Buice went on to say that SBC leaders and institutions have accepted the “ideologies of the social justice movement,” and allowed those ideologies to infiltrate their “hallways, classrooms, and conference circuits.” Buice said they used the gospel as their banner to unite together, but then embraced a “social justice gospel that resulted in confusion, division, and in some cases—a complete derailing altogether.”
Buice said that “the social justice agenda will leave an indelible mark upon preachers who will be sent out into local churches to serve as pastor.” Buice pointed to the SBC’s “Resolution 9,” which was adopted at the 2019 SBC Annual Meeting, saying, “How could the SBC who openly champions inerrancy at the same time adopt a resolution stating that we need to employ Critical Race Theory and Intersectionality (CRT/I) as ‘analytical tools’ for gospel ministry?” It was only by the means of “sly political schemes” that adoption of “Resolution 9” was successful, said Buice.
“One must ask why the SBC was willing to boycott the gospel according to Disney but failed to boycott the gospel according to social justice,” Buice said, referring to the SBC’s boycott of Disney in 1997.
Buice said that “it appears that unconverted soccer moms are more concerned about their local schools than SBC leaders are about local churches,” referring to the influence of CRT.
Another mark of progressivism is what Buice sees as an attack on the pulpit, referring to women preaching in SBC churches. Buice named Beth Moore, who publicly left the SBC earlier this year, claiming that she weaved the methodology of women preaching into the fabric of the SBC churches as she rose to popularity over the years.
“The slow cook of pragmatism has led the SBC to embrace theological error in order to become culturally relevant,” Buice said. This “has been quite evident through the virtue signaling of major SBC leaders in the wake of tragedies like George Floyd and the rise of the Black Lives Matter movement. Pragmatism demands that you do whatever works and provides the best results. Standing for biblical justice as opposed to social justice is the unpopular and narrow road that is not culturally acceptable.”
Buice made very clear how he feels about the social justice movement, saying it is not “purely Marxist, but it has roots in a postmodern attempt at deconstruction,” and if not corrected will be catastrophic. “When the SBC is willing to cancel Walt Disney but unwilling to cancel Derrick Bell or Kimberlé Crenshaw, we have serious problems,” Buice wrote.
Pray’s Mill Baptist Church and its elders voted unanimously to leave the denomination. Pray’s Mill Baptist Church will remain a Baptist church, but will no longer be affiliated with the SBC.
“The SBC has failed. The leaders have compromised. The SBC must know that local churches do not need the SBC, but the SBC does need local churches—both large and small,” Buice said. The elders of the church claimed that the SBC has misused their funds to violate their consciences, saying that the SBC has rejected all forms of correction in both private and public settings.
Buice said the final straw for him was when Ed Litton was elected president of the SBC during the 2021 annual meeting in Nashville. Buice called out SBC’s Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary’s president Danny Akin for persuading SBC messengers to vote for Litton on Twitter, saying the move was “quite revealing.”
Akin is “entrusted with millions of SBC dollars to train pastors for the pulpit,” Buice wrote. “[Akin] sent the signal that Ed Litton is a proper example for SBC pastors and future pastors to follow.”
Litton’s sermon plagiarism scandal became a topic of conversation shortly after he was elected as SBC’s president in June of last year. Buice believes the controversy should have resulted in SBC leadership calling for Litton’s resignation. Buice criticized SBC’s Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary’s president Adam Greenway for invited Litton to address the seminary’s student body after the incident.
