The 3 - June 20, 2021

This week's edition of The 3, highlighting three stories of relevance to the Christian community, spotlights developments from the recent Southern Baptist Convention annual meeting in Nashville, the country's high court has issued a ruling in favor of a foster care agency that would not place children in the homes of LGBTQ couples, and a Colorado cake baker who won a victory several years ago before the high court received a negative ruling from a federal court in another case.

SBC annual meeting takes unexpected turns

The annual meeting of the Southern Baptist Convention occurred last week in Nashville, and over 15,000 messengers were registered for the event, the first since the Birmingham convention in 2019 - there was not a meeting last year due to COVID-19.

Prior to the convention, there was an expectation that the issue of critical race theory would be a major flashpoint.  And, the influence of the new organization calling Southern Baptists to adherence to Scripture on that and other issues, would be tested.

Coming out of the convention, a number of major issues had emerged, based on media reports from a variety of sources, including The Tennessean and The Baptist Paper.

The Conservative Baptist Network endorsed candidates for President, 1st Vice-President, and 2nd Vice-President of the Convention.  Of those three, African-American Lee Brand won the 1st VP slot.  Presidential candidate Mike Stone lost narrowly to Ed Litton.  While some hailed these as well as other policy matters as defeats for the CBN, members on social media seemed to be positive about the strength of the organization.

The CRT situation was handled by a combined resolution by the Resolutions Committee that did not mention critical race theory by name, but supported racial reconciliation, decried racism, and rejected views in this area that did not line up with Scripture.  The resolution passed, but those who would have liked CRT to be named were not pleased with it.  

The SBC is a collection of autonomous churches who have decided to affiliate ideally because Convention membership can produce greater fruit for the gospel.  The Convention rejected elements "top-down" leadership in the Nashville meeting, approving a resolution to override a decision by the Executive Committee to appoint a third-party organization to investigate the Committee's actions on sexual abuse and taking that appointment out of the hands of the EC.  A recommendation of greater financial oversight of the Committee was rejected by convention messengers.  And, Stone, the most recent EC President was rejected in his bid for Convention President.

Litton, who has participated in racial reconciliation efforts in Mobile, Alabama, but who has spoken dismissively of the impact of critical race theory, according to Newsweek, was elected Convention President in a runoff.  He is thought by some to be the less theologically conservative of the two remaining candidates, but insists that he is someone who can build bridges in an admittedly fractured Convention.

Those fractures were apparent at the Convention and on social media leading up to the annual meeting. Now, Southern Baptists have a chance to refocus on missions and evangelism, maximizing adherence to Scripture while minimizing divisiveness.  While media like to focus on the national organization, which is important for a number of reasons, including accountability and allocation of resources to do Kingdom work, there is tremendous potential for impact through each local church - and that is applicable regardless of denomination.

U.S. Supreme Court favors adoption agency in LGBTQ-related challenge

In a unanimous ruling, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in favor of Catholic Social Services in Philadelphia, in a case that was spurred on by the city's termination of its contract with the agency because CSS would not place foster children in the homes of same-sex couples.

CBN.com reported that the court stated: "The refusal of Philadelphia to contract with CSS for the provision of foster care services unless CSS agrees to certify same-sex couples as foster parents violates the Free Exercise Clause of the First Amendment."

The report quotes Jeff Medefind, President of the Christian Alliance for Orphans, who said: "This Fulton ruling means that people of diverse convictions can still serve side by side for the good of vulnerable children in our communities..."

As CBN pointed out:

The city of Philadelphia created an issue where there wasn't one because Catholic Social Services says no same-sex couples ever asked to work with them. CSS says if that did happen they would refer the couple to another group. Due to its biblical beliefs, the Catholic agency also does not certify unmarried couples.

Colorado cake baker faces fine for refusal to bake gender transition cake

Yet again, Colorado baker Jack Phillips of Masterpiece Cakeshop went before the Colorado Civil Rights Commission, the group that was charged with religious hostility by a Supreme Court justice in the Masterpiece case before the high court. 

The Daily Citizen reports on a recent decision by a federal judge, resulting from a request from a transgender individual, Autumn Scardina, to bake a cake celebrating his gender transition. Phillips refused, the individual filed a complaint, but the Commission chose not to go after Jack again. So, Scardina filed a federal lawsuit.  According to the website: "The court’s decision, dated June 15, rejects Jack’s defense that Scardina’s request would prompt him to have to violate his conscience and create a cake with a message he disagreed with."

The article stated, "Jack’s lawyers at Alliance Defending Freedom have already announced their intent to appeal Judge Jones’ decision to the Colorado Court of Appeals. Jones imposed the maximum fine allowable under the Colorado statute: $500."