Only five days before the Southern Baptist Convention will meet in Phoenix, temperature are rising.\u00a0 Although I previously\u00a0wrote that the weather inside the Convention Hall would probably be mild, I am beginning to think I may have to revise my forecast for inside where the 5,000 to 7,000 (estimated) messengers will gather.<\/p>\n
Why?\u00a0 Because of recent comments about a candidate for 1st Vice President.\u00a0 Bryant Wright will most likely run unopposed for a customary second term as President of the SBC.\u00a0 However, in Tuesday’s post, Countdown to SBC Phoenix:\u00a0 What to Expect<\/a>, I wrote:<\/p>\n “While I do no expect anyone else to run against Wright, the offices of\u00a01st and 2nd Vice President, both largely ceremonial, could provide some drama in an otherwise scripted affair.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n No sooner had I written those words than both Dr. Danny Akin, President of Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary, and Dr. Russell Moore, Dean of the School of Theology at The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, both took to Twitter (in an appropriate use of this social networking medium)\u00a0to trumpet the candidacy of Dr. Fred Luter for\u00a01st Vice President in Phoenix.<\/p>\n Apparently Dr. Luter’s\u00a0candidacy for this largely ceremonial office will be a precursor to a potential run for President of the Southern Baptist Convention in 2012.\u00a0 Dr. Luter\u00a0is the popular Senior Pastor of Franklin Avenue Baptist Church, a SBC megachurch\u00a0in New Orleans.\u00a0 Oh, and coincidentally or providentially (depending on your theology), next year’s Annual Meeting of the SBC will be held in New Orleans.\u00a0 Sounds like favorable conditions for Dr. Luter to be elected to the SBC’s highest office.<\/p>\n I\u00a0do not know Fred Luter, but I have heard him preach.\u00a0\u00a0From everything that I have heard or read about Dr. Luter, he seems to be a fine man of God who is being used by the Lord to reach his community with the Gospel of Christ.\u00a0 In that regard, he is really no different\u00a0than\u00a0Bryant Wright or Johnny\u00a0Hunt or Frank Page or Bobby Welch, the\u00a0current and\u00a0preceding three Presidents of the Southern Baptist Convention.<\/p>\n However, there seems to be one thing that distinguishes Dr. Luter\u00a0from the others — he is African-American.\u00a0\u00a0While the SBC has made great strides in recent years in reaching out to ethnic minorities, the\u00a0nation’s largest Protestant body continues to be comprised of\u00a0mostly Anglo congregations.\u00a0 Some\u00a0leaders within the SBC seem to think that\u00a0the election of Dr. Luter to be President of the Convention next year in\u00a0New Orleans would be a positive step for Southern Baptists to take.\u00a0<\/p>\n In several Tweets over the last few days, both Dr.\u00a0Danny Akin and Dr. Russell Moore, have shared their enthusiasm for a Luter candidacy, both this year in Phoenix and next year in New Orleans:\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n @drmoore<\/a>Russell Moore<\/p>\n The Associated Baptist Press, reporting on this development, went so far as to title their story, “Professor says Southern Baptists should elect black president.”<\/a>\u00a0 While Dr. Moore did not actually use those words in his earlier Tweet, a subsequent Tweet by Dr. Moore seems to accept ABP’s characterization:<\/p>\n Because of the Tweets and the ABP\u00a0article, I am somewhat confused by Dr. Akin’s and Dr. Moore’s comments surrounding a potential Fred Luter\u00a0candidacy for President of the SBC next year in New Orleans.\u00a0 Are they supporting Fred Luter, who is African-American, for President of the SBC or are they supporting a Luter candidacy because they believe that\u00a0“the time has come”<\/em> for an\u00a0African-American to be elected President of the SBC?\u00a0 There is a difference between the two.<\/p>\n The first reason is understandable.\u00a0 The second is problematic.\u00a0 Call me idealistic (and conservative), but I thought that we should be electing the best people for positions of leadership — both in the SBC and in the nation — irrespective of their race or ethnicity.\u00a0 If Dr. Luter is the best person to serve Southern Baptists as their President, then his race should not be used — either positively or negatively — in his candidacy.\u00a0 This year or next.\u00a0 Why?\u00a0 Because, as we have seen in our nation’s election of Barack Obama as President, once race is injected into a campaign, then any questioning of a candidate’s policies and beliefs will be viewed through the lens of race and racial politics.<\/p>\n It is bad enough that many view opposition to President Obama as racist.\u00a0 It would be tragic for the Southern Baptist Convention to begin to use race — however well intended — in our advocacy of certain candidates for elected office.\u00a0 Once we start down that road, there maybe no turning back.<\/p>\n It is with some hesitancy that I even publish this article.\u00a0 When talking about race and politics — even within the SBC — there is plenty of room for misunderstanding.\u00a0 Do Southern Baptists have an imperfect and sinful past regarding race?\u00a0\u00a0Yes.\u00a0 Does racism still rear its ugly head throughout the SBC?\u00a0 Just like in our culture at large.\u00a0 Do Southern Baptist churches still struggle with issues of race and inclusion?\u00a0 All the time.<\/p>\n There are some\u00a0who believe that the SBC still has a huge race problem.\u00a0 That may or may not be the case, but just because\u00a0someone believes a race problem\u00a0exists does not mean that everyone else\u00a0must\u00a0unquestionably agree with either the\u00a0stated proposition or the proposed solutions to said problem.\u00a0<\/p>\n Some may believe that Dr. Luter’s election as 1st VP in Phoenix and President in New Orleans will go a long way toward solving the race problems they see within the Convention.\u00a0 They may, in fact, be right.\u00a0 Who am I to say?\u00a0 But, let me state unequivocally that I will not base my vote for any candidate for office — either in the SBC or in our nation — on that candidate’s race or ethnicity.\u00a0 I will vote for a candidate based upon his stated policies, vision, and, where applicable, voting record.\u00a0 After all,\u00a0isn’t that what conservatives are supposed to do?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Only five days before the Southern Baptist Convention will meet in Phoenix, temperature are rising.\u00a0 Although I previously\u00a0wrote that the weather inside the Convention Hall would probably be mild, I am beginning to think I may have to revise my forecast for inside where the 5,000 to 7,000 (estimated) messengers will gather. Why?\u00a0 Because of…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[8,34,35,37],"tags":[129,172,183,283,343,355,403,404,406,568,3391,816,817,818,860,873,875,916,3393,919],"class_list":["post-2216","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-christianity","category-politics","category-religion","category-southern-baptist-convention","tag-barack-obama","tag-bobby-welch","tag-bryant-wright","tag-danny-akin","tag-elections","tag-ethnicity","tag-frank-page","tag-franklin-avenue-baptist-church","tag-fred-luter","tag-johnny-hunt","tag-politics","tag-race","tag-racial-politics","tag-racism","tag-russell-moore","tag-sbc-new-orleans","tag-sbc-phoenix","tag-southeastern-baptist-theological-seminary","tag-southern-baptist-convention","tag-southern-baptist-theological-seminary"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p1LP7G-zK","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/fromlaw2grace.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2216","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/fromlaw2grace.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/fromlaw2grace.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fromlaw2grace.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fromlaw2grace.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2216"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/fromlaw2grace.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2216\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/fromlaw2grace.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2216"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fromlaw2grace.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2216"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fromlaw2grace.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2216"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}\n