Southern Baptists either never learn from their mistakes or are willfully ignorant of the consequences of compromising, or giving even an inch, on doctrinal purity. The recent defeat of the Mike Law amendment at the SBC annual meeting is a glaring testament to this unfortunate reality.
The amendment, which sought to reinforce the SBC’s complementarian stance by constitutionally excluding egalitarian churches with female pastors, was met with fierce resistance from certain leaders who are more concerned with appeasing the cultural zeitgeist than upholding biblical truth.
Leading the charge against the amendment was former SBC president JD Greear, a man who has made it his mission to dilute the gospel with his progressive pandering. But he wasn’t alone, he was backed by one of the presidential nominees and leaders of the SATF, Bruce Frank.
Following the defeat of the amendment, Tyrone Barnette of Peace Baptist Church in Decatur, GA, along with several other open egalitarians in the SBC, took a victory lap crowing about his role in preserving the SBC’s drift towards egalitarianism. Barnette, whose church boasts a female “pastor” who regularly usurps the pulpit, had the brass to frame his opposition as a stand for biblical truth:
“I was in Indiana with all of that was going on and was thinking about leaving the convention because of what’s going on now and the conservative bent that’s happening, the political side of what’s happening, what they were doing to women in ministry. But because of being there, we’re able to turn the vote away. They were actually going to vote to make sure that if a woman is a minister, a pastor, or an elder in a church, those churches could not be [in the SBC]. But because I was there and many like myself were in there, we were able to speak truth biblically. Not culturally, but with the Bible. And share our faith, share the truth of the word of God, and cause that vote not to go in the way they wanted it to.”
The irony is palpable. Barnette and the thousands of egalitarians in the SBC, who blatantly disregard the clear teachings of Scripture on gender roles, claim they are the ones standing on biblical truth. Their hubris knows no bounds. They have twisted the Word of God to fit their agenda, using it as a prop to justify their rebellion against centuries of orthodox Christian teaching.
The defeat of the Mike Law amendment is a tragic illustration of what happens when the SBC allows itself to be swayed by cultural pressures rather than standing firm on the inerrant Word of God. This amendment was a necessary measure to protect the doctrinal integrity of the SBC from the creeping influence of egalitarianism. Yet, due to the cowardice and deceit of its opponents, it was struck down, leaving the door wide open for the next serious compromise on doctrinal issues.
