Two Baptist preachers known for their claims that the nation’s largest Protestant denomination is becoming too liberal will be nominated for top roles in the Southern Baptist Convention.
In a statement that blasted SBC leaders for abandoning biblical truth and embracing “radical feminism” and “Race Marxism,” a group of Baptist pastors and professors announced plans to nominate Tom Ascol, president of Founders Ministries and pastor of Grace Baptist Church in Cape Coral, Florida, for SBC president. They also plan to nominate best-selling author Voddie Baucham, a former pastor and dean at African Christian University in Zambia, to lead the SBC Pastors’ Conference.
The statement, posted on the conservative website Capstone Report, said Ascol and Baucham will help turn the SBC away from “wokeness” and back to the Bible and criticized Baptist leaders who worry that the “world is watching” how Baptists behave.
“But we believe that God is watching, that He alone defines our terms and sets our agenda,” the statement read. “And God is not Woke.”
A number of signatures on the statement belong to leaders of the Conservative Baptist Network, which has been critical of current SBC leadership. Among the CBN leaders signing the statement are Lee Brand, the current first vice president of the SBC and a seminary professor; Mark Coppinger, a retired SBC theology professor; Brad Jurkovich, pastor of First Baptist Church in Bossier City, Louisiana; Mike Stone, a Georgia pastor and failed SBC presidential candidate; and Ronnie Rogers, pastor of Trinity Baptist Church in Norman, Oklahoma.
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Carol Swain, a retired professor and conservative commentator, and Texas pastor Tom Buck, a conservative social media agitator, also signed the statement.
Ascol joins Florida Baptist pastor Willy Rice as potential candidates for SBC president. Candidates for SBC president are nominated during the denomination’s annual meeting. Current SBC President Ed Litton, an Alabama pastor, announced earlier this month that he will not seek a second one-year term in office — the first time an SBC president has not served a second term in 40 years.
The nominations of Baucham, author of “Fault Lines: The Social Justice Movement and Evangelicalism’s Looming Catastrophe,” and Ascol, who has produced videos critical of the SBC, are the latest salvo in the “woke wars” being waged in the SBC and other evangelical groups.
A group of vocal critics in the SBC sees attempts to address racial injustice or other social ills as antithetical to the Christian gospel — in messaging that parallels that of Republican leaders and former President Donald Trump.
By the way, (a) I voted for the President in 2020, (b) I just don't see why churches have to disregard the work God gave us in order to do political parties' jobs for them.
— Bart Barber (@bartbarber) March 22, 2022
Ascol told The Daily Wire, a conservative media company co-founded by Ben Shapiro, that his concerns and the concerns of his church about the SBC have long been ignored.
“We’re told, you know, there’s nothing to see here. You’re meddling in business that doesn’t pertain to you,” he said.
Ascol has gained a higher profile in the SBC for his opposition to a resolution on critical race theory that passed during the SBC’s 2019 annual meeting. Ascol’s 2021 campaign to rescind that resolution failed.
Stone, who narrowly lost the 2021 election for SBC president to Litton, posted a note on social media endorsing Ascol.
Since losing the election, Stone has missed a number of high-profile meetings of the SBC’s Executive Committee, where he is a trustee and former chairman. He also blamed Russell Moore, former head of the SBC’s Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission, for his loss and sued Moore for libel. That lawsuit was later withdrawn.
Like Ascol, Stone has long been critical of what he sees as a liberal drift in the SBC.
“Tom is a pastor, a preacher, a writer, and a staunch advocate for conservative Bible principles,” Stone wrote on Twitter.
Ascol said in an interview last year that he believes SBC churches have been shaped more by pragmatism than by the Bible in recent decades. As a result, he said, SBC churches are filled with people who think they are Christians but really aren’t.
“We still have churches filled with unregenerate people,” said Ascol, whose ministry produced a documentary that criticized former SBC Bible teacher Beth Moore and former SBC President James Merritt of bringing the “Trojan horse of social justice” into the denomination.
In recent weeks, rumors that Baucham would be nominated for SBC president circulated on social media. Baucham has confirmed those rumors but said he was not likely eligible to be SBC president because he is not technically a member of an SBC church. Thought he is the former pastor of an SBC church and was sent as a missionary by that church, Baucham is a member of a church in Zambia.
According to the SBC’s constitution, “Officers of the Convention, all officers and members of all boards, trustees of institutions, directors, all committee members, and all missionaries of the Convention appointed by its boards shall be members of Baptist churches cooperating with this Convention.”
“I have indeed been asked to accept a nomination for SBC President. While I am honored to have been asked, I am not sure I am eligible,” Baucham said in March, according to Christianleaders.com.
Elections for the SBC Pastors’ Conference, which features a series on sermons held the two days before the convention’s annual meeting begins, are not subject to the same rules as the president of the denomination. The vote is usually held during the conference and in the past has been done by voice vote.
Baucham said that if nominated as president of the Pastors’ Conference, he would focus the conference on “biblical preaching” and support Ascol.
“I would love to see a revival of great biblical preaching in the SBC,” Baucham said. “The Pastors’ Conference has the potential to play a significant part in that, especially if it is part of a larger movement that brings a man like Tom Ascol into the SBC presidency.”
Despite the success of the Conservative Resurgence, which ousted more-moderate Baptists from the convention in the 1980s and 1990s and promised a golden age of evangelism and growth, the SBC has seen significant decline in recent years. The denomination lost more than 2 million members since 2006, with no turnaround in sight.
Bob Smietana is a national reporter for Religion News Service.
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36 Responses
The SBC has been fighting “liberal drift” for decades. They fail to recognize the reason for the perpetual drift is ignoring God’s instructions for fighting drift: “so that we may no longer be children, tossed to and fro by the waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine by human cunning, by craftiness in deceitful schemes.”
What is the solution to this? The VERY next verse: 15 Rather, speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ, 16 from whom the whole body, joined and held together by every joint with which it is equipped, when each part is working properly, makes the body grow so that it builds itself up in love.
Who is “speaking the truth in love? One hired Bible expert with a Bible degree in one way communication? No! The WHOLE BODY. When they practice this instruction to participate with ALL the gifts and in “one another” communication as is SPECIFIED in “meeting together” in Heb. 10:24-25. ALL BELIEVERS, “EVERY JOINT”, “EACH PART” can do this because God will enable this. The pulpit and pew building is NOT designed for this. It is designed for clergyism and one man talking in one way communication. Meet just in homes, parks, restaurants in small groups ONLY so BODY LIFE is the ONLY practice of God’s people. Did you have a verse that says “preach, teach, equip, feed, proclaim” equals lecture by only men with Bible degrees? They can use their degree but not to lecture, rule, or dominate. How am I wrong on OBEYING these instruction?
From reading their chapters, two apiece, in “BY WHAT STANDARD” “God’s World. God’s Rules”, I believe each are Excellent choices for leadership in the Church. Each in Christ.
There are those who may remember this song, “What the world needs now is Love, sweet Love……”
The answer is Jesus!
The SBC shouldn’t be dragged into the “woke” culture, but it shouldn’t be enticed to continue supporting the political right either, which has grounded the SBC since the days of Jerry Falwell, Sr. The problem with both agendas is that socio-political policy often interferes with a more “unfiltered” gospel message and lifestyle. Let the bible—all of it, not just one’s favorite verses—speak for itself.
in attacking the religious right, i am assuming you prefer the religious wrong. the early church fathers were the religious right of their day – opposing homosexuality, abortion, adultery, and other vices synonymous with the culture of Canaan. Thank God they stood for the absolute moral truth of Scripture.
I’ve watched the SBC leaders attempt to rid itself of all the “liberals” for over 40 years. Would the last remaining non-liberal in the SBC leadership turn the lights off when they are finished with the destruction of the convention. And please do it sooner and not later.
Seems certain religious people are so desparate for a boogie man to rail on – now what this “wokeness” is – that I only here from phariseeical religionists who claim to have “it” and God all figured out and tied up tight in a neat little box – which they use to beat everyone else up…
These two fellows are exactly the religionists Jesus came to expose….grounded only in their fleshly egos – they slap the name of Jesus around for what such a pathetically transparent “sense of legitimacy”.
Sounds like you have your “boogie man to rail on”. You may be just as “pharisaical religionist” or worse than they are who “claims to have “it” and I’m not sure what “all figured out…in a neat little box.” I’m no fan of men who do the pulpit talking ritual, but they may have more on target with truth than an ad hominem accuser.
Will be interesting to watch the next round of elections to see which way things go. The current slate from the uber-conservative wing (SBC is after all mostly just various shades of conservative) is entirely unsurprising.
There’s always a backlash whenever conservatives are prodded toward the truth that racism and justice are issues to be addressed by methods beyond personal salvation and discipleship.
For every Moore there is a Baucham, for every Litton, an Ascol. Every time the SBC makes positive progress on race or sexual abuse, there will be those looking to distract and redirectwith trumped up fears of CRT, wokeness or whatever the political right’s fear of the year is.
I’m pretty sure someone who makes the statement ““all figured out…in a neat little box” is making the same claim without recognizing it.
Voddie Baucham declared on national news that Sarah Palin was not qualified to be vice president or any public official for the single solitary fact that she is female. So yea this would be a step backwards.
Amen Mr Ekbom, both men are hardcore Calvinists if I am not mistaken and will only cause more division. The SBC is losing members because people are tired of the mixing of politics ( the right) and lack of true Christian love. I believe in the foundation of the faith there is also a lot of liberty we have in Christ. My concern is that they might have a very narrow view of doctrines that we as believers can agree to disagree in.
We need a balance and I just don’t know if these gentlemen and Christians can do it.
Blogs have pointed out that the SBC’s “Conservative Resurgence” is actually a CALVINIST Resurgence. Which is or soon will be into its “More Calvinist Than Thou” phase, AKA “What do predators eat after they’ve eaten all the prey?”
Ah, the Really Truly Reformed(TM), “Predestined from before the Foundation of the World for such a moment as this.”
Don’t both Franklin Graham and Tucker Carlson gush over Vladimir Putin being “Anti-Woke”?
These two men would be EXCELLENT choices to lead the SBC. Not only do they have the mental acuity to dismantle woke ideology, they also have the spiritual backbone to courageously rid the SBC of any “pastor” that erroneously embraces such a godless worldview.
The definition of woke is to be “alert to injustice in society, especially racism.” By that definition, the church should be leading the way in being woke AND in helping those most vulnerable to injustice.
But instead, the church has proven it’s aligned with conservative politics by improperly using the term “woke” as some sort of condescending label to anything it determines to be “left”.
Wake me up when the church chooses to get aligned with JESUS.
Typing the definition of “woke” does not in any way reflect what “woke” means in this cultural moment. “Woke” encapsulates the antiracist movement and the tenets of intersectionality. Perhaps you should re-acquaint yourself with the person of Jesus if you believe “woke” is any way, shape, or form aligned with his values and teachings. I assure you it is NOT. Antiracists and the tenets of intersectionality are completely out of line with the teachings and person of Jesus. They align much more with the oppressive, divisive, evil strategies of the enemy.
Brian –
Perhaps YOU should reacquaint yourself with Jesus if you think he ignored injustice, allowed hatred and prejudiced based on race (or gender) to fester, and did not speak up for the most vulnerable.
The Jesus of the Bible instructed us to love one another, reached out to the Samaritan woman when racism festered between Jews and Samaritans, met and ministered to those who were outcast and “othered” (which is what racism – or any type of “ism” – does), and provided an example on how to make sure the needs and voices of the most vulnerable (women and widows in a sexist society, the poor in a classist society) are met and heard.
THAT sort of Christlike behavior IS being intentional about confronting racism and injustice.
It’s a SHAME that the church does not want to follow this guidance. That’s why I’ll have little to say as the church continues to struggle with having effective ministry in this lost world.
Unbelievers are watching us debate, deflect, and defend racism and injustice as political issues rather than address them as spiritual issues to be healed through a true, saving relationship with Jesus Christ. And they aren’t impressed.
Twisting words again. Regardless of how many straw men you throw up… and regardless of how many times you make the disagreement about what it is not, it does not change the fact that antiracism is unapologetically racist. Jesus would (and does) passionately oppose antiracism (whose opposite is in no way pro-racism). Even a cursory reading of antiracist or intersectional writings will enlighten any individual to the hate-filled and divisive beliefs these worldviews unashamedly endorse. Antiracism is the new religion of our time and Christ followers need to actively oppose it with the same energy in which they oppose racism.
“Antiracism is the new religion of our time and Christ followers need to actively oppose it with the same energy in which they oppose racism.”
Same energy, huh? That’s the problem, Brandon. Christ followers are not spending enough energy opposing racism. That’s why our congregations remain among the most segregated populations in society, our Christian schools/colleges fall behind secular schools in diversity, and our “racial reconciliation” conferences are little more than “feel good, hug your neighbor” moments from which believers leave and return to their segregated bubbles.
I actually wish believers opposed racism with the same fervor and passion that they oppose “anti-racism.” When I was a student I wish I saw fellow believers passionately shouting at school board meetings to challenge why the ONLY Black history covered is slavery and MLK. Or stood up for Black students like me who felt uncomfortable when reading textbooks that refer to slaves as “laborers and migrants” (Yes, this happened in Texas, but…radio silence from the church.) Why do you think that is? Where was the energy to oppose that nonsense?
If that same passion were there as it is to speak out against intersectionality and whatever else is the “fear of the year”, I think we’d get somewhere.
No, the definition of WOKE is Worry Over Konfabulated Enmity. It’s a made up problem arising from the fragmenting of the concept of ‘the real’ and the individual care of the frittering of pagan philosophy (French solipsistic existentialism to French de-construction) on the back of the plight of AA communities care of the Liberal social engineering from LBJ on. This has reversed all the social cohesion, growth in wealth, and general participation of AA families that we saw from the 30s to the 60s. Liberals always looking for others to blame for the failure of their unrealistic vision of humanity. Thos. Sowell captures this in his Vision of the Anointed.
Social injustice and racism are not made up problems. Wanting people of all races to respect and love each other SHOULD be deemed Biblical – but you label it an “unrealistic vision.” Your attitude explains why the church is falling WAY behind in even wanting to address these issues.
As a Black woman, I can say the data shows that the largest leap of Black families into the middle class happened in the 70s and 80s through such programs as affirmative action, advancement of school integration/busing, and the like. (I have shared my story on how my parents helped integrate Baylor University – a Christian university that lagged behind secular ones in wanting to integrate, maybe due to the same attitude of “it’s a made up problem”?). Fast forward to the last decade, and we have seen Black women lead ALL demographics in completing graduate degrees and making the leap into the upper middle class. So the data shows there has not been a “reversal”.
You bring up LBJ – remember he was deemed “liberal” for pushing for the signing and passing of the FULL civil rights legislation, including the fair housing act that allowed me to be your neighbor. That same legislation that had conservatives IRATE. They labeled it as “doing too much too fast”, “forcing too much change”, and “trying to achieve something unrealistic.” Some things never change.
So the question is, how is all this working for you? for the church and its outreach to all races?
Seems that we are heading towards the church being little more than a political club.
Love that last line, Marin. It’s my sentiment as well. There are certain words that seem to be conversation enders. Perhaps the word “woke” should be discarded completely, forcing Christians to engage in ideas and not labels.
Marin –
“But instead, the church has proven it’s aligned with conservative politics.”
Should the church align itself with liberal politics or leave politics out altogether? Should the church align itself with the newly proposed abortion law in Maryland that would allow infanticide up to 28 days after birth, or should the church be silent altogether? Such a proposed law, that already passed the lower house, was not written or sanctioned by conservatives. I’m curious where you believe Jesus would be aligned.
The church should align itself with Jesus. Jesus may have ridden on a donkey, but he is not aligned with liberal or conservative politics, nor does he require loyalty to the Democratic party or the Republican party. He requires loyalty to God’s word, which calls us to love one another, stand for Godly justice, and minister to society’s most vulnerable.
Instead the church has become a club that determines if others can or should be members based on what political party they vote for (Conservative/Republican means “You’re in! You’re a REAL Christian!” and Liberal/Democrat means “God hating. baby killing Communist! OUT!”). We care more about if they vote like us than if they have a saving relationship with Jesus Christ, who came WAY before our nation – much less its political parties – existed.
We have resorted to the end justifies the means, defending the sinful behaviors and agendas of political leaders we “like” rather than calling it ALL what it is – SIN. (And it exists in BOTH parties). We deflect, downplay, and make excuses for continued injustices against the poor, women, elderly, people without healthcare, people of color (this is not a complete list) instead of stepping in to listen, help and minister to them.
We look JUST like the world, ready to slap labels and hurl accusations at others based on political beliefs – rather than working to change it. And I say that as someone who has been called a “God hating, baby killing Communist” by a “fellow believer” when I shared I supported Joe Biden in 2020. This same woman was mad that conservatives are called racists. She failed to see the irony in her comment.
So again, wake me when the church aligns itself with Jesus.
Marin
Thank you for the thoughtfulness (and the patience) of your replies. I was reminded recently of how much of the message of the prophets was a denunciation of Israel’s lack of concern for the poor, the widow, the fatherless, the foreigner–i.e., the people who are “not like us.” And as you point out, Jesus is in perfect alignment with the that message.
Maybe this is a good thing. The SBC will continue its hardline views mixing the politics to try to be relevant. It will continue to decline. Christianity will adapt and continue to preach the good news. It does not need the SBC to continue its work but it is sad to see its leadership in shambles.
To oppose antiracism and woke ideology is not political at all. Those who fully embrace the vision for unity and love that Jesus promoted must actively oppose antiracism and the tenets of intersectionality as they are in direct contradiction with even the most basic beliefs of Jesus, Peter, and Paul. It is unbelievably naive and at worst ignorant to dismiss opposition to antiracism and woke ideology as “hardline” or “political.”
I’m not sure what “opposition to antiracism” means to you, but think about how that comes across.
It comes across exactly how I mean it to come across. Jesus was not a pacifist. The enemy is not a pacifist. Opposition to antiracism means to do exactly what Paul urges us to do- take down every belief system that conflicts with the message of Jesus. In Greek, this is military imagery- it literally means to utterly, thoroughly annihilate and leave no trace of what was destroyed behind. I unashamedly and passionately oppose the divisive evil belief system of the antiracist. Those who just want to hold hands and get along with the very evil that wants to divide us need to examine their hearts and reacquaint themselves with the person of Jesus and the ministry of Paul. We don’t have time to sip tea on the deck of the titanic while it is sinking.
The double negative “opposition to antiracism” comes across as pro-racism on the surface. I assume that’s not what you’re promoting. Good luck to you saving the ministry of Jesus from the gates of hell.
Thank you, Loren. So we should oppose anti-racism…which literally means be pro-racism.
Count me out, Brandon.
Woke is a belief system… it is not merely a label. To reduce it as such is at best naive and at worst extraordinarily ignorant. This is not the time for cowardice and pleasantries. Jesus embodied grace and truth. We must do the same.
I agree this is not the time for cowardice and pleasantries.
It is cowardly to refuse to confront racism and the injustice it brings. And disciples of Christ should go beyond “pleasantries” to TRULY love those of all races. That takes courage.
And woke is being used as a label, improperly slapped on any and everything deemed “progressive.” Even when I ask people what is “right” and “conservative” and what is “left” and “progressive”, I get 100 different answers, full of labels and belief systems being improperly hurled as weapons of accusation and condescension.
All from the mouths of CHRISTIANS. We look just like the world when we do this, yet wonder why we are not impacting the world for Christ.
Quoting the national reporter, Bob Smietana, about the SBC – ” The denomination LOST two million members since 2006, with no turnaround in sight.” Percentage wise the SBC has, I believe, a much smaller loss of membership than many if not most other denominations. Over the decades many denominations have approached losing 40 percent or more of their membership – many of them subject “Calvinists”.
Mr. Smietana, please research the loss of membership in The Episcopal Church (TEC), the UCC, the RCA, the CRC, the ELCA, and others; compared to the SBC percentage wise.
Julie – does one not detect a progressive or liberal bent in your reporters? A report of my former church, the RCA, was of similar offense to me.
Christians are to be obedient to the Will and Word of God, and the Way that is in Christ Jesus, and to live by the Spirit. Jesus said his work was to do the will of God, and our work is to believe in the One God has sent, Jesus.
And let us not forget the decline of progressive denominations PCUSA and UMC.
Race and racism are America’s Original Sin. (Ask an American “Indian”.)
“CRT” and “wokeness” just point that out. But that makes some people very “uncomfortable”, because it implies that the right thing to do is to oppose racism and political appeals to racism.
For God’s take on racism and inter-“racial” marriage, read Chapter 12 of the Book of Numbers. (It is short.) Note His punishment of Moses’ sister.
PS All “white” and Asian people are descended from some very dark folks who pushed across the Red Sea 70,000 or so years ago. What we call “race” is the product of two vitamins–folic acid & Vitamin D–and latitude..