A Southern Baptist seminary president questions the sincerity of Jimmy Carter's Christian faith.

[lees1975]

https://signalpress.blogspot.com/2024/12/a-southern-baptist-seminary-president.html

Warning--this will make you angry!

It's been over a week since I first read the linked article from Baptist News Global about Al Mohler's doubts as to whether Carter was really "born again" or not. I was too angry and too disturbed to even think about writing about it.

Mohler is President of the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, Kentucky, which is known as the "flagship" school of the six theological seminaries operated by the Southern Baptist Convention, for the purpose of training its ministers. Southern is the oldest one, and the only one which has a Calvinist theological perspective, not unusual among Baptists, but not the majority view.

And why would he take the risk of stepping away from the clear Biblical instruction, words given directly by Jesus Christ, not to judge others and risk being judged by the same standard?

Well, Carter was one of the most visible Southern Baptists in the country at the time he became President. He and Rosalyn helped start a church in Plains, Maranatha Baptist, that welcomed blacks as members, something their previous church, and in fact something most Southern Baptist churches in the 1970's, did not do. Then, in 1979, a war between fundamentalists and more moderate theological elements erupted in the Southern Baptist Convention, as both sides sought to control the all-important trustee boards of the seminaries, to control the theology and doctrinal content taught in classrooms.

Mohler, like most Fundamentalists, believe their conservativism is a mark of their truthfulness. They claim to be the true practitioners of Christian faith, because they get the doctrine right as far as they are concerned, and they generally consider any other Christians who do not agree with them as wrong, going so far as to question whether they are even sincere in their conversion experience. And so, since Carter has aligned himself with the more moderate Baptist group that has integrated congregations and women in leadership, Mohler thinks that gives him the right to publicly question his faith.

And when he questioned whether or not Carter was "born again," he didn't mention any Biblical standard or definition of the term. The standard he used to judge Carter was the fact that he didn't support the "Conservative resurgence" in the Southern Baptist Convention, that war that I referred to earlier. That's their bottom line for judging all other Christians, whether they agree with their "conservativism" or not.

Mohler couldn't be more wrong. And he couldn't be further away from Biblical truth.

Initially, back in 2016, Mohler, along with the executive director of the Southern Baptist Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission, Dr Russell Moore, made news by being two of the most prominent Evangelicals to state their opposition to Trump's candidacy for President. Moore stuck to his convictions, unable to reconcile his Christian convictions with even an inkling of support for such a corrupt, worldly individual whose lifestyle defies every principle of Christian faith. Mohler, typical of past behavior he has exhibited, stuck his finger up to see which way the wind was blowing, realized that if he continued to be publicly opposed to Trump it could cost him his job, and switched his position, embracing Trump and becoming one of his most prolific supporters.

[Dem4life1970]

1. Thanks for this article

I think this snip says it all:

Initially, back in 2016, Mohler, along with the executive director of the Southern Baptist Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission, Dr Russell Moore, made news by being two of the most prominent Evangelicals to state their opposition to Trump's candidacy for President. Moore stuck to his convictions, unable to reconcile his Christian convictions with even an inkling of support for such a corrupt, worldly individual whose lifestyle defies every principle of Christian faith. Mohler, typical of past behavior he has exhibited, stuck his finger up to see which way the wind was blowing, realized that if he continued to be publicly opposed to Trump it could cost him his job, and switched his position, embracing Trump and becoming one of his most prolific supporters.

[keithbvadu2]

2. Each denomination is the sole, one, true faith.

Each denomination is the sole, one, true faith.

All of the others are heretics.

[Baitball Blogger]

3. I think we're reaching the point where religious zealots who have inflexible interpretations of the bible

should never be qualified to represent people outside of their own intolerant churches.

[2naSalit]

4. Why do I...

Get the feeling that nobody asked this guy for his opinion?

[lees1975]

6. Mohler has been a relentless pontificator ever since he was editor of the Christian Index in Georgia.

He's had a nationally syndicated radio program, mostly on AM Christian radio stations as a theological "expert". And I think he writes, or did write, a newspaper column. He's out of his league with this one.

So there's Jimmy Carter, who was openly Christian, who spend all of his life loving his neighbor as himself, which Jesus said was the very heart and essence of the Christian gospel. And there's Al Mohler, a privileged insider in a backward denomination, a seminary president who doesn't recognize the Christian gospel because he is blinded by loyalty to "conservativism, a.k.a. religious fundamentalism.

[OAITW r.2.0]

7. No need!

Stupid people are more than willing to broadcast their ignorance for all to hear. Why do stupid people think we want to hear their perception of reality? Because, they are stupid.

[2naSalit]

9. Boggles the mind...

It's definitely pretzel shaped whatever it is.

[Deuxcents]

5. I don't have any use for organized religion but for this person to question anyone's beliefs is not his business.

President Carter walked the walk, talked the talk, never judged anyone and most certainly lived his life according to his beliefs. He started a church that was inclusive when there wasn’t one, spent his life in the service of others and quite sure is respected and loved dearly by those who knew him as well as those who didn’t. This man and his opinions don’t matter. At all.

[OAITW r.2.0]

8. They have to vilify Jimmy Carter.

Because he lived his Southern Baptist faith like Christ would have expected. The rest of them are just trying to make a living, talking and not working.

[Iggo]

10. Jimmy Carter was the best Christian I've ever heard of.

If they were all like him, I wouldn’t dislike them so intensely…or at all, really.

[Pas-de-Calais]

11. Didn't need the article to make me mad

The title said everything. Anyone questions Carter’s faith, is out lining their pockets & doing nothing for anyone else

[Nululu]

12. Who cares about some idiot?

Full of sound and fury signifying nothing.

[Blue_Tires]

13. Who the fuck is Mohler and why should I care?

[Girard442]

14. Geologists know that some regions have very large deposits of First Stones.

You know, to be thrown by those without sin.

[LymphocyteLover]

15. Conservative Christians are an abomination to the Lord

[milestogo]

16. A phony can never recognize the real deal.