Why I feel for Russell Moore: and the power of Congregation

                                                                             Image courtesy of Religion News

Though I am not a part of the same denominational group, I have been interested in the writing of Russell Moore over the last year. Moore is the executive director of the Southern Baptist Convention’s Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission (ERLC). In effect, the ERLC is the lobbying arm of the Southern Baptists, and so Moore has been a public voice of the convention’s positions on race relations and has spoken out against President-elect Trump throughout the campaign. His voice has been a minority one amongst evangelicals. Now that the election is over the outspoken “pastor’s pastor” is receiving a great deal of criticism.

There were times over the last few years where I wondered how Moore was going to keep his job. He seemed to be saying everything Southern Baptists weren’t thinking when it came to faith in the public discourse. It would be more than a stretch to say that I support Moore, but in this time where faith seems balanced on a razor’s edge with an uncertain future, observing this growing conflict within the SBC should give us all some pause. Russell Moore is running headlong into something I talked about previously on this blog.

As Baptists, we place a great deal of our worship focus on the proclamation of the spoken words from the pulpit, as goes without saying. For many, if not all, of us who prepare and proclaim what we hope are words of God each week, we hope to be as courageous in speaking frank truth that counters damaging social movements. Moore has been doing that as the director of the ERLC, and now he seems to be paying to consequences for his courage. The real power of Baptist life is coming to bear, and it could mean either the end of Moore’s job or the ERLC itself. 

As pastors and convention leaders speak of defunding the organization, it sets up another situation where we see that the power is not in those who lead organizations, but in the places where the money comes from. Pastors at the local level who have to deal with the yearly stress of making budgets know this realization all too well. Baptist life and polity present this uniquely precarious situation where the power rests not in the hands of those who are being called into ministry, but with those who are sitting in the pews. While it allows for a diversity of opinions that creates a mosaic from which we build the personalities of our congregations, it also creates the atmosphere where many leaders have to walk carefully between speaking real truth, and acquiescing to the will of those who pay their salaries.

I pray for Russell Moore because these kinds of conflicts can get ugly quickly. While he has not backed away from his statements against Trump or other issues that have raised the hackles of some of his fellow Southern Baptists, I could understand why someone would want to. While it can be absolutely maddening that issues go unaddressed in our congregations, we should look at the predicament that Moore finds himself in as an example of the forces at work all around us. Even in our local congregations, the fear of an uncertain future means that many of us are constantly reminded that we are in a conversation with everyone. Whether they agree with us all the time, or not.