Friday, July 27, 2012

New Black Leader of Southern Baptist Church Faces Black Marriage In White Church Controversy in Mississippi


This story is going to get interesting quick. See from the Jackson Mississippi paper Black couple says white church banned wedding (video)

I expect this to get some major headlines that would happen regardless if the Southern Baptist had not just elected their first Black President in history.. Now it just screams attention.

What caught my eye was a tweet from influential Southern Baptist and Mississippi native Dr Russell Moore. Catholics might recognize that name because he is friends and works very closely with Robert George on a number of issues.

In a tweet he said this morning:

Absolutely pathetic. I am humiliated that this is an SBC & Mississippi Baptist church

and

Again, a white supremacist church is just as anti-gospel as a sexual liberationist church, and should be just as disfellowshiped.

He has made similar statements before. I think this is going to be a theme we shall be seeing. It's not clear what the Southern Baptist Convention can do as as body itself officially at this moment. That is because it of course meets just once a year. So the action is going to go to the local association and state association I suppose. Though the leadership of the SBC no doubt will be involved.

I suspect this issue will be dealt with before there is an actual vote on this.However there has been an uptick in " disfellowship " actions or threats  among associations and local Baptist Churches. These have often dealt with female pastor issues, gay issues, and also Calvinist theology issues. Which also adds more heat to the fire as Calvinist are not too happy about. So expect a lot of SO WE GET DISCIPLINED AND THIS DOES NOT stuff to move things along rather quickly.


1 comment:

Andy said...

If there is a silver lining to the story, it was that the pastor was disturbed by the white members' objections and tried to accommodate the black couple in another venue. However due to the bottom-up church polity for which the Baptists are famous, I'm not sure what else the pastor could have done other than resign in protest.