You’re probably aware by now of the kerfuffle surrounding Saddleback Church, formerly led by Rick Warren and now led by Andy Wood, and its subsequent removal from the Southern Baptist Convention for ordaining women to the pastorate. The decision to disfellowship the church came after the 2022 annual meeting where the denomination’s credentials committee was tasked with looking into Saddleback’s ordination of women and making a recommendation to the Executive Committee on what actions to take against the church.
Despite the fact that the credentials committee was unable to immediately assess whether or not Scripture or the Baptist Faith and Message allowed women to serve in the office or function as pastor, ultimately, after months of “research” and “study,” and pressure from a handful of conservative-leaning voices in the denomination, the decision was rightly made to disfellowship Saddleback.
But the action to disfellowship Saddleback actually raises more questions than it answers. While we should applaud the decision, we should also ask the following questions:
- What took so long to make the decision and why was it so difficult?
- Who or what is the motivation for the decision? Was it pragmatic? Political?
- Why the decision to disfellowship Saddleback for ordaining women, but no action taken against another major flagship megachurch that is regularly baptizing openly, practicing homosexuals?
“Baptizing homosexuals?” you ask. That’s correct—and we’re not talking about Andy Stanley and North Point. That church is an easy target, and that church isn’t Southern Baptist. In 2022, First Baptist Orlando, Florida’s flagship Southern Baptist megachurch, was unequivocally exposed as a queer-affirming, gospel-less, false church led by wolves who prioritize appeasing the anti-Christian left over the eternal lives of unrepentant sinners.
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Through much research between The Dissenter, Justin Peters Ministries, and others, this church has been found to be regularly baptizing openly gay practicing unrepentant homosexuals and granting them full membership and service privileges. These are not mere allegations, but incontrovertible facts that have been thoroughly investigated.
You can read more about these findings at these two links:
- Smoking Gun: FBC Orlando’s Danny DeArmas Baptized Openly Gay, “Married” Man-to-Man Homosexual
- More Openly Gay, Practicing Homosexuals Discovered as Members in Good Standing at First Baptist Orlando
The Dissenter’s February 2022 report lays bare the extent of First Baptist Orlando’s capitulation to gay ideology. The associate pastor, a former chair of the North American Mission Board (NAMB), boasted from the pulpit that the church welcomed homosexuals, transgenders, pro-abortion activists, and other God-haters into their midst and allowed them to serve. In a brazen display of defiance, the lead pastor, David Uth, doubled down on this unscriptural approach and announced plans to partner with NAMB to plant even more churches that embrace this erroneous ecclesiology.
Thanks to the thorough research of a few, the damning evidence of First Baptist Orlando’s gay affirmation has now been irrefutably established. Yet, there has not been a single word from the Southern Baptist Convention establishment over this church. Why is that? While ordaining women is bad, this is far more egregious. This isn’t a matter of a simple false doctrine that leads to compromise, this is a completely false gospel being pushed at this completely apostate church. And it’s not even a secret—they’re openly boasting about it:
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