Conservative churches have been dropping from the Southern Baptist Convention in droves since J.D. Greear became president of the denomination a few years ago. But since Ed Litton was elected to the presidency last year, the mass exodus of faithful churches and pastors has drastically increased.

A few weeks ago, prominent anti-social justice pastor, Josh Buice, led his church out of the denomination over the failed leadership and the lack of accountability for our current president who has been embroiled in a plagiarism scandal of epic proportions spanning multiple years. But Ed Litton isn’t actually the problem; he’s only a symptom of the problem.

The problem with conservative churches leaving the denomination is the failed leadership; the refusal to address the underlying problems within the denomination that have brought us to this place, to begin with. The problem is that postmodernism has infected every institution in the Southern Baptist Convention in such a way that any public confrontation among leadership is largely seen as taboo. Therefore, we see little to no public accountability for the unrepentant sins of leadership by other leadership.

This is draining and taxing on those who desperately want to see real leadership.

Now, another Southern Baptist Church has announced its departure from the denomination, citing these same issues. Jeremy Williams, pastor of the Houston Baptist Church in Arkansas, cited the following reasons for leaving the denomination in an open letter to the Convention:

• The godlessness that was displayed in the opening moments of the Convention from the stage in what was referred to as “worship” was appalling. Worship was certainly the objective, but it was clear that man, not Jesus, was the intended object of that worship.
• The evasiveness of Kevin Ezell of NAMB, and the lawyer they employed when asked from the floor to provide transparency concerning salaries within the organization. The end result of this exchange was essentially, “We’re qualified. Trust us. Please pass the microphone to the person behind you and take your seat.”
• The use of a young lady, seemingly as a pawn, by Grant Gaines and others, by putting her on display for everyone to see and attempting to utilize her tragic situation to manipulate the emotions of those in attendance
• The unrelenting onslaught of conversations and the adoption of useless platitudes concerning sexual issues as a clear signal of capitulation to and allegiance with a watching world
• The secular political tactics employed against candidate Mike Stone
• The public, real-time endorsement of a candidate by Danny Akin, a seminary head, clearly seeking to use his platform within the SBC to affect the election
• The election by the messengers of the Convention of the most liberal candidate by far of the four candidates available to us, Ed Litton. Litton appears to have been the widely endorsed candidate of the powers-that-be, which reeks of secular politics and the ways of the pagan world.
• The fact that Al Mohler supporters preferred this establishment candidate spoke volumes
• James Merritt’s still yet unrebuked condescension and beratement of the messengers in what can no doubt be classified as an ungracious rant by an angry man in an attempt to bully voters toward his preferred result
• Outgoing President Greear’s ridiculous “sermon” which was no sermon, but was instead a castigation of opposition and an agenda promoting political speech with a Bible verse or two mixed in for effect
• The refusal of the Resolutions Committee to propose a vote on a resolution repudiating Critical Race Theory. The proposed resolution was submitted to the Convention by a record-shattering 1,300 messengers!
• The reasoning for this course of action can only be explained by a fear of man and a desire to placate men such as Dwight McKissic who had publicly threatened to leave the SBC if this issue was addressed in a manner that he deemed to be unfavorable.
• The unrelenting use from the stage of phrases such as, “The world is watching” made it absolutely clear who we were expected to please with our votes and our actions and it was not Jesus Christ
• The perverted use of numerous times of “prayer” which were not times of prayer to our God, but were instead prostituted opportunities to preach at the messengers and reiterate how they were expected to vote