On Saturday, October 30, 2021, Rod D. Martin posted this on Facebook:
The EC has now lost over a fifth of its members, and that number is climbing. It’s also lost two of its officers, its two top staff members, and the law firm that’s served as its General Counsel for 56 years. Oh, and almost every single member who’s either an attorney or an accountant.
Perhaps this course of action wasn’t so well thought-through as some suggested.
Rod’s post linked to this article in the Alabama Baptist: “SBC EC loses 20% of board members; Floyd shares parting message.”
Having long wanted to express a number of ideas about the SBC burning within me, I posted the following comment:
All of this needs to be said.
The #MeToo movement with its obsession with believing accusers at all costs, and its obsession with doing something — anything — to help those claiming to be victims, has bled into the SBC. Yes, accusers need to be heard and respected, and their accusations need to be taken seriously and investigated. But the idea that we must always believe the accuser is to show partiality before evidence is heard. This is unbiblical and unjust. The watchword should be, not “believe the accuser,” but believe the *evidence.* Yet SBC annual meetings in recent years have been characterized by an emotional climate that compels people to rush to the microphone to condemn racism, and now it’s compelling them to rush to the microphone to condemn sexual abuse. Both of these are evils, but emotions must not drive our opposition to them!
With regard to racism, how may times must we publicly condemn it? Is there no point at which we will let the sins of the past be the sins of the past? Is there no point at which we will forgive and be forgiven, and move on? Apparently there isn’t. This is clear evidence that the social justice movement and CRT have gripped the SBC and aren’t letting go. Mark it down! This is *exactly* what CRT does — perpetual guilt for whites, never-ending victimhood for blacks and other minorities. This is not the gospel at all, but a counterfeit gospel! And it should be called out for what it is!
Of course, as I’ve indicated, racism and sexual abuse are evils. They should be condemned wherever and whenever they appear. And yes, these are emotional issues. But again, our emotions should not be the primary basis for our opposition to these evils. And when we address accusations of racism and sexual abuse, we must act with our heads, not just with our hearts. That is not happening in the SBC.
It has to be noted that when Grant Gaines’ motion was voted on at the Convention, the emotional climate basically told messengers, “If you don’t support this, you are indifferent to, and even complicit in, sexual abuse.” Afterward, when members of the EC who were acting with their heads and not just with their hearts sought to apply the brakes to the foolish idea of jettisoning attorney-client privilege, the tenor and mood of SBC news outlets and leaders was to effectively accuse them of having something to hide, even if this wasn’t done overtly. This was unfair and wrong.
It’s my understanding that there were ways to honor the messengers’ desires without abandoning attorney-client privilege, but those understanding the dynamics of the situation, legal and otherwise, and trying to speak out were not heard. The basic, unspoken message was, “How dare you not waive your right to attorney-client privilege? You must have something to hide! Maybe you are guilty of abuse yourself, or possibly you are trying to protect those guilty of abuse.”
So attorney-client privilege was waived, and then the resignations came. We have lost some good people, and it makes you wonder if the goal all along was to destroy the SBC from within.
I place the blame for this debacle at the feet of woke, leftist leaders in the SBC like JD Greear, Russell Moore, Matt Chandler, Al Mohler, Danny Akin, and others. There’s an alleged incident (and maybe even more than one) of sexual abuse having occurred at SBTS, and I don’t even think this incident is even going to be a part of this investigation. But has Al Mohler waived attorney-client privilege? There is absolutely no evidence that he has or intends to, yet he and other seminary presidents put pressure on the EC to waive theirs. There’s a word for this: hypocrisy. [Months later, in early June, 2022, no evidence has surfaced that Al Mohler has yet waived attorney-client privilege. Nothing has changed.]
There’s something else. In and through Caring Well, Russell Moore’s ERLC has used and is using 1 Corinthians 13:7, where Paul wrote that “love…believes all things,” to make the case that accusers should be believed without hesitation and without reservation. What?!? Talk about taking a verse out of context! The implication is clear. If we don’t believe an accuser immediately, or if we have questions about the accuser’s story (something that is inevitable in the quest to gather evidence without bias), we are not protecting accusers and victims, but abusers. ERLC even tells churches and pastors to jettison the assumption of “innocent until proven guilty.” See https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R9HM9KCvopA
Taking positions like this is effectively placing a sign on the door of the SBC, inviting lawyers who have no integrity and other nefarious players to file lawsuit after lawsuit alleging sexual abuse. Note it well. An individual or group foolish enough to waive attorney-client privilege is a sitting duck for frivolous lawsuits. I’m not a lawyer, but I don’t have to be to realize that.
Grant Gaines, and messengers, and pastors, and everyone else involved in the Convention should have realized this as well before demanding the EC waive privilege.
Now, I’m sorry to say, saving the SBC from the social justice, leftist elites has become that much more difficult.
Rod Martin replied, and I am grateful he did, because his clarification is critically important. Rod wrote,
Bev Nathaniel Sullivan: You are absolutely correct, with only one exception. The accusations that the EC didn’t care about sex abuse and was trying to hide things were explicit, not implied.
If there is abuse, we need to root it out, 100%.
But these pastors sought to demonize their political opponents. And they got played by the trial lawyers, who hope to find something, anything, that can make them rich.
Note well that 20 months after claiming personal knowledge of “children being raped” at the EC, Russell Moore — a mandatory reporter — still hasn’t called the police. And further note that voiding the insurance distinctly limits how much any possible victims can be paid.
This was politics. It was not “caring well”.
You can see and read the post, my comments, and the comments and replies of others here.
My portion copyright © 2021 by B. Nathaniel Sullivan. All rights reserved.