In the words of James Merritt, “there is no leftward drift. None.” Obviously, that statement is absurd. The Southern Baptist Convention has now elected the third president in a row who has downplayed the sin of homosexuality.

In 2019, JD Greear—who was elected president in 2018—preached a sermon on Romans 1 and concluded that God believes other sins, such as boasting, are more egregious than homosexuality. In 2021, we revealed that his successor, Ed Litton, had been plagiarising all of his sermons and taught this same, unbiblical teaching. For Greear and Litton, the Bible only “whispers” about homosexuality.

Now, some tweets from 2014 have surfaced and revealed that the newly-elected president, Bart Barber, believes that one can be saved and still practice unrepentant, serial homosexuality.

During a 2014 Twitter thread, Barber asserted that he believes that everyone at the Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission, which was headed by Russell Moore at the time, believed this:

When pressed, he doubled down and compared homosexuality to boasting and said that practicing serial, unrepentant sin is not enough to send you to Hell if you are “saved by grace.”

But the Scriptures do not teach this. The Scriptures teach that those who have been saved by grace cease to practice serial unrepentant sin and it is not ambiguous on this point.

⁴ Everyone who makes a practice of sinning also practices lawlessness; sin is lawlessness. ⁵ You know that he appeared in order to take away sins, and in him there is no sin. ⁶ No one who abides in him keeps on sinning; no one who keeps on sinning has either seen him or known him. ⁷ Little children, let no one deceive you. Whoever practices righteousness is righteous, as he is righteous. ⁸ Whoever makes a practice of sinning is of the devil, for the devil has been sinning from the beginning. The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the works of the devil. ⁹ No one born of God makes a practice of sinning, for God’s seed abides in him; and he cannot keep on sinning, because he has been born of God. ¹⁰ By this it is evident who are the children of God, and who are the children of the devil: whoever does not practice righteousness is not of God, nor is the one who does not love his brother. —1 John 3:4-10

And:

⁹ Or do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor men who practice homosexuality,¹⁰ nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God. ¹¹ And such were some of you. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God. —1 Corinthians 6:9-11