Friday, June 15, 2018

Religion's Terribly Mixed Signals


Ex-Catholic Mike Pence addressed the Southern Baptist Convention earlier this week and used that pulpit to promote the political agenda of his secular lord, Donald Trump. The one consolation in that sorry spectacle was that the previous day some members of the SBC had courageously spoken out against having Pence speak, and some 30% had supported that effort. Shortly after the Vice President's speech, the new President of the SBC, J.D. Grear tweeted: "I know that sent a terribly mixed signal. We are grateful for civic leaders who want to speak to our Convention—but make no mistake about it, our identity is in the gospel and our unity is in the Great Commission. Commissioned missionaries, not political platforms, are what we do."

More pointedly, in a speech earlier in the week, Grear had said: "We believe that Jesus is the lord of the whole earth. He is the king of kings and he is the lord of lords. We believe that he, not any version of Caesar, is the Messiah. He is the Christ, the son of the living God, that salvation is found in him, not in the Republican platform or the Democratic platform, and that salvation did not come riding in on the wings of Air Force One. It came cradled in a manger."

That at least was a direct message and sent a somewhat clearer signal!




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