In a remarkable and unexpected revelation, even for me, of Southern Baptist leaders, Southern Baptist Convention (SBC) President Bart Barber made a controversial decision that illuminates the growing chasm within the denomination over the issue of child sacrifice. During the recent elections cycle, Barber made a donation to the primary opponent of fellow Southern Baptist pastor and staunch anti-abortion advocate, Dusty Deevers, in the State Senate election in Oklahoma, standing as a glaring testament to the deepening fractures in the SBC's approach to this vital moral and societal issue.
This act of financial support is not merely a personal political gesture but a symbolic action that demonstrates Barber's and many other SBC leaders' atrociously compromised stance on abortion. Bart Barber doesn't live in Oklahoma and his only interest in making such a donation to a compromised candidate is an act of defiance against the staunch conservatives who try to hold him accountable for his compromised views.
Barber, along with the vast majority of vocal Southern Baptist leaders and pastors, hold a view that abortion should not be criminalized in all cases—particularly, that women should never, under any circumstances, be held accountable for murdering their unborn child. This view starkly contrasts with the convictions of those like Deevers, who hold that abortion is always immoral and must be unequivocally criminalized as it stands against the sanctity of life.
Barber's donation is reflective of a broader and deeply concerning trend within the Southern Baptist Convention. An unsettling shift is underway, one where the voices against the atrocity of abortion are increasingly muddled with equivocation and compromise. The SBC appears to be embracing a position alarmingly akin to the outdated Democrat mantra of "safe, legal, and rare" in regard to abortion.