On the Documentary “By What Standard?”
Last week, the Founders Movement, a conservative element in the Southern Baptist Convention, released a long-awaited documentary “By What Standard? God’s World . . . God’s Rules” challenging current cultural trends within the SBC. Three issues, in particular, are addressed—Beth Moore and the role of women in pulpit ministry in the churches, the acceptance of Critical Race Theory as an analytical tool (the infamous Resolution #9 from the 2019 Annual Meeting), and gender issues.
The SBC began a rightward shift in the late 20th century, the so-called Conservative Resurgence, to reset the course of the convention in a more biblically conservative way. Things like inerrancy, complementarianism, and the like regained the hegemony by 2000. While the SBC did not go as far as many fundamentalists wished they had, they purged theological liberalism out of denominational seminaries (the state schools are under the control of state conventions) and took a stand against women in pastoral leadership (Baptist Faith and Message 2000, art. 6).
The three key issues addressed in the cinedoc—the freedom of women in the pulpit, the use of Critical Race Theory (CRT) and gender issues are all linked to “power”—the power of men over women, the power of whites over blacks and the power of heterosexual over homosexual. The SBC is portrayed by many as an old-boys club led by racist, misogynist white men. New groups were seen to be threatening the old power structures. For example, some have suggested Beth Moore as a possible candidate to lead the convention. Why not a woman for president? Moore has added to the controversy by freely accepting an invitation to speak (preach) in SBC churches, including delivering the Mother’s Day sermon at her son-in-law’s church this year. This summer, on an SBC panel on the MeToo fallout in the denomination, she implied that complementarianism plays a role in the sexual abuse problem currently swirling in the church.
CRT, an idea that is complex, but rooted in Marxism, has come to the fore as some SBC educators are bringing black liberation theological ideas into the classroom discussions. An attempt was made at the 2019 SBC meeting in Birmingham to have a resolution opposing CRT, but the resolutions committee, led by African American academic Curtis Woods, who teaches at Southern, turned the resolution on its head, leading the convention to approve of CRT as an “analytical tool,” over the loud protests of some in the meeting. (Very recently, Tennessee Baptists voted to reject CRT and related issues). Finally, some Southern Baptists seemed sympathetic toward recent Revoice Conferences, including Karen Swallow Prior, who was recently hired at Southeastern as a research professor. At issue is whether genuinely obedient Christians can be permanently same-sex attracted (SSA). Some see signs of a softening of historic SBC views and a few churches have left the convention.
Fundamentalists may think that issues like these outside our movement will impact us little. However, it is in no one’s best interest to see the SBC surrender the ground gained in the Conservative Resurgence to cultural liberalism. We need to pray for these men in what they are trying to do. If they, like our forbearers, feel compelled to separate, they might find some of us to be conservative allies.
In the days since the release of the documentary, a predictable pushback has begun to surface. See here and here. R. Albert Mohler will likely become the next president of the convention. How he will respond to the cultural pressures is hard to predict. Beth Moore has immense popularity. She shows no sign of changing. CRT is a force within the denomination and the pressure to show itself over its racist past is enormous. Cultural sexual pressures press in around the church. Traditional biblical values seem threatened. Only the Lord knows where this will end.
The SBC remains an inclusive group, like the rest of evangelicalism and as such will always have these battles going on because they have allowed false teachers to remain in their midst because of their inclusivity. It continues to be utterly foolish for fundamental Baptists to somehow think that the IFB and the SBC are going to walk hand in hand. Within Fundamentalism there have always been some who were soft on evangelicalism, so there have and there will be some who find no problem linking with what is considered the more conservative element within the SBC and evangelicalism.
While it is informative for Fundamentalists to be aware of what is going on within evangelicalism, I for one, have no hope that the rank and file evangelicals are going to actually come out and become fundamentalists. Oh, there may be individuals who come out but not a wholesale exodus, inclusivism is too entrenched in their DNA for a jump of such epic proportions as an enmasse departure.