The following is a transcript of Todd’s morning radio commentary – heard daily on hundreds of radio stations around the nation. Click here to read my best-selling book, “Culture Jihad: How to Stop the Left From Killing a Nation.”
Over the years lots of woke Southern Baptist leaders and preachers have been lecturing Trump supporters – warning them that supporting the former president was akin to sinning against God.
One prominent wokevangelical wrote an especially nasty hit piece years ago saying that “evangelicals and other social conservatives” must “repudiate everything they believe” to support Trump.
And a Roll Call story quoted the same wokevangelical as stating, “Ted Cruz is leading in the ‘Jerry Falwell’ wing [of evangelicalism], Marco Rubio is leading the ‘Billy Graham’ wing and Trump is leading the ‘Jimmy Swaggart’ wing.”
The dude literally compared Christian Trump supporters to a scandalized television preacher. Sweet mercy.
And beyond that the wokevangelicals warned us Trump folks about engaging in the political process. They accused churches that flew the American flag of being nationalists.
And that brings me to an issue in my home state of Tennessee.
Our government is controlled by a super-majority of Republicans, which is a good thing. Our governor is a Republican-In-Name-Only (RINO), which is a bad thing.
The governor is calling for gun reform legislation in the aftermath of a shooting that left six people dead at a Christian school in Nashville. What he should’ve called for is crime control, not gun control.
President Biden and Tennessee Democrats are all on board with the governor’s proposed gun grab – and that’s exactly what it is. There are already laws on the books to keep guns out of the hands of bad guys and mentally ill people.
So imagine my surprise today when I learned that the ERLC, the Southern Baptist Convention’s policy group, had written a letter to Republican lawmakers in Tennessee warning them that they could lose Southern Baptist votes if they did not support the governor’s gun reform plans.
And I was further surprised to see that a number of Southern Baptist pastors in my state have written their own letter — also supporting the governor’s progressive gun policies.
“Sadly, as last month’s Covenant School shooting tragically reminded us,” the letter read. “these are not issues that take place ‘somewhere else.’ As Tennesseans, we urge the Legislature to pursue policies that help protect the vulnerable from harm in our great state.
“As Southern Baptists, we want to see the government take steps to help end this ‘epidemic of gun violence.’ Governor Lee’s proposal does that. As an elected member of the Legislature, you now have an incredible opportunity before you. We have great confidence in you as you face this pivotal moment and have the opportunity to advance the cause of protecting the vulnerable citizens who are your charge. This action is desperately needed.”
Is this what progressive Christian nationalism looks like?
In other words, Southern Baptist leaders don’t have a problem with Christians engaging in progressive politics, but conservative politics is a no-no.
I believe they call that hypocrisy.