The Sad Reality of the Southern Baptist Convention and the Alt-Right Condemnation

If you’re a denominational nerd or even just a casual fan, you most likely heard that the Southern Baptist Convention officially condemned a fringe movement with racist overtones. That’s it. That’s the only real news coming out of the nation’s largest protestant denomination. There were many other things discussed and celebrated, but from the outside looking in, that’s what this year’s Convention will be remembered for: a political statement. And that’s the sad reality.

Baptists like to believe that we’re people of the Book, that we value what Christ values, that we live how Jesus lived. So, in honor of Jesus’ long-standing tradition of making political statements . . . . that’s just it. Jesus never made a political statement. When the religious leaders tried to drag him into a contentious issue like paying the imperial tax to Caesar (Matthew 22:15-22), Jesus still wouldn’t take the bait. And yet Baptists are now known for their political stances and statements. Anyone remember when we decided to boycott Disney?

Whether the Alt-Right movement needs public condemnation or not is besides the point. The point of this point is simply that for a group of people who claim that our kingdom is not of this world, we sure do a fine job of getting distracted by earthly issues. Do you know what would have been great news to come out of this year’s Convention? A plan to turnaround our steady decline in numbers. A way to baptize more people than just our biological kids. A concrete way to revitalize tens of thousands of dying churches. A plan to get us back on track with what we’re left on earth to do: making disciples of all nations.

But those are hard conversations that require too much self-reflection, honesty and change. It’s much easier to make political statements condemning fringe groups that a majority of people haven’t even heard of. Unfortunately we’re not a political group. It’s not who we are. It’s not who we should be. But if it’s who we’re becoming, then it makes complete sense why so many people are walking away from our churches.