Southern Baptists deem Jesus unelectable

In its ongoing campaign to increase legalism in the church, the Southern Baptist Convention has passed a resolution encouraging (mandating?) a "total opposition to the manufacturing, advertising, distributing, and consuming of alcoholic beverages." It goes on to "urge that no one be elected to serve as a trustee or member of any entity or committee of the Southern Baptist Convention that is a user of alcoholic beverages."

It seems odd to me that a Christian church would see any wisdom in labeling anything Jesus Christ himself did as sinful. In John 2, we see that Jesus' first miracle involved the manufacturing and distributing of alcoholic beverages, and the Pharisees' accusation of Jesus being a drunkard in Luke 7 would be total nonsense if Jesus didn't drink wine at least occasionally. But, according to this resolution, the Messiah himself would be unfit for service in a leadership position within the SBC.

In an effort to protect Christians from a sin that is apparently more taboo than the rest, the SBC glories in its legalism as it erects its hedge around the law. In doing so, they also indict Jesus himself for leading people down a path that leads toward addiction, emotional damage, health problems, and more.

They are missing the point. Alcohol isn't the root of this pattern of destruction and abuse, but rather the hearts of sinful men. Continue reading this post »