— Pastor J.D. Greear of The Summit Church in Durham was elected on Tuesday as the new president of the Southern Baptist Convention. According to The Associated Press, J.D. Greear is among numerous SBC leaders saying the doctrine needs to be observed in a way that is respectful of women and encourages them to play an active role in church affairs. In a recent video posted on Facebook, Greear said the church has hurt itself by excluding women from top leadership posts. "This afternoon the Southern Baptist Convention voted to elect me as its 62nd president," Greear wrote on Tuesday in a Facebook post. "I am at once honored and humbled to step into this role, which I will do, officially, tomorrow afternoon. As a reminder, the position of SBC president is a volunteer role that will not take away from my responsibilities at the Summit. Our church is, and will always be, my top priority." Greear, 45-years-old, narrowly lost the election for president in 2016.<doc-sep>The Southern Baptist Convention (SBC) voted on Monday to keep Vice President Pence as a speaker at its annual gathering in Dallas this week after a Virginia pastor voiced objections to the address. Pastor Garrett Kell expressed concerns that a speech from Pence could make it seem like the denomination is aligned with one political party more than another. ADVERTISEMENT "We must do all that we can to preserve the purity of the gospel, and this invitation works against it," Kell said, according to The Tennessean. The pastor's request did not garner enough votes to do away with the vice president's address. “As a committee, we feel to not show hospitality to those in authority would be a bad testimony for Southern Baptists,” Grant Ethridge, the chairman of the convention's committee on order of business, told The Tennessean, addressing Kell's concerns. "I believe we respect the position regardless of whether or not you supported or voted for the person," he continued. The convention announced on Monday that the vice president, who is an evangelical, would speak the event on Wednesday. "We are excited to announce Vice President Mike Pence Michael (Mike) Richard PenceFilibuster fight looms over Jan. 6 commission White House briefing room opens to 50 percent capacity Bipartisanship is dead — Republicans killed it MORE will be attending this year's SBC annual meeting to express appreciation to Southern Baptists for the contributions we make to the moral fabric of our nation," SBC President Steve Gaines said in a statement. The address comes as the Christian denomination faces backlash for comments from former Southern Baptist leader Paige Patterson in which he said women who are abused by their husbands should pray for them and that women should “be submissive in every way that you can.” The board of the Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary voted to remove Patterson as the leader of the Forth Worth, Texas, institution. “After much prayer and a more than 13-hour discussion regarding challenges facing the institution, including those of enrollment, financial, leadership and institutional identity, the Board determined to move in the direction of new leadership,” the Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary board said in a statement on Tuesday. The board did not reference Patterson’s comments or criticism of him in its statement. Patterson will be named president emeritus and will reside on campus as a “theologian-in-residence” for a new Baptist Heritage Center. He reportedly will be compensated for the role.<doc-sep>This year was always going to be a controversial one for the Southern Baptist Convention’s annual meeting, which takes place Tuesday and Wednesday in Dallas. From the public outcry surrounding former president Paige Patterson, who was fired from his post as head of the Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary after making a series of remarks that appeared to justify spousal abuse, to the numerous clashes within the evangelical community centered on the Trump presidency, the 2018 meeting of America’s largest evangelical denomination was already set to be fraught. Now, Vice President Mike Pence is planning to speak at the event. Pence will speak on Wednesday, the second day of the conference, the SBC announced on Monday. “We are excited to announce Vice President Mike Pence will be attending this year’s SBC annual meeting to express appreciation to Southern Baptists for the contributions we make to the moral fabric of our nation,” said current SBC president Steve Gaines. Pence is the highest-ranking government official to attend an SBC convention in person. (George W. Bush gave a speech via video link in 2005.) Attending and endorsing explicitly religious organizations is, however, something Pence has a history of doing. He spoke at last year’s Focus on the Family anniversary and attended the anti-abortion March for Life. His presence at the annual meeting, furthermore, strengthens the existing bonds between the evangelical community and the White House, which has increasingly focused on white evangelicals as its support base. (Eighty-one percent of white evangelicals voted for Trump in 2016, and 75 percent continue to support him as of spring 2018.) Symbolic Trump administration moves like transferring the US Embassy in Israel to Jerusalem and working to repeal the Johnson Amendment have served to bolster and support that evangelical base. In return, members of the evangelical “old guard” — from Jerry Falwell Jr. to Tony Perkins — have continued to vociferously support Trump, even going so far as to suggest his presidency was preordained by God, despite the protestations of an increasingly vocal evangelical minority. (Meanwhile, some younger evangelical leaders, like Russell Moore, president of the SBC’s public policy outreach arm, have been longstanding and vocal Trump opponents.) Within that context, Pence’s decision to speak at the SBC convention seems like yet another conflation of Christianity and Trumpism: a political alliance between the GOP apparatus and the evangelical old guard that may overshadow the wider story of the SBC. When an entire religious community is dealing with the fallout of #MeToo, what does it mean to give a platform to the second-in-command of one of the most unrepentant “pussy grabbers” of all? Likewise, the Trump administration stance on racial justice, particularly in the wake of the Charlottesville, Virginia, attacks, makes a Trump administration representative an uncomfortable choice. In recent years, the SBC has been actively moving away from its historic association with white supremacy. (The denomination has historic links with slaveholders.) In 2015, it passed a resolution for racial reconciliation; in 2016, it condemned the Confederate flag; and in 2017 it condemned the “alt-right.” Pence’s role may appear to re-cement the historic, deeply politicized affiliation between white evangelicalism and the GOP, what the Religion News Service’s Jack Jenkins called “Christian Nationalism.” Very disappointing news. Sends the wrong message and reinforces the perception that SBC = Republican. The gospel of King Jesus is not tied to any American political party. This confuses that.#SBC18https://t.co/BQ8sObAxjb — Matt Smethurst (@MattSmethurst) June 11, 2018 Seriously?! Southern Baptist leaders have not been paying attention to the concerns of people of color, women, immigrants, and Muslims. Despite their words of contrition and reconciliation, this action is contradictory to those sentiments. We remember the 81 percent! #SBC18 https://t.co/IYRcloXbJh — Jemar Tisby (@JemarTisby) June 11, 2018 As Baptist pastor and blogger Brent Hobbs wrote for SBC Voices: “I can’t see any way for a member of a President’s administration to address the convention without our convention being seen as supportive and politically tied. “When Mike Pence enters, he’ll receive a standing ovation from a (likely vast) majority of the messengers. This will alienate those in our own family who by conviction do not or cannot support this administration. Instead of standing together in unity over the gospel, our political differences will be put on display for an extended ovation.” John Fea, a historian of religion at Messiah College and the author of Believe Me: The Evangelical Road to Donald Trump, echoed Hobbs’s sentiments, telling me in an email: At a time when the Southern Baptist Convention needs to come together to repent of its past misogynistic behavior it has chosen instead to welcome the chief surrogate of one of the most divisive presidential administrations in recent memory with a well-documented track record of degrading women in public. Can the SBC think of any more ways to shoot itself in the foot? Updated to include a quote from John Fea.<doc-sep>
The Southern Baptist Convention voted Monday to keep Mike Pence as the group's speaker at an upcoming gathering after a Virginia pastor objected to hosting the vice president. "We must do all that we can to preserve the purity of the gospel, and this invitation works against it," Pastor Garrett Kell said, according to The Tennessean. Kell argued Pence's speech slot should be replaced with prayer in order to avoid the optics of the evangelical church aligned with a political party. The pastor's call to remove Pence as speaker fell short. Grant Ethridge, the chairman of the convention's committee on order of business said, "As a committee, we feel to not show hospitality to those in authority would be a bad testimony for Southern Baptists." He added, "I believe we respect the position regardless of whether or not you supported or voted for the person." Steven Gaines, the Southern Baptist Convention president said in a press release Monday that his group announced Pence as the group's speaker. "We are excited to announce Vice President Mike Pence will be attending this year's SBC annual meeting to express appreciation to Southern Baptists for the contributions we make to the moral fabric of our nation," Gaines said. Pence's appearances serve to strengthen the connection between the White House and the evangelical community. In the 2016 election, then-GOP Candidate Donald Trump, with Pence on the ticket, captured 80 percent of the white evangelical vote, according to FiveThirtyEight. In April of this year, a Public Religion Research Institute poll found that support for Trump remained at an all-time high with 75 percent of white evangelicals, holding a "favorable view" of the president. The Southern Baptist community drew attention last month when Paige Patterson, a former leader of the church, was removed as president of the Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary after accusations of mishandling two instances of students coming to him to say they had been raped. Patterson denied any wrongdoing. "After much prayer and a more than 13-hour discussion regarding challenges facing the institution, including those of enrollment, financial, leadership and institutional identity, the Board determined to move in the direction of new leadership," the church said in a statement about Patterson's removal. In April, audio surfaced on which Patterson said abused wives should "be submissive in every way that you can."