Something has changed in the last few years.
In 2018, the VP Mike Pence spoke to the messengers at the Southern Baptist Convention and he was less than warmly received. A whopping 30% of present messengers at the convention voted not to allow the vice president to speak. The president of the SBC at the time, JD Greear, decried the "partisanship" of allowing a Republican politician.
Other more liberal opponents hated Pence's direct ties to Donald Trump.
"By associating publicly with any administration," Garrett Kell, lead pastor of Del Ray Baptist Church in Virginia, told his fellow delegates Tuesday morning on the convention floor, "we send a mixed message to our members that to be faithful to the Gospel is to also align with that administration."
Kell and others said they are also concerned that Pence's speech could endanger Southern Baptist missionaries and aid workers serving in countries that oppose the Trump administration. It could also harm the denomination's fragile relationship with racial minorities, he said.
Kell said he "has nothing against Pence personally," but he suggested Tuesday that Southern Baptists essentially disinvite Pence and replace his planned speech with time for prayer.
They made up any excuse. It would endanger missionaries, nevermind that the Trump administration rescued missionaries stranded overseas. They thought Trump was racist and that Pence would harm minorities by his mere presence. Pence was not welcome.
Fast forward to 2024.
Here's what is considered by many the most liberal arm of the SBC:
He went from being too partisan, too conservative, and a bad influence to an example of a Christian leader in 6 short years.
So ... what changed?
Could it be that Mike Pence has spent the last 4 years pronouncing mea culpa for his participation in the Trump presidency?
The Southern Baptist's Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission, the ERLC, is the political lobbying arm of the SBC. They've been criticized by conservatives for leftward drift, first under the leadership of Russell Moore, a lifelong Democrat, and now under the leadership of Brent Leatherwood, the man who has spent one year vocally opposing the release of the Covenant school shooter's manifesto, calling the person who leaked a portion a "viper."
To call the ERLC and its leadership "liberal" would be the kindest compliment you could pay them.
So when the ERLC wants to invite a politician who they view as the sort of leader Southern Baptists should be, who would they invite? Of course! Mike Pence, who can be used as an avatar of a good Christian man who got sucked into the MAGA train but is now repentant.
It smacks of the same "penance" conservative politicians often do by getting hired on leftist corporate media networks (something Ronna McDaniel just tried).
Now do a thought experiment with me:
Imagine the ERLC inviting a bold Christian politician who is currently fighting on the front lines of the culture war, like Dusty Deevers.
Deevers is a Southern Baptist pastor. He ran on banning abortion and pornography, opposing LGBT indoctrination, and ending no-fault divorce.
He ran on Christian values that are actually risks to stand for publicly. And he won. And because he is actually a threat to the kingdom of Satan, the world is mocking him:
But would Southern Baptists ask him to speak to messengers or the ERLC?
Of course not!
Deevers is a troublemaker. He's a rabble-rouser. He's not winsome and polite. I mean, sure, he's the nicest guy in the world, and sure he actually WON something. But he speaks clearly and directly, and is not wishy-washy!
His yes means yes, and his no means no.
And that's what the ERLC and SBC libs don't like.
Deevers takes a more dogmatic stand on black-and-white Christian morality than the "regime-vangelicals" are comfortable with.
So the SBC this year will welcome, with open arms, a man who they used to be ashamed of, instead of someone who actually has the power and influence in this moment to work for Christ in the public square.
