When Albert Mohler called at 9: 30 p. m., he had just arrived home from four 20- hour days at the Southern Baptist Convention’s ( SBC ) annual meeting in Indianapolis, Indiana.
Mohler, the president of the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary and a renowned leader in American fundamentalism for years, has attended lots of monthly gatherings. According to him, “drama and choice” defined this week’s meeting.
In an appointment with The Federalist, Mohler stated,” Our children were with us at the agreement this year. ” I said to a]very large group of pastors ] last night, I said,’ Do n’t mess up. Do n’t mess this up. I’ve got children. It’s our task to ensure that they have trustworthy ministers and trustworthy churches.
Female pastors, sexual abuse policy, and, by Mohler’s initiative, in- vitro fertilization ( IVF ) were all on the ballot this year.
” This meeting was so filled with moments of crisis and choice”, he noted. ” We had, you know, votes go into a second vote. I mean, that’s a pretty strange issue. But you’re aware that the convention’s soul was still very strong.
At the yearly meet, Mohler put together a resolution to condemn IVF. He had a classroom- valuable lesson prepared on the subject, fitting for a convent leader.
According to Mohler,” I believe there is no way that IVF can be performed without a significant social problem.” ” Quite frankly, even on the floor of the Southern Baptist Convention today, there was evidence of the fact that there are people who]are ] untroubled by the creation of so many — and I use this term only because it’s used in the]media ] — excess embryos. Imagine saying “excessive individual beings,” as it only serves to demonstrate the embryo’s burnout.
Mohler covered a variety of moral issues with IVF, including the millions of frozen embryos that had to be discarded and left in freezers, the embryonic screening eugenics, and what he refers to as” the commodification of human beings.”
He was, at one time, self- aware of his passion —” I’m using too many words around” — but the next moment returned to his point.
Far too many Christians “are basically disengaged from the issue” and, to be honest,” just have n’t been thoughtful in any Christian sense about the reality of IVF,” Mohler said. You have the pro-choice placement coming on with even more severe arguments, just as another way to advance their extremly radical agenda, which is almost entirely provocative of human dignity.
Mohler’s resolution affirming the sanctity of life and precluding IVF passed, but not without a struggle.  ,
Critics pleaded with the agreement, some through grief, citing their own kids as examples of IVF’s beneficial effects. Far from indifferent, Mohler says their anguish was when his individual.  ,
He said,” I, we, understand the pain and stress of being unable to have a child and wondering if you’re always going to have a baby.” Mohler and his wife, Mary, struggled with sterility for decades.
” It appeared that everyone around us was having children,” Mary Mohler recently reported to Southern Equip. ” I had host baby showers for individuals, and then nobody would go home, and we’d be surrounded with the stuffed animal designs. It was just painful”.
Mohler, also, is unyielding. He refrained from stating the notion that IVF is now more attainable than it was then.
” Available? I’m never correcting you, but it’s not just visible. It’s a client business. In an IVF economy, there are” a lot of billions of dollars to get made,” Mohler said. It’s being presented as something that could assist married people in their 20s and 30s who are struggling to own children. It’s being marketed today as a consumer product, simply, independent of relationship. Naturally, this also contributes to the LGBTQ interpretation of the community because a man, a woman, and a woman are speaking the language of their expecting child. And that once, in my opinion, highlights the serious danger that can be avoided by Christians by separating human reproduction from the marriage to marriage relationship.
Mohler’s pro-life success was the result of years of tireless campaigning. He did not, however, consider it the debate’s most critical moment.
Due to its support for female pastors, Mohler accorded that distinction to the SBC’s removal of Alexandria, Virginia’s First Baptist Church ( FBC ) as head of its advocacy.  ,
According to Mohler,” I think the Southern Baptist Convention can simply maintain ideological integrity and, to be honest, maintain a consistent ecclesiology if we adhere to a complementarity as stated in Scripture and according to our confession of faith,” The overwhelming majority of people’s votes for First Baptist Church of Arlington, in my opinion, demonstrate how strongly the church is convinced that the company of priest is limited to men as permitted by Scripture.
The agreement likewise took into consideration the “law act,” which would have amended the SBC’s governing papers to outlaw temples that employ people” as any kind of priest or elder as qualified by Scripture.”
The article was rejected, but it did not stop there. Mohler and former SBC leader J. D. Greear, who had been an vocal defender of the measure, had a public discussion about it.
Grear, who opposes sexual pastors and agrees with Mohler’s religious defense of complementarianism, disagreed with the amendment’s mechanism and principle given the convention’s “historical principles of cooperation.”
” He and I came over on different attributes”, Greear told The Federalist. We had a pretty, I do n’t want to say testy exchange, but let’s just say it was fairly substantive right before the vote on this panel we were on.
” The last words after we stood up on the board, I said,’ Man, I love you. You’re a leader.’ And he goes,’ I love you, to. J. D. ‘” Greear said. ” We have been in some much, heated discussions. That is very important to me. However, despite the fact that we disagree on a number of issues, I still feel as close to him and as affectionate with him as I did before. Despite our minor disagreements, this does n’t change how he feels about my respect for him or how I treat him.
The two also joked about the amendment’s failure:” I ran off to him and screamed’ in your face ‘ — just kidding … you know I’m not significant, right”?
Another writer, FBC Alexandria’s top priest Robert Stephens, recently called the proposed restraint” not intended by God”.
According to Mohler, according to the biblical lessons found in 1 Timothy and Titus, the New Testament word presbyteros, which means “elder” or “pastor,” designates a chapel office that is only accessible to people. FBC Alexandria did not respond to a request for comment right away.
Dr. Mohler is also no stranger to philosophical play.  ,
He was a key person in the errant SBC’s returning from religious democracy. In 1979, determined to store the left fall that included assurance of pregnancy, refusal of Biblical doctrines, and hesitation about Christ’s divinity, a group of pastors met in an Atlanta hotel room. They intended to systematically vote religious conservatives to the position of leader, dubbed the” Conservative Resurgence.”
” I was a young minister during that earlier time”, Mohler said of the legendary power challenge. He’s underselling it. In 1993, rise officials appointed him as the leader of the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary. He compelled all academic staff members to sign a statement that was doctrinally conventional, which led to student protests and mass resignations. By the late 1990s, the SBC had accomplished what Mohler has referred to as a revolution that it had been “achieved at an extremely large price.”
Mohler is aware of the threat looming from theological liberalism as a result of a total doctrinal upheaval. This is not paranoia, according to a quick examination of the mainline Protestant denominations ‘ trajectory. Some historians claim that the conservative revival came to an end at the turn of the century, but Mohler sees his grandchildren and is aware that the work is never finished.
” I ‘m]a ] grandfather, and that really shakes my thinking”, Mohler said. ” I want to make sure that my grandchildren, other children, and other people’s grandchildren are faithfully taught the Word of God, introduced to Christ, and given the gospel,” said the president.
Monroe Harless is a summer intern at The Federalist. She recently earned degrees in political science and journalism from the University of Georgia.
