![]() These critics of Resolution Nine worked for two years to try to rescind or replace the resolution, which still failed at the June 2021 SBC annual meeting.Ĭurrent SBC leaders, Buice charges in his departure letter, have doubled down on their failure to denounce the social gospel. They see Critical Race Theory as Marxist-inspired heresy leading to a leftist worldview. That outcome was viewed as disastrous by Buice, Ascol and others on the SBC’s rightward edge. That resolution allowed that Critical Race Theory and intersectionality - which hardly anyone could define at the time - are simply analytical tools that are not harmful so long as they do not supersede the gospel. That was a full year before the controversial SBC resolution on Critical Race Theory - also simply known as Resolution Nine - was adopted in June 2019. Such a “liberal” idea as a social gospel is creating “an onslaught of dangerous and false teachings that threaten the gospel, misrepresent Scripture, and lead people away from the grace of God in Jesus Christ,” it says. “The biggest catalyst to this leftward movement undoubtedly was the acceptance of the social justice agenda.” That group produced a document called the “ Statement on Social Justice and the Gospel,” or just “The Dallas Statement.” The president of Founders Ministries, Tom Ascol, wrote the first draft of the statement. On June 19, 2018, Buice organized a meeting in Dallas attended by independent Calvinist pastor John MacArthur and other evangelical leaders - including some SBC leaders - to address the perceived threat of social justice to their understanding of the gospel. “Any denial of this downgrade is simply a refusal to report the facts about where the SBC is today, where the SBC was yesterday, and where the SBC is moving tomorrow.” “The biggest catalyst to this leftward movement undoubtedly was the acceptance of the social justice agenda,” he said. ![]() “In recent years, we’ve witnessed quite a transformation take place within the once beloved SBC that has necessitated separation for what I believe is far more than preference matters.”Įchoing the frequent accusations of the Conservative Baptist Network and Founders Ministries - the two most visible rightwing groups within the SBC - Buice charged that the SBC is experiencing a “leftward” drift. “All is not well within evangelicalism and that also includes the SBC,” he wrote. “Amid the rise of Trumpism and the current national reckoning over sexual abuse and race, even a largely conservative body like the SBC is being pulled apart.”Īs reasons for breaking away, Buice cited a “devious deconstruction plan that has been at work for many years behind the scenes” in the SBC and “acceptance of the social justice agenda which has resulted in the greatest downgrade in our modern era of church history.” Amid the rise of Trumpism and the current national reckoning over sexual abuse and race, even a largely conservative body like the SBC is being pulled apart. ![]() Moore’s departure and now Buice’s departure for opposite reasons illustrate the tightrope SBC leaders are walking while trying to hold together the nation’s largest non-Catholic denomination. Popular Bible teacher Beth Moore left the denomination, citing SBC leaders’ embrace of Donald Trump and apologizing for her own previous complicity with the teaching of complementarianism. Ironically, another high-profile defection from the SBC last year was driven by the opposite forces as those motivating Buice. Nevertheless, he was heartily endorsed by the mainly male group of conservative hardliners and Calvinists in the SBC. Litton was considered a centrist in the race.Īt the time, Stone found himself at the center of a still-swirling controversy about allegations of SBC leaders mishandling knowledge of sexual abuse within SBC congregations and institutions. In a five-way race for the presidency, Litton by a narrow margin defeated Georgia pastor Mike Stone, who had been endorsed by the most conservative factions of the denomination. In a 2,400-word statement posted to social media, Buice said the “final straw” for him and his congregation was the election of Alabama pastor Ed Litton as SBC president last June. Buice holds a doctor of ministry degree from Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, led by President Al Mohler, who is among the best-known Neo-Calvinists in the SBC. Buice represents a younger generation of Reformed Baptists - sometimes referred to as TheoBros - who typically serve small ultraconservative churches and frequently debate the finer points of theology at conferences and online, especially via Twitter.
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