SBC President Bart Barber caught in lie as he defends Southern Baptist Convention’s hiring of radical pro-LGBTQ+ firm.
Mike Stone: Guidepost is ‘an existential threat to cooperative efforts’ of the Southern Baptist Convention.
The Southern Baptist Convention (SBC) is facing “unsustainable” spending from as its Woke masters engage in reckless spending that is depleting financial reserves. One SBC Elite called it a “time of famine” in remarks to the Executive Committee.
Why is the SBC facing such turmoil? As we reported in December, giving to the SBC’s Cooperative Program was down 10 percent year-over-year. This crisis was precipitated by churches concerned over the SBC’s leftward drift. And SBC Elites are doubling down on that leftward drift.
On Friday, SBC President Bart Barber defended the SBC’s selection of Guidepost Solutions to handle its Ministry Watch website.
Barber said, “You have heard it said that Guidepost Solutions takes your SBC money and uses it to fund LGBTQ events. But I tell you that the most leftist cause to which Guidepost has ever contributed is a police association (bunch of commies, those boys in blue). They’re lying to you.”
Only, conservatives aren’t lying. Bart Barber and his fellow SBC Elites are lying. Because Guidepost Solutions was recognized as a giver to the Ted Kennedy Institute. As one astute observer pointed out on Twitter, “Just start here: The Edward Kennedy Institute received ‘contributions’ from Guidepost in 2019…You’re saying the causes of Teddy Kennedy, the Liberal Lion of the Senate, are to the right of Guidepost’s police charity?”
You can verify that for yourself by checking out the report here with Guidepost listed on page 23.
And there is more. Guidepost Solutions was listed as a Diamond level sponsor (program says that requires $25,000) of the Women’s White Collar Defense Association. Here are some images showing that organization boosting Pride Month.
As we reported earlier this week, Guidepost Solutions own website bragged about its members supporting leftist charities like Human Rights First–a charity that fought for abortion rights for migrants and urged making LGBTQ+ rights a cornerstone of US foreign policy.
Other observers noted Guidepost Solutions supported causes that were anathema to the conservative Southern Baptist Convention. One of the chief complaints is Guidepost’s support of LGBTQ causes.
Mike Stone, a pastor and former CBN nominee for SBC President, said that Guidepost Solutions represents “an existential threat to our cooperative efforts as a convention.”
In a statement posted on his website Stone said, “Guidepost Solutions has made clear its corporate support for the LGBTQ agenda, a corporate view directly at odds with the Baptist Faith and Message and the Holy Scriptures. It is true that in a global economy, believers will inevitably do business, at least indirectly, with corporations that do not hold our values. But hiring a company that openly supports sexual perversion to help us deal with accusations of sexual perversion is simply a bridge too far. If such a partnership is truly the best option on this road, as some well-intentioned brothers and sisters believe it is, perhaps it is also a bridge too far in the wrong direction.”
Stone pointed out that four years ago he made public that he was abused as a child. Of course, that did not stop the leftist attacks on him—and he pointed out how speaking out as a conservative comes at a cost.
Stone continued, “Many pastors, denominational employees, and national leaders privately agree. But they are often understandably hesitant to speak. I know first-hand the inevitability of being attacked, maligned, and misrepresented. But if anyone is saving his voice and influence for a rainy day, it’s now pouring cats and dogs. Without an immediate course correction, the most recent forecast for this continued deluge is now officially ‘unsustainable.’”
And while SBC Elites try to be flexibile about doctrine (see how many SBC Elites are defending Saddleback on Twitter despite their having a woman teaching pastor), what Establishment SBC Elites do care about and can understand are $$$ and declining dollars worries them.
However, the Woke SBC Elites in charge of things are more concerned with carrying on their Woke Revolution than saving the Southern Baptist Convention. And this has the establishment figures worried.
For example, Willy Rice tweeted, “This is a hard ‘No’ for me; a line in the sand that I cannot cross. To employ an organization that affirms and celebrates a sexual worldview directly at odds with Scripture to serve as a type of enforcement arm, directly empowered to field and assess accusations against leaders…Our church is one of the largest CP supporters in our state (I was recently told we were 2nd). If this decision holds, that level of generosity will absolutely be reevaluated.”
Why is Rice’s tweet important? Rice is an establishment figure. Last year until his campaign was rocked by scandal, he was the establishment choice to become SBC President. Rice was a vice-chairman of the North American Mission Board trustees and he was to be nominated by the Chairman of the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary (SBTS) trustees. Thus, the two towers of Louisville and Alpharetta were to be unified. That Rice is speaking is a glimpse into the mood of establishment SBC Elites.
One other interesting tidbit here is that both Stone and Rice used a similar turn of phrase here—Bridge Too Far. While everyone might be history buffs on Operation Market Garden: A Bridge Too Far, it is far more interesting to note a growing rapprochement between the Conservative Baptist Network (CBN) and the SBC Establishment. Perhaps, the Woke SBC Elites represented by Bart Barber, Todd Benkert, and the Executive Committee are so dangerous they are pushing conservatives and moderates together to save the SBC—or at least the SBC’s Cooperative Program budget.
And just how bad are things in the SBC? Well, the Executive Committee has burned through half its assets in the last year. These videos show that the SBC EC has spent over $6 million on lawyers and investigations involving allegations of sex abuse—allegations that do not involve any SBC employee’s involvement in sex abuse but only how the SBC EC responded to complaints of abuse.
And things might be even worse than we think. One SBC observer pointed out: “Probably also worth noting this April statement on reserves: The $12.2n was September 2021. Of $12.2m, $5.5 is property, equipment and board-designated. The actual available amount was “closer to” $7.3m. Likewise, the $6m we just heard was from Sep. 22, I think.”
And from the same thread, “$6m. is not the cost. $6m is the change in the savings account. So, the actual expense will be well over $6m.”
And this is what giving Woke clowns control of the Southern Baptist Convention has wrought. Just like Democrats, they spend other people’s money like drunken sailors and insult those who have the temerity to suggest they aren’t spending it wisely.
One addendum that everyone should consider is that the attacks by the Woke SBC wing on the expulsion of Saddleback is revealing that many of the Woke SBC wing are fine with women preaching. In fact, they are even getting the knives out for the Council on Biblical Manhood and Womanhood–and since this is closely allied to SBTS President Al Mohler these are really attacks on Mohler. Is this another reason for the growing rapprochement between CBN and the establishment? And if so, what might that mean for New Orleans?