In the midst of the coronavirus pandemic, state and local governments around the country are exercising an enormous amount of usurped and largely unconstitutional authority to temper the freedoms and liberties afforded to American citizens. Not only has the pandemic been used as a conduit for stripping such freedoms as the right to bear arms, freedom of speech, and the freedom to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, most discouraging has been the onslaught of attacks against religious freedoms and the right to worship as we please.
Governments have largely banned worship around the country — so much so that many churches, thankfully, have stood up against their government’s usurped authority and declared that Jesus Christ is head of the Church, and not the state. This is what John MacArthur’s Grace Community Church has recently done and they have taken the heat for doing so.
However, Southern Baptist Theological Seminary students, led by Al Mohler, are now going to be required to sign a statement of blind allegiance to government mandates before they are accepted into the school. The statement, found at this link, asks students to “affirm together that we will follow and obey all rules, policies, advisories, and practices required by government authorities, mandated by our institutional responsibility and communicated by institutional leadership.”
It must be stated that the statement makes NO EXCEPTIONS to a government’s intrusion into the right to worship freely as God commands us to do. Bottom line, if you needed another reason to not go to a Southern Baptist seminary, look no further. This is about as unbiblical as it gets. But watch for Southern Baptist churches to start following suit soon and requiring members to do so or face church discipline.
The entire statement can be read below:
