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SBC Presidential Candidate Bart Barber Responds to ‘Wild Accusations’; Shares Thoughts on CRT, Vision for Peacemaking

“Peace in churches is generally not made at the top by a handful of people, I believe. It is made at the grassroots among friends, not at the denominational level by adversaries,” Barber continues. “It trickles up rather than trickling down. I want to inspire those grassroots peacemakers to safeguard the work of our convention to pursue the Great Commission together.”

Barber’s Theological Convictions

“I am a conservative Southern Baptist,” Barber says of his theological convictions. “I affirm the inerrancy and the sufficiency of scripture. I fit in the taxonomy that describes most Southern Baptists.”

Barber affirms the tenets of evangelicalism, which include a commitment to biblical inerrancy as defined by the 1978 Chicago Statement, the centrality of the Cross of Jesus Christ, an emphasis on the transformation of Christian’s lives after coming to faith, and acts of service. 

“I affirm the beliefs and emphases that differentiate Southern Baptists from other Baptists. I believe that it is proper for churches to organize and cooperate with one another to send missionaries,” Barber further explains. “I believe that the Cooperative Program harnesses the power of cooperation between churches without doing any violence to the autonomy of the local churches.”

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Barber is a complementarian, another hallmark of Southern Baptists.

“The Baptist Faith & Message articulates a complementarian view of the home and of the office of pastor. I affirm these truths and would further clarify that churches may have more than one pastor, and that where they do, anyone holding pastoral office in the church ought to be male,” he says.

While Barber does not affirm limited atonement (a doctrine that states Christ died only for the elect who were predestined in eternity past), he believes “Southern Baptists can cooperate fruitfully with one another and can enjoy fellowship and partnership in the gospel without agreeing on every point of soteriology. Of course we can! We’ve been doing it for decades!” 

“I am not belligerent about my soteriological views because, hey, aren’t we all standing here in awe of a mystery that we cannot quite comprehend,” Barber says. “And if not, what’s wrong with us?”

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Barber expresses a similar sentiment when it comes to differing theories about the End Times, saying, “I prefer approaches that emphasize not the unclear, disputed curiosities of the Apocalypse and related texts but rather the clear, pointed themes of those passages. Watch. Be ready. Persevere until the end.”

Barber on CRT, Sermon Plagiarism

The debate over Critical Race Theory has been a bitter discussion in recent years, both within the SBC and in American politics at large. Nevertheless, Barber doesn’t believe CRT to be “an urgent issue to address” in the SBC.