Russell Moore’s biggest problem is his mouth. He comes across as condescending—smug. That is a major problem when you are in a job where you need to exhort people to an elevated involvement in political and ethical issues. While Dr. Moore’s defenders are trying to make this about race, the real issue is Dr. Moore.

Years ago, where I attended church had a committee to fight the state lottery plebiscite. I was on that committee and I remember the pastor at the time urging us in our discussions with Christians and non-Christians to do as the Bible commanded and “Let our speech be always with grace.” That verse from Colossians 4:6 is important, “Let your conversation be always full of grace, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how to answer everyone.” Russell Moore has the salty part—he isn’t insipid. But I’m not so sure he has the gracious part. N.T. Wright in his commentary warns that if your speech comes off as lacking the required graciousness then “the argument may be won, but the person lost.”

Wow. That sounds like Dr. Moore to me. His rhetoric might win an argument much like how he showed off and insulted a questioner at last year’s Southern Baptist Convention question time, but that rhetoric has lost the confidence of the average Southern Baptist.

There is significant confusion with Dr. Moore’s job. He isn’t an Old Testament prophet calling out everyone’s faults. His job is in many ways to exhort his fellow Christians to do better. How does calling men like Jerry Falwell Jr., Robert Jeffress and other Southern Baptists heretics by saying Trump voters are followers of the Prosperity Gospel or they compose the Jimmy Swaggert wing of Evangelicalism help? How does it win anyone over?

It doesn’t.

In fact, all he has done is alienate most of the Southern Baptist Convention membership who voted in the last election.

Dr. Moore’s worldview is the problem

An incoherent worldview is the culprit in this mess. Dr. Moore is a Democrat (doubt that? Then read what one person who knew Dr. Moore while at Southern had to say). You cannot hold a rational Christian worldview and vote for Democratic candidates. Why? There are two issues which for Christian voters should disqualify any political candidate or party—religious liberty and abortion. Life and liberty are key concepts that govern a Christian’s involvement in society. To vote for a Democratic candidate (even one who claims to be pro-life) is to enable the Democratic Party to pursue its agenda and expand abortion by putting people like Sen. Schumer and Nancy Pelosi into leadership positions. Need proof of that?

“In 2006, Moore wrote an article in which he referred to Democratic congressman Gene Taylor as the ‘greatest public servant I have ever known.’… In 2010, Moore donated $4,800 to Taylor’s reelection campaign. Taylor twice voted for Nancy Pelosi as speaker of the house and voted with Pelosi 82% of the time. Is it a Southern Baptist value to support a partisan like Nancy Pelosi?” lifelong Alabama fan Seth Dunn wrote.

This is the inevitable conclusion of Dr. Moore’s efforts—empowering Democrats who work to destroy life and our religions liberty. It is fair to ask if Dr. Moore’s Democratic ties unduly influence his political theology and political involvement?

It would appear it does.

Dr. Russell Moore condemned conservative political figures like Kim Davis and Roy Moore over their resistance to government policies. In their cases, Dr. Moore encouraged Christians to resign instead of refusing to do their jobs. However, where was Dr. Moore’s condemnation of politicians like the Democratic Attorney General of Kentucky who recently refused to do his job and defend in court the state’s new pro-life law?

Notice the trend? There is one set of standards for Republicans and social conservatives and another for progressive Democrats.

It is not about race. It is not about Trump. It is not about immigration. This is about Dr. Moore. Attempts to spin this into a racial issue will fail because Southern Baptists aren’t racists, and such allegations say more about those leveling racism charges than the recipients of the charges. We are better than this.

Such polarization makes the case crystal clear how important it is to put Dr. Moore’s terrible tenure at ERLC behind us and move forward. We need leadership that unites us on key issues and can use the bully pulpit of the ERLC to urge us through gracious language to do better on issues including challenging ones like race and immigration.

38 thoughts on “The Southern Baptist case against Russell Moore”

  1. As a conservative Southern Baptist, I’d like to thank you for you writing to expose the fraud Russell Moore.

    My main problem with Moore is:

    1) His open-borders Evangelical Immigration Table is funded by George Soros

    2) Russell Moore supports the Third World immigration and refugee invasion of the USA.

    Moore, a confidently believe, is an agent of Satan.

    P.S. Even worse than Moore is the open-borders fanatic David Platt. He needs to go to. Not only does Platt want to destroy the USA and Europe with Third World immigration and refugees, he also was busted helping muslims build a mosque.

    1. Thanks for stopping by and commenting. I said this before, but I do want to make clear that I think Dr. Moore and Dr. Platt are mistaken, but not evil. Hey, we can all be wrong at any time. I do think how we disagree is important. I think Dr. Moore’s name calling during the election was a serious problem and remains one of the biggest impediments toward rapprochement in the SBC.

      1. Your opening statement about Moore’s mouth hits the target but agenda must be considered. He resembles media monger, shock jock, Mark Driscoll who purposely planned, exploited & basked in center stage coverage with his radical statements & stance. Book sales, speaking engagements aka money are the bottom line for Dr. Moore, not glorifying Christ by winning the souls of men.

    1. Then why work for a Democratic congressman, give money to a Democratic congressman and then tell folks he was a Democrat while he was at Southern? Yeah. We all know there is no such thing as an independent.

      1. So did Jesus come just for American Conservatives? I have been Conservative all my life, but this is more about Trump and Moore’s attacks on him, I am not stupid! You all pick a man who divides with his tongue and fingers on Twitter, and yet you don’t want to hear anyone tell you to love the Black people around you, or the Mexicans who may have come her even legally! Seriously there will never be revival if we don’t love aggressively all people! The World knows fakeness when they see it!

        1. So, because I think Dr. Moore is doing a bad job, I’m somehow a racist? This is nonsense. This is about Dr. Moore’s insulting tone, and as you’ll see in our soon-to-be-released story how the ERLC doesn’t have accountability or transparency.

          Really, accusing people of racism isn’t worthy of a Christian. We can do better than this.

  3. I don’t think the problem is with Dr. Moore or with politics. I don’t agree with all of the statements that Dr. Moore made. I am a Southern Baptist and a Trump supporter. I’ve heard Moore preach many times in Louisville and have learned so much from his sermons and his talk shows. Moore is not a fraud or an “agent of Satan”- and it’s really sad that someone would say that just because they disagree with someone else’s convictions.

    I think the main problem here is with our culture and what this country is becoming. Everyone wants someone or something to protest. There is a right time and a wrong time to protest… it has it’s place. But it’s not over every little comment someone makes. It’s not because your candidate didn’t win the election. It’s not because you didn’t get your way. Who is acting like a democrat now?

    1. Dr Moore’s book Onward is excellent. I’ve heard him preach many times. He is a great communicator. If he were a little more like Dr Mohler in his temperament he wouldn’t be facing so much criticism.

  4. We need to pray for our leaders. We need to pray for Dr. Moore.
    The division in our churches makes the world mock us and laugh at Christianity. Baptists. Stand together! Don’t let politics divide you.

  5. I think this is more about Russell Moore’s attacks on Trump…the new ‘god” of many in the SBC, such as Jeffries. I am a staunch conservative, but a Christian first, and I will tell you Russell Moore has opened things to me through reading his writings, and the Holy Spirit conviction, on loving more! We in the church do not have an “immigrant problem” that will bring us down, but in the church we have a “love problem” for we are not loving ALL people like we should. Our politics exclude and divide. We think America is God’s gift to humanity when no, Jesus is the only Gift to humanity! We can preach the gospel and say we love all we want, but if you don’t look at other races, other ethnc groups, and see Christian brothers, or people who need to be won to Christ, then we are not in this for the right reasons. I John is a book I suggest all “Christians” read for if we do not have love for EVERYONE, we are not Christ’s ambassadors, merely conservative politics ambassadors, but Yes even some of the diciples were disappointed that Christ was not political, but was here to save the lost, not the righteous. I am as pro-life as you can get, for that is the evil in this day, and we need to fight that fight, but we need to be pro-life to all people, those unborn and those born. We should exude love as The Church but instead many in the Church, and SBC are too busy holding up a man who divides people just with his tongue all the time! He is their “god”, please help us Jesus!

    1. The immorality of national debt is due in large part to the welfare/entitlement mentality and system of the federal government. Illegal aliens are gaming the system especially in healthcare. Our representative government was in large part set up in gratefulness for the freedoms given to us by our Creator. We have to maintain our federal laws of immigration to have our constitutional sovereignty restored. This country is not unloving to insist on lawful procedures. We have a right of self preservation under God. We should not endanger our way of life by having open borders. Too many foreigners taking our jobs and stealing healthcare while they send billions back to Mexico, if this is continued we are on a suicide mission trying to protect our life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. God ordained governments to protect their own nations.

  6. I warned my SBC friends the first time Moore trashed Trump and said supporters of Trump could not be considered true Christians. They pooh poohed my warning. Moore is just another globalist leftist hiding behind religious terminology to justify his non-Christian views. A hypocrite and a fraud. Boot him.

    1. Wow. You write, “You cannot hold a rational Christian worldview and vote for Democratic candidates. Why? There are two issues which for Christian voters should disqualify any political candidate or party—religious liberty and abortion.” Does Dr. Moore seem confused to you on either of those issues? Have you read those chapters in his book ‘Onward’? I highly recommend reading chapters 6 and 7, before you spew vitriol about how Moore doesn’t espouse a Christian worldview or (says ‘College Student’) that because he holds a certain view on immigration he must be an agent of Satan. Chapter and verse, please?

      1. Dr. Moore’s stance on those issues is confusing when you give aid and comfort to enemies of life and liberty…like giving thousands of dollars to a Democratic congressman who supports Nancy Pelosi as speaker. That isn’t helping a pro-life or pro-liberty stance, but rather the opposite. It is the same with his inability to grasp the two-party system meant that we were either going to have Hillary Clinton or Donald Trump as president. By refusing to pick between the lesser of two evils, he was advancing the worst of all evils–and insulting fellow Christians who could not be party to naïve moral reasoning.

        1. The worst of all evils would be to deny that by electing the ‘lesser of two evils,’ neither the winner nor the loser is free from evil—and the church is called to speak to these concerns as a prophetic minority before, during, and after an election. To deny this is certainly a ‘woe’ of Biblical proportions; see Isaiah 5:20.

          1. Of course everyone is evil, but some are more evil than others. To pretend actions (or elections) don’t have consequences is not wise, and that seemed to be the ERLC’s tactics. The worst of all evils is the pretentious moralizing Dr. Moore embarked on when he insulted Trump voters. Notice nobody is critical of Dr. Mohler, and Dr. Mohler was very critical of Trump.

  7. Capstone Report,

    I have an idea to help the evangelical community relieve the crisis of young people abandoning the church (and often abandoning their faith entirely), without compromising the Gospel:

    “When Republican politicians diverge from Christianity, acknowledge the disconnect and choose Christ. The Republican Party is not synonymous with Christianity, and the Democratic Party is not its enemy.”

    This election has proven that Republican candidates can do or say any horrible, anti-Christian thing they want and still count on evangelicals’ support.

    The Republican Party has chosen a couple of issues (most notably abortion, gay rights, the right to refuse service to gay couples, and denying choice of restroom facilities to LBGTQ people) that evangelicals consider to be Christian issues at the expense of all else.

    But what about…

    * Social justice.
    * Equality in the eyes of God
    * Caring for widows and orphans.
    * Ensuring proper care for the sick.
    * Welcoming outsiders with open arms (“I was a stranger, and you invited me in.” -Matt. 25:35. “The foreigner residing among you must be treated as your native-born.” -Lev. 19:34.)

    Those are in the Bible.

    The Republican Party is often against many of these within our government.

    So let’s be clear: you’re not choosing Christian vs. Anti-Christian. You’re voting which set of Christian values are more important to you: the GOP-compatible Christian Values or the Democratic-compatible ones.

    Yet now, when a Republican comes along who is actually antithetical to Christianity, who spent his 70 years on earth tearing down and often harming others for his own ego and monetary gain, we call him the Christian choice.

    This is a misconfiguration of our moral compass.

    Think of the Christian values bulleted above… Which candidate embodied this more? The Republican or The Democrat?

    Too many of us ignore the obvious answer because Democrats are The Enemy.

    Some of us — apparently yourself included — need to broaden our view of Christianity beyond the one the GOP would have us accept and live by.

    1. Sorry, but you don’t get to ignore giant issues like the murder of innocent children and the threat to religious liberty in favor of social justice issues. Sure, taking care of orphans and widows matter, and preventing racism from harming people is good; however, for us Christians we follow deontological ethics–and when we have competing priorities, the most important priority (Life and Liberty) is going to take precedence over other values. That is why a Lesser of Two Evils moral reasoning has to be applied to every election campaign. Nobody is perfect, but we can see that one side furthers evil policies that no Christian could ever support nor should they encourage.

      1. I’d also add the immigration policy bullet point totally ignores the substantial differences in Hebrew between ger, zer and nekhar and the significant legal standing differences between them. So, quoting Leviticus without the proper legal-grammatical-historical context doesn’t really tell us anything.

        I’ll also add that nowhere in the Bible are we commanded to ignore reasonable immigration policies—and this is backed up by the best systematic theologians like Wayne Grudem. Immigration policies can be crafted for the benefit of each nation-state, he wrote.

        1. Blocking out all Syrian refugees is not a reasonable policy. It is anti-Christ. This is the dividing line, to me, whether a conservative actually lives primarily by the Bible, or primarily lives by the GOP platform.

          I am very well-versed on the refugee issue. I’d be glad to tell you if you’re interested.

          Our pushback that we call “religious liberty”, from where I sit, is because they are losing special privilege, rather than losing constitutional rights.

          I also understand that there are overzealous enemies to Christianity. I would say Houston’s mayor for example was unequivocally slapped down by liberals and conservatives alike.

          Yes, some on both sides seek to curb “undesirable” speech. A ban on preaching against homosexuality, for example, would be overturned something close to 9-0 by the Supreme Court.

          I think reasonable politicians – and Supreme Court justices are almost all reasonable people – all care about true religious liberty.

          I simply believe some evangelicals’ definition of “religious liberty” is too broad (or off-the-mark) to the point they feel they should be able to infringe on the rights of others, based on religious tenets that cannot be found in the Bible (my go-to example: the Bible never forbids selling of food and flowers to “sinners”, and we must stop our slander of Christ by implying it does).

          The pushback against choice in restrooms is something that honestly strikes me as counter-productive. People who are transgender, regardless of cause, go through much hatred and mockery and heartache.

          If we put our foot down about restrooms, how will we have a chance to show Christ to those LGBTQ folks who are in need of Christ’s love? I know you share my concern.

          I don’t think Christians should reject Trump because he is “too conservative”, I think they should reject him because he shuns and slanders people different from us, which we agree is anti-Christian, and IMO, to the point of threatening Arab-Americans like me.

      2. I understand your stance on the abortion issue.

        Explain exactly what you mean by religious liberty.

        Regarding racism…

        The Southern Baptist culture I grew up in… The people I knew would never be mean or cruel to a black person. They would welcome a black person into their church or even into their home. They’re not bad people. We weren’t and aren’t bad people.

        But… And I have never said or written this in my life until now: the Southern Baptist culture I grew up in was 100% hostile to black culture. They… I… Would openly say many things that boiled down to, “if black people could just be more white…” We thought “the problem with black people” (I can’t think how many times I’ve heard that phrase) was that they convinced themselves that they’re victims.

        Did you read that? We think the plight of black people, is all in their head. That’s within the walls of a church where people spout such ignorance. As if the Civil Rights Act of 1967 or Brown v. Board or the election of Obama magically removed all the racist thoughts from racists’ heads.

        Never a pastor expressly saying that. Most of the pastors were actually better than that. But the parishioners? Some of my peers? Some of their parents? Some shocking worldviews. And it was impossible for some of it not to absorb when I was a kid. Some of it lived on, some of it lives on. It’s a struggle.

        And as I look back, no SBC church I ever attended had a black ministerial staff member. Not one. We’re not trying to be racist, and we aren’t and weren’t bad people. And yet…

        I will be starkly honest and state that I still have a hard time shaking it. It’s one reason I’m so outspoken about it on social media, especially when talking to old friends. Racism and xenophobia and tribalism… It’s something ingrained in us.

        Southern Baptist are, on average, kind of racist. It’s something we have to fight. We have to stop being afraid to admit it.

        We have racist tendencies. It’s got to be OK to admit it. We have to admit it so that we can recognize our weak spots and fight against it.

        Because when we don’t, this is what we get. We think we’re not racist. And yet… That racism comes out.

        When we reveal that we think so little of black people… We think they are so below us… We think they are so stupid… That a black person can look us in the eye, and say, “There is a huge problem affecting my people, and it’s a matter of life and death… Black lives are seen as expendable by society. We need to remind people that Black lives matter.”

        And we… We will respond by looking that black person in the eye, and say, “No there’s not. All Lives Matter. Blue Lives Matter. I’m not the racist, you are.”

        And if there’s one thing proven by the Trump campaign, with 76% of white Evangelicals STILL voting for Trump… It’s that most evangelical white Christians are more worried about other issues than racial justice. In fact, they’re mostly hostile to it. I feel extremely confident saying this based on my growing up evangelical, and seeing the statistics bear out my observations.

        If you’re angry at my post, then show me how I’m wrong. I’d be a happier person.

        1. Racial healing is a really important thing. It is one of the many reasons I respect about Dr. Moore. I read Onward and there were things to like about it–he even touched briefly on an issue important to me a couple of times when he mentioned the church and special needs children. Dr. Moore writes passionately about the importance of overcoming racism both in our churches and in the culture. I like Dr. Moore much more when he is talking about issues like this. He is great when focused on issues and really bad when trying to conduct political campaigns. I even watched a few of the sample videos for the new ERLC religious liberty studies today. He can be very good.

          1. I appreciate you acknowledging this… I’m not trying to convince you of anything, except to ask you to consider that being a Democrat does not make you anti-Christian, neither does being a Republican.

            Republicans are “pro-life” on abortion but there is more than one important life-and-death issue that a true Christian believer can choose to advocate.

            I understand being pro-life on abortion. Abortion is not desirable. I think the ship has largely sailed on the legality of abortion, therefore my approach to it is different from yours. So I’m asking you to understand people like me, and possibly like Dr. Moore.

            It is very hard for many to understand, but Black Lives Matter, to millions of Americans, is motivated by saving lives, just as the pro-life struggle is motivated by saving lives.

            Whether a person agrees with it or not is really not the point. You can make an argument that BLM is misguided or goes about things the wrong way, but it is wrong to say it’s anti-Christian. **My** motivation behind **myself** supporting BLM is sanctity of life. No one can tell me it’s not.

            Black Lives Matter is largely a struggle about where on the order/justice spectrum we lie as a nation.

            Shall I call you un-Christian or un-Baptist for not valuing the sanctity of black people’s lives by voting for Trump? You probably would reject that.

            The refugee issue, for people like myself, is a sanctity of life issue. My support of accepting refugees is motivated by the desire to save lives, just as the pro-life struggle is motivated by the desire to save lives.

            Shall I call you un-Christian or un-Baptist for not valuing the sanctity of refugees’ lives by voting for Trump? You probably would reject that.

            The abortion issue, for people like yourself, is a sanctity of life issue. Your support of curbing abortion is motivated by the desire to save lives, just as my support for #BLM… refugee resettlement… universal healthcare… not wantonly selling machine guns and bazookas to people… are motivated by the desire to save lives which have been sanctified by God.

            I say it is not logical or sensible for you to say I or Dr. Moore are anti-Christian because of the way we choose to support sanctity of life.

  8. This is the biggest piece of assumptive propaganda I’ve seen in awhile, and that’s really saying something these days. Not a single quote from Mr. Moore, yet no shortage of “proof” from bizarre, anonymous “sources”. You should be ashamed of this pathetic effort and seek out both sides of the story rather than your personal preference.

    1. Anonymous? The lawyer’s name who knew Dr. Moore at Southern is attached to his OP-ED that was published in the Louisville Courier. That’s pretty clear to me. The assertion about Dr. Moore’s donation to a Democratic candidate comes from Seth Dunn’s blog, but you can verify it at the FEC.GOV website, and I just took a screenshot https://capstonereport.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/03/RussellMooredonation2010.png Russell Moore Donation to Democrat

      So, what other items do you doubt?

      1. I never said Dr. Moore didn’t contribute financially to a democratic candidate. I just take issue with your assumptions on WHY he did it. Assumption being a key word here. You assume an awful lot about why he did anything, and all without quotes or an attempt at an interview with him for his side, or anything fair handed at all. This is an op-ed piece, not anything objective whatsoever.

        You said something at the top about “You cannot hold a rational Christian worldview and vote for Democratic candidates”. Darn, I should have asked you what to do when Donald Trump began his destruction of the Republican Party. A lot of us are voting differently and thinking differently because of this interloper’s presence in the party. We have to. We’ve been forced to.

        Assumptions like that and many others are why the world won’t listen to us as Christians and why so many see us as frauds.

        1. Thad,

          I’d love to know how a logically consistent deontological ethical system would allow a Christian to support a Democratic Party which requires obeisance to its sacrament of abortion. I don’t think it is possible to view lesser goods (like say a prescription drug help for the sick) with paramount goods (like protecting innocent life or the ability to worship God freely). So, I don’t really care what the world thinks. I care about doing the right thing, and I think the philosophical weight is on protecting life and liberty over important, but lesser, social justice issues when the price of those issues is abortion on demand, etc.

          1. I will always fight for the lives of unborn children. However, the mention of “lesser” social justice issues is easy to say when you’re an non-immigrant caucasian male who has never feared for his safety at a traffic stop, or been denied an interview for no reason, or just randomly searched “just in case” on the street.

            We don’t have to pick which issues to get behind. There’s no limit. I will admit to having my faith shaken in the Republican party that has completely lost its backbone at some point. This isn’t an endorsement for the Democrats, and I doubt it’s the black and white issue you have saddled Mr. Moore with. It’s just living in this broken world, and I refuse to follow cowards in the hope that they’ll get their act together sooner than later.

          2. Racial justice is a big deal. I think too many black males end up spending their lives in prison. You are right we can and should work for many issues. But in the last campaign there wasn’t a good choice and a better choice. in the last election we had bad choices and Dr. Moore seemed to not grasp that nor respect that. He acted like you can or should only vote for perfect candidates. That is absurd in a fallen world.

  9. While I openly admit I am a supporter of Dr. Moore as president of the ERLC, I do think your criticism of his tone during the election is a fair one. However, you do understand that if you want to go back 5-10 years and play guilt by association through campaign donations, you’re also going to have to account for Trump’s past donations to Charlie Rangel, Chuck Schumer, Anthony Weiner, Hillary Clinton, Harry Reid, etc? I think that’s a fair question.

    1. Mike, good point regarding guilt by association. I do want to be careful to not fall into the trap like the fundamentalists of the last century where secondary and tertiary separation strangled the movement.

      I can see why someone would suspect Trump of being a Democratic plant. However, I think the difference with Trump and Moore is that of their current actions confirming past actions. Trump during election and as president has pursued a highly conservative set of policies. Moore has a much more muddled record, and as I and others have noted his critiques seem uniquely targeted at the GOP. Why is that? It could be tactical. It could be he wants to undermine the post-Reagan evangelical consensus regarding abortion and voting. It could be he views politics through a Democratic lens that still colors how he views conservatives and Republican voters. Whatever it is; I think there is good reason to question Dr. Moore’s actions in the last election–the most consequential US election in at least a generation.

  10. This article stares that:

    1. Russell Moore is inappropriately influenced by his political views.
    2. No Christian can vote for a Democrat.

    Is anyone else noticing some inconsistency here? It seems clear that statement #2 is obviously influenced by the author’s political views.

    1. Or, the fact that Democrats treat abortion as a secular sacrament and intend to erode religious liberty. Other than that, I guess you are right.

        1. That is what their platform demands today, and they all vote for Nancy Pelosi as speaker and everyone saw how that harmed religious liberty by attempting to force nuns to pay for contraceptives in violation of their deeply held religious beliefs. To vote for a Democrat or support a Democrat is to by proxy endorse the entirety of their platform and their top leadership. The days of truly pro-life Democrats are over.

  11. “The days of truly pro-life Democrats are over.”

    That’s what is so strange about you, man. You don’t see it, so it must not exist. My daughter used to be like that, when she was one.

    When you made this statement, my mind began picturing dozens of people I know who fit that description.

    How can you rationalize this? You really can’t, and the sooner you realize there’s a world outside of your view, the much, much happier you’ll be, than wasting your time witch hunting someone who continues to teach the Gospel and reach the lost.

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