DOJ DROPS PROBE OF SOUTHERN BAPTIST CONVENTION: Did you hear the Department of Justice (DOJ) has dropped its Biden administration-initiated investigation of allegations by Russell Moore and other prominent “Woke evangelicals” of widespread abuse within the Southern Baptist Convention (SBC)?
Probably not, but the fact is, as reported by guest author Jon Whitehead on the Rod Martin Report, no charges were filed after a lengthy investigation that cost the SBC as much as $20 million just in legal fees. The investigation was yet another illustration of the Left’s costly, time-consuming and often-libelous Lawfare.
“Russell Moore, in his infamous ‘leaked’ letters, peddled a narrative of systemic corruption and cover-up within the SBC Executive Committee (EC). This was demagoguery of the worst sort. It was a tale steeped in half-truths and self-righteousness, meant to whip messengers into a frenzy,” Whitehead explains.
If you aren’t familiar with Moore, he’s a former congressional aide to Democrat-turned Republican Rep. Gene Taylor of Mississippi. After leaving the Hill, he occupied prominent preaching and teaching positions across the SBC, then became the long-time leader of the SBC’s Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission (ERLC).
Moore was a vocal Trump critic in 2016 and thereafter, but what really caused his downfall was his steadily escalating Woke-driven criticism of Southern Baptists and other evangelicals, beginning during the Obama administration.
Most recently, Moore became Editor-in-Chief of Christianity Today, a move that highlighted that once-respected magazine’s sad abandonment of its conservative evangelical roots in a direction that will almost certainly end up in the same Progressive neighborhood as Sojourners magazine.
Whitehead is also clear that exposing Moore’s attack on the SBC as groundless does not mean SBC congregations need not be always alert to and just in responding to abuse allegations:
“Don’t be fooled. This doesn’t mean sin is absent from every corner of the SBC. Local churches must remain vigilant; God hates sexual abuse. We should support SBC churches who report sexual abuse to authorities and care for victims of such crimes. I have laid out the path for real reform on the issue here: ‘The Path Forward on Abuse Reform in the SBC: Baptist Accountability.’”