The SBC issue

Dale, that was a great quote in your last post. I read the WP article and felt it necessary to provide some personal context.

When Huckabee said, "If my own abandon me on the battlefield, it will have a chilling effect" he was addressing a group of Southern Baptist pastors in Texas. "My own" certainly references other SBC pastors, which of course he is one, not the whole of everyone who shares his faith.

But it is a good question as to why men like Richard Land and Judge Pressler don't like Mike. For that, a brief SBC history lesson. The story is told of Judge Pressler and Paige Patterson sharing beignets at Cafe Du Monde in New Orleans plotting the Fundamentalist takeover of the SBC. They developed a grand plan to win elections and make appointments to the boards of all the major seminaries and divisions securing the power of the convention. And according to the books they wrote about the takeover (the victors get to write the history) they left no prisoners and anyone who was not for them was against them (sound familiar?).

Great men, godly men were left on the outside wearing new labels like "Liberal" and "Moderate", not because it represented their theology or otherwise conservative moral beliefs, but because they would not bow to the alters of Pressler, Patterson, and Mohler. Men that I have tremendous respect for (Jim Henry of FBC Orlando and even my dad) were able to maintain some degree of an apolitical role but certainly would even now be labeled an outsider to the power people.

Part of why I like Mike is because he was one of those men. He stayed true to his own convictions and "would not be owned" by the SBC hegemony. It infuriated that group even more when he became one of the most well known and respected Governors having access to power that extended beyond the SBC circle. For guys like Land, Patterson, Pressler, and the bunch, it's not that they don't want a SBC guy as POTUS - just not that guy. Not the guy who wouldn't buy in and support their efforts to politicize faith. They wrote Huck off after he refused to bow down and they would rather Hillary win the White House than see one of their rivals in the Oval Office.

Huck is a great politician and practices his politics in the proper environment. And it is a good thing the SBC doesn't rule the world.