The largest Protestant denomination in the country, the Southern Baptist Convention (SBC), is facing allegations of back-door meetings, heavy-handed power-plays, silencing women, and trying to remove critics of President Donald Trump —all while responding to a massive sex abuse scandal.
This week on The Roys Report, Southern Baptist Pastor and longtime SBC insider, Wade Burleson, speaks with me about what’s happening behind the scenes within the denomination. Specifically, he talks about the refusal of the SBC Executive Committee to rent space for the upcoming SBC Pastor’s Conference if the conference keeps a female spoken word artist on the program. We also talk about the Executive Committee’s recent decision to commission a task force to scrutinize an SBC group whose leader has openly criticized Donald Trump.
All this, and a disturbing story of how Burleson urged the SBC more than a decade ago to track sexual predators, but the leadership refused—this week on The Roys Report.
Wade Burleson
Wade Burleson has been the lead pastor of Emmanuel Enid for 28 years. He is an author of several books, and writes regularly on his award-winning blog called Istoria Ministries. Wade and his wife of 37 years, Dr. Rachelle Burleson, have four kids and 3 grandkids. He has served two terms as President of the Baptist General Convention of Oklahoma and held many positions within the Southern Baptist Convention.
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13 Responses
That is some awful, awful, culturally driven exegesis…. (1 Timothy 2:11-15)
Egalitarianism is not biblically driven, but culturally.
according to your interpretation. acknowledge that at the very least, please.
I don’t believe in your post-modern view of truth.
Wade is not a healthy representative of the SBC. His liberal theology is borderline if not heresy.
Julie tying sexual abuse with Egalitarianism is irresponsible.
What? I think you must have misunderstood.
The description of the tweet tied to this story. Saying SBC has a history of covering abuse is correct, but asking why not allowing a woman pastor has nothing to do with Sexual abuse.
My tweet said: “Wade says So Bapt Conv refused to protect women from sexual predators when he urged them to do it in 2007, claiming churches are autonomous. Why then is SBC imposing its will on @SBCPastorsConf to silence a woman now?”
I was simply highlighting a point that Wade made during the podcast. Wade said the SBC refused to track sexual predators at churches in 2007 because the denomination said the churches were autonomous and SBC couldn’t force the churches to do anything. Now, the SBC is imposing its will on the SBC Pastor’s conference, which is an autonomous organization run by the pastors of autonomous churches.
The point is that there’s inconsistency in governance. The SBC can’t claim the churches and organizations like the SBC Pastor’s Conference, are autonomous in one situation, and then treat them like they’re not autonomous in another.
I didn’t say anything about egalitarianism. The fact that the SBC is flexing its muscle to keep a female spoken word artist from performing is notable. I think many wonder why the SBC wasn’t willing to flex its muscle to protect women from sexual predators, but now is willing to do it to keep a woman from performing. That’s a valid question.
“The point is that there’s inconsistency in governance. The SBC can’t claim the churches and organizations like the SBC Pastor’s Conference, are autonomous in one situation, and then treat them like they’re not autonomous in another.”
Not the only issue here, obviously, but I think this is the first place to start. Let’s be consistent Executive Committee!
entirely valid and rational question
On the issue of gender roles, many enthusiastically quote cherry picked proof texts out of context while ignoring core Biblical texts such as Ephesians 5:21, Galatians 3:28, and Acts 2:17-18 as if they did not exist.
It seemed Wade was using your platform to make a case for egalitarianism. I was not impressed with his flattery towards you to make a case on somehing the podcast was not intended for. Just my thoughts.
My thoughts exactly