First person: Pondering how to understand the coming ‘truth and unity’ SBC amendment

Let’s chat about Al Mohler’s “truth and unity” amendment coming to the floor of the SBC Annual Meeting in Orlando in June.

By the time we meet again on the pages of the print edition of The Alabama Baptist, the amendment will have either passed or failed, so we won’t have an opportunity to discuss all the angles here ahead of time.

Considering all aspects

If you are attending the meeting and planning to vote as a messenger, I encourage you to read the amendment’s wording carefully and consider all aspects of what it means before casting your vote.

Also, be cautious about the title because many times messengers are fearful of looking rebellious if they vote against something labeled like this amendment is. The first time I recognized a marketing strategy behind the name of a particular item to be voted on by SBC messengers was in 2009 related to the Great Commission Resurgence Task Force.

Think about how hard it would be to raise your ballot against something labeled as the Great Commission. Others have mentioned the same concern through the years.

Mohler, longtime president of Southern Seminary, announced his intent to propose his “truth and unity” amendment May 18 through a video posted on his YouTube page.

He is proposing an amendment to the SBC Constitution related to further defining how a cooperating SBC church functions.

The amendment as it currently reads states a cooperating church “does not act to affirm, appoint or endorse a woman serving in the office or function of a pastor/elder/overseer, such as preaching to the assembled congregation.”

Many state the goal is to prevent women from serving as senior pastors of Southern Baptist churches, while others are concerned the wording takes it much farther.

Could the wording Mohler is proposing provide ammunition for SBC leadership to step into a role contradictory to our local church autonomy heritage?

Could it give leverage for interpretation to be used according to an individual’s preferences at the associational, state convention and/or national level?

Why include “endorse” and “function,” and how should those be interpreted? Does “preaching” include speaking, sharing a testimony or leading a large group Bible study?

Escalating fear

Why has such fear of ministry service by women escalated in recent years? How many Southern Baptist churches are led by women senior pastors?

How many of the existing items defining cooperation are consistently enforced (see sidebar below)?

If Mohler and others believe it’s vital for “truth and unity” to include a note about women in the constitution, then shouldn’t the previously inserted criteria such as “the regular filing of the annual report” be considered a stipulation for continued fellowship within the SBC as well?

Apparently messengers in previous years saw that as vital to cooperation, but it’s obviously not been enforced because the SBC database always has missing information. Associational, state convention and SBC Executive Committee leaders spend lots of energy begging churches to turn in their reports each year — some are faithful to do so while others pick and choose when and how much to report.

As far as the “truth and unity” label for the amendment, are the descriptions fair when a nearly 200-year-old convention has not needed such a restrictive statement nor sought to micromanage individual church bodies in this way?

Excerpt from current SBC Constitution

Article III. Composition: …

1. The Convention will only deem a church to be in friendly cooperation with the Convention, and sympathetic with its purposes and work (i.e., a “cooperating” church as that term is used in the Convention’s governing documents) which:
   1. Has a faith and practice which closely identifies with the Convention’s adopted statement of faith. (By way of example, churches which act to affirm, approve, or endorse homosexual behavior would be deemed not to be in cooperation with the Convention.)
   2. Has formally approved its intention to cooperate with the Southern Baptist Convention. (By way of example, the regular filing of the annual report requested by the Convention would be one indication of such cooperation.)
   3. Has made undesignated, financial contribution(s) through the Cooperative Program, and/or through the Convention’s Executive Committee for Convention causes, and/or to any Convention entity during the fiscal year preceding.
   4. Does not act in a manner inconsistent with the Convention’s beliefs regarding sexual abuse.
   5. Does not act to affirm, approve, or endorse discriminatory behavior on the basis of ethnicity.