Jonathan Merritt is the openly, practicing homosexual son of former Southern Baptist president and recently-hired Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary faculty member, James Merritt. James Merritt, who took aim at conservatives during the 2021 Southern Baptist Convention annual meeting arguing that Critical Race Theory is not a problem in the Church and that Christians shouldn’t concern themselves with fighting against it, is now openly and publicly promoting his homosexual son as “faithful to the gospel.”

Reformation Charlotte attempted to reach out to Danny Akin, president of Southeastern Seminary, for comment but did not receive a response.

To be clear, Jonathan Merritt is anything but “faithful to the gospel.” In fact, this is almost akin to saying that Satan himself is “faithful to the gospel.” Just because Satan may have said something true at some point during his existence doesn’t make him something to point Christians to as an example of being “faithful to the gospel.”

While we can understand the desire to continue to love your child despite his rebellion against God, what Merritt is doing is turning people away from faithfulness to the gospel. Jonathan’s views and practices are much more than a mere “disagreement”–it is the difference between orthodoxy and damnable heresy. Jonathan Merritt is not a Christian, he is not saved, and he does not faithfully represent the gospel, Christ, or the Scriptures.

That James Merritt can condemn conservatives who want to purge the Church of heresy while lifting this up as faithfulness speaks volumes about who James Merritt is and what he is about. To this day, he has never publicly denounced the heresy and blasphemy that his son daily propagates.