theft and dishonesty) on the part of Ed Litton, the newly elected SBC president.

I am deeply saddened over what the SBC has become, and I pray it still is salvageable. If it is, if reform is going to take place, leaders will have to be held accountable. The attempts to manipulate must stop.

Conservatives Have Not Been Heard

B. Nathaniel Sullivan, June 15, 2021