Messengers to the Louisiana Baptist Convention annual meeting Nov. 14-15 in Alexandria, La., asked state convention leadership to study recent actions of the Southern Baptist Convention agency entrusted with public policy concerns.
Clark Stewart, pastor of New Zion Baptist Church in Covington, La., brought a motion from the floor that the state convention’s Executive Board “study the recent actions of SBC Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission with regard to issues of concern to Louisiana Baptists.”
The motion, referred without discussion by recommendation of a committee on order of business, did not specify any particular issues of concern, but during the recent presidential race ERLC head Russell Moore was vocal in his opposition to the candidacy of President-elect Donald Trump.
Moore, who since taking the job in 2013 has tried to distance the Ethics and Religious Commission from his predecessor’s close identification with the Religious Right, said during the campaign that neither major party candidate was morally fit to be president.
He also questioned evangelical leaders who argued during the Bill Clinton presidency that character matters but were in 2016 jumping on the bandwagon of a thrice-married casino magnate whom Moore at one point described as a “lost person” who needs to “repent of sin and come to faith in Jesus Christ.”
The Baptist Message, the state convention’s newspaper, recently linked on its website to a blog saying that overwhelming support for Trump among white evangelical voters indicated that SBC leaders critical of the Republican nominee are out of touch with the rank and file.
In January, Baptist Message Editor Will Hall penned an editorial — “Does the ERLC represent the SBC?”— discussing not only Moore’s opposition to Trump but also “a penchant for disdain for Christians who think differently than him.”
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SOURCE: Baptist News Global
Bob Allen
BCNN1 WP 