Mixed Reactions to Pence's Speech to Southern Baptist Meeting: Were His Views Truly Biblical? And SBC Resolution 5 . . .

Mike Pence

Yesterday, I wrote about Vice President Mike Pence's speech to the Southern Baptist Convention Annual Meeting. My point was that he mixed religious doctrines with conservative political policies that were neither religious nor biblical. The Bible does not endorse strong armies, conservative economic policies, high tariffs, and so forth. Yet, Pence created the questionable impression that conservative economic and political policies arose from religion. Looking at the audience's reaction, we can see that, in fact, many of the people saw that his policies were not biblical at all.

The audience applauded many of Mr. Pence's comments, including some of his most politicized points. And we all know that about 80% of White Evangelical Christians voted for Donald Trump in 2016.

Still . . . Pence's politicized, campaign rally-type speech earned him some blowback. Newly elected Southern Baptist Convention President J. D. Greear tweeted about Pence's speech: "I know that sent a terribly mixed signal. We are grateful for civil leaders who want to speak to our Convention – but make no mistake about it, our identity is in the gospel and our unity is in the Great Commission. Commissioned missionaries, not political platforms, are what we do." Pastor Todd Benkert tweeted sarcastically on June 13, the day of Pence's speech: "Thank you @VP for hijacking our unified religious meeting with you[r] partisan political campaign speech. You had an opportunity to offer a unifying non-partisan message but no." Sadly, after Mr. Pence's controversial presentation, the Southern Baptist Convention is considering a proposal to stop inviting political figures at all. It is a shame that Pence's tasteless, inappropriate speech may lead to such an outcome.

Hostile policies toward immigration drove Donald Trump's 2016 election campaign and fear of immigrants motivated many of his supporters. Mr. Trump routinely read a song that he misinterpreted to send the message that immigrants are "snakes." He called for "extreme vetting" of refugees. He promised to build a border wall, paid for by Mexico, to stop immigration from that country. Mr. Pence referred elliptically to that policy when he boasted about Donald Trump's success in "securing our borders." The Trump administration has been separating immigrant families at the border, and Attorney General Jeff Sessions has, appallingly, cited the Bible to support this practice.

Yet, following Pence's speech, the Southern Baptist Convention overwhelmingly approved "Resolution 5 – On Immigration." Unlike Mr. Trump and Mr. Pence, who appropriated Christianity for their own purposes, the Convention based its immigration policy on religious grounds.

Highlights of Resolution 5 included:

"WHEREAS, God commands His people to treat immigrants with the same respect and dignity as those native born (Leviticus 19:33–34; Jeremiah 7:5–7; Ezekiel 47:22; Zechariah 7:9–10); and

"WHEREAS, Scripture is clear on the believer’s hospitality towards immigrants, stating that meeting the material needs of “strangers” is tantamount to serving the Lord Jesus Himself (Matthew 25:35–40; Hebrews 13:2);..." 

Compared to Mr. Trump's "extreme vetting" of refugees policy, Resolution 5 called for sympathy:

"WHEREAS, Longings to protect one’s family from warfare, violence, disease, extreme poverty, and other destitute conditions are universal, driving millions of people to leave their homelands to seek a better life for themselves, their children, and their grandchildren; . . ."

Resolution 5 also called for churches to reach out to immigrants:

"RESOLVED, That we encourage all elected officials, especially those who are members of Southern Baptist churches, to do everything in their power to advocate for a just and equitable immigration system, those in the professional community to seek ways to administer just and compassionate care for the immigrants in their community, and our Southern Baptist entities to provide resources that will equip and empower churches and church members to reach and serve immigrant communities; . . ."

I doubt that the Southern Baptist Convention intended to rebuke Mr. Trump, but they certainly contradicted his presidency's signature policy.

It is also reassuring to see that the Southern Baptist Convention unhesitatingly cited relevant biblical texts that called for, not extreme vetting, but extreme love toward immigrants, for example, Leviticus 19:33034: 

"When an alien resides with you in your land, you shall not oppress the alien.  The alien who resides with you shall be to you as the citizen among you; you shall love the alien as yourself, for you were aliens in the land of Egypt: I am the Lord your God."

I think it is unfortunate when religion and politics become too closely entwined. It is a very good thing for politicians to act according to moral values. It is a very bad thing when politicians hijack religion for their own self-centered agenda, and it is a worse thing if religion allows itself to be hijacked. I often wonder how many people have turned away from Christianity, falsely believing that Christianity requires them to support harsh policies toward immigrants, the poor, and the oppressed, when the Bible clearly and repeatedly says the opposite. Thomas Jefferson's "wall of separation between Church & State" is not just for the protection of the state, but even more for the protection of the church. Christianity should never be an excuse for wickedness, but, instead, should lead us to do good things even against our own desires.

Images: Mike Pence's official portrait; Thomas Jefferson portrait from Library of Congress

The Scripture quotations contained herein are from the New Revised Standard Version Bible, copyright 1989 by the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the U. S. A., and are used by permission. All rights reserved.