The Southern Baptist Convention’s elite circuit is nothing less than a deep-state cabal filled with nepotism and favoritism and those who participate in it are like an elitist mafia that will go to nearly any length to protect their own kingdoms. As we’ve seen in the last several months with the FBC Naples debacle, these Southern Baptist leaders will lie, cheat, and destroy the reputations of anyone who stands in their way.

You may remember the scandal at First Baptist Church of Naples, FL where a black pastoral candidate, Marcus Hayes, failed to receive enough of the required votes to install him as the new senior pastor. Shortly after the vote, the church — along with Southern Baptist leaders — began to cry “racism” and “white supremacy” as the motivation behind the rejection which led us to believe there was more to the story. Knowing how the Southern Baptist Convention operates, we opined that the motivation was likely not motivated by racism at all. And we were right.

It turns out that after we received emails from the concerned party who voted against Hayes, the motivation for his rejection had much more to do with his liberal progressive bent and, well, zero evidence of racism.

We then began to connect the dots between the current church leadership and the failed vote and came to the conclusion that the leadership — many of which had a serious criminal history including fraud — were likely involved in a back-alley deal with Southern Baptist leaders to install Hayes. As the leadership began to purge dissenting members from the congregation — without following the biblical steps of Matthew 18 and church discipline — more and more members became concerned with how the church was being operated. The plan was to purge the “no” voters and re-hold the vote bringing Hayes in as the senior pastor. Ultimately, after the scandal ran its course and facts began to emerge, Hayes decided to drop out and remove his candidacy altogether.

We then discovered that at least two of the top leaders in the church had serious criminal backgrounds that if the church were aware of, it should have — at a minimum — disqualified them from the leadership positions they held.

The first was the chairman of the pastoral search committee, Neil Dorrill, who had charges of racketeering against him in 2001 receiving 3 years probation and a ten thousand dollar fine for handing out pay raises as county manager in exchange for another high-profile job. This was the man who oversaw the search for a new pastoral candidate — which suspiciously seems like it was a failed back-alley deal between Southern Baptist elites.

The second was the former Executive Pastor, John Edie, during the transition period between the former pastor’s resignation and the search for a new pastor. Edie had felony charges against him in 2016 for carrying a loaded concealed weapon into the Miami airport. He successfully completed a deferred prosecution program and had the charges dropped. Nonetheless — by any discernable standard — these were serious charges against a man who was leading a church the size of FBC Naples.

A few months ago, after the failed attempt at installing Marcus Hayes and Edie’s inappropriate disciplinary actions against any dissenting church members, and weeks of smearing the reputations of Christians and church members, Edie resigned from the Church.

Enter Jon Akin.

After the failed attempt to install Hayes as the new pastor of Naples, the Southern Baptist Convention sent Jon Akin to fill the role of interim pastor. Akin — son of Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary president, Danny Akin — was sent by Kevin Ezzell, president of the Southern Baptist Convention’s North American Mission Board (NAMB). For several months, Akin has been preaching the services at FBC Naples and making every attempt to whitewash the history of the church’s leadership. This past Sunday was no different.

This past Sunday, Akin opened the sermon — by asking his young daughter to come to the stage to read a Psalm — and then proceeded with what appears to be a whitewashed story about Edie’s history. Though he didn’t name Edie’s name, it’s completely absurd to think that the church and its members wouldn’t know who he was talking about. In fact, the entire show was bizarre, to say the least.

If this story wasn’t about Edie, as some have claimed, then the coincidence that another pastor of a large megachurch did the exact same thing with the exact same outcome is troubling. There would appear to be a systemic problem of civil ineptitude within the SBC megachurch pastorate. And that Akin is friends with them both is telling. Watch.

What’s fascinating to watch is how Akin slips this completely unrelated story in as though it’s some kind of illustration that has anything to do with the content of the Psalm or the sermon. It has nothing at all to do with it. This was another attempt by Akin to settle the dust around a storm that just happened at that church by attempting to ease the minds of those church members who know about Edie’s past and placate them.

The fact is, Edie was completely unqualified to lead a church for more reasons than just his irresponsible carrying of a gun into an airport — intentional or not. Edie spent months smearing the names of church members and even firing the security personnel of FBC Naples for so-called “mistakes.” And Akin’s re-enactment of the story is patently false as you can see from the timeline of the process — he didn’t just “get off” with some kind of a fine, he had to enter and successfully complete a deferred prosecution program. This was a serious crime and the vast majority of the congregation was unaware at the time.

Now that he’s gone and people know about it, is Akin trying to downplay it as though it really wasn’t that big of a deal? Please. These things are far more serious than the elitist cabal is making them out to be. All of them are self-righteous, unqualified, kings of their own kingdoms and they will do anything to protect it.