Conservative Baptist Professor ‘canceled’ by ERLC, TGC, CT

Conservative Baptist Professor Dr. Robert A. J. Gagnon said the Gospel Coalition (TGC), the Southern Baptist Convention’s Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission (ERLC) and Christianity Today “tacitly canceled” him over his conservative views. Gagnon is a professor of theology at Houston Baptist University.

Dr. Gagnon said, “Being tacitly canceled and banned from publishing anything in the Gospel Coalition, Christianity Today, and the Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission at least affords me the opportunity to respond truthfully and reasonably to their miscues. They don’t receive criticism well, even when the critique is well reasoned, justified, and presented in a way that would be mild by biblical standards. They have a party line and woe to the person who can articulate the problems with it.”

So much contained in that paragraph.

Examine it closely.

Canceled and banned is something Dr. Gagnon mentioned a couple of years ago about the ERLC. At that time, he said the ERLC blacklisted conservatives.

He said, “Many people in the Southern Baptist Convention are afraid of speaking about these problems in ERLC leadership for fear of retribution from Dr. Moore. I have heard from a number of them privately over the years. Many people outside the SBC are also afraid to speak up out of fear for being blacklisted by prominent Evangelicals and conservative Catholics with whom Dr. Moore has worked hard to cultivate influence.”

Dr. Gagnon hinted that speaking in favor of conservative positions harms one’s job prospects within the Southern Baptist Convention.

Dr. Gagnon said in 2019, “Failure to relate constructively to the ERLC is code for: Don’t criticize publicly the ERLC top brass if you want to retain your job here. This too is consistent with my experience, where questioning of the ERLC leadership’s actions or inaction can have serious repercussions in terms of not being hired at an SBC institution. Nothing happens publicly. Instead, it takes place in private conversations where your name becomes mud. This clandestine procedure allows the powers-to-be to say that civility is the order of the day while behind the scenes it is sometimes anything but.”

So, it is clear that there are many conservatives facing retaliation at the hands of Dr. Russell Moore’s ERLC and The Gospel Coalition—something closely tied to Dr. Al Mohler, a candidate for SBC President in 2021.

Specifically, we know the ERLC played a role in the termination of Dr. Robert Lopez at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary.

One last thing to notice about Dr. Gagnon’s statement. He said, “They have a party line and woe to the person who can articulate the problems with it.”

This is true. The SBC Elites will do anything to maintain their power—including smearing conservatives. They are desperate. They will do anything including harming individuals financially or smearing them.

Let’s make 2021 the year the SBC begins cleaning up this mess made by self-entitled elites.