During its annual meeting earlier this month, the voting members of the Southern Baptist Convention — known as messengers — passed a resolution calling for the “immediate abolition of abortion without exception or compromise.”
The affirmative vote for the boldly worded resolution came after messengers had already voted in favor of a similar motion stating the convention’s opposition to abortion as well as its support for the Hyde Amendment, which bars the use of federal taxpayer dollars for abortions, according to Baptist News Global.
“[B]ecause abolishing abortion is a Great Commission issue, we must call upon governing authorities at all levels to repent and ‘obey everything that [Christ] has commanded,’ exhorting them to bear fruit in keeping with repentance by faithfully executing their responsibilities as God’s servants of justice, and working with all urgency to enact legislation using the full weight of their office to interpose on behalf of the preborn, abolishing abortion immediately, without exception or compromise,” the resolution states in its conclusion.
It references the following Scripture passages:
“For John had been saying to Herod, ‘It is not lawful for you to have your brother’s wife.’” — Mark 6:18
“Then Jesus came to them and said, ‘All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore, go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.” — Matthew 28:18-20
“For the one in authority is God’s servant for your good. But if you do wrong, be afraid, for rulers do not bear the sword for no reason. They are God’s servants, agents of wrath to bring punishment on the wrongdoer. … This is why you pay taxes, for the authorities are God’s servants, who give their full time to governing.” — Romans 13:4,6
Tom Ascol, pastor of Grace Baptist Church in Cape Coral, Florida, has been one of the staunchest supporters of the resolution.
In a blog post at Founders Ministries, a group he leads, Ascol explained the resolution was slated to have been presented at the 2020 SBC meeting. That event, though, was canceled due to the pandemic.
“It is time for Southern Baptists to repent of their complicity in searing the conscience of a nation that has yet to cease the slaughter of unborn innocents,” he wrote. “[S]outhern Baptist churches and leaders do not have to wait to take stronger actions to abolish abortion from our nation’s land.”
The complicity to which Ascol was referring dates back to 1971 and 1974 when the SBC passed and then reaffirmed, respectively, its “Resolution on Abortion.”
That motion called for Southern Baptists to “work for legislation that will allow the possibility of abortion under such conditions as rape, incest, clear evidence of severe fetal deformity, and carefully ascertained evidence of the likelihood of damage to the emotional, mental, and physical health of the mother.”
The SBC has passed more than 27 resolutions on abortion since then. Since the 1980s, all such resolutions have been pro-life in nature, though none have been as strongly worded as the one agreed upon last week.
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Ascol’s brother, William, who pastors Bethel Baptist Church in Owasso, Oklahoma, led the charge to approve the resolution, telling messengers that the Bible “tells us to rescue those who are being taken away to death.”
During his presentation in support of the motion, the Oklahoma preacher introduced a woman who regrets her decision to have an abortion. He said she now “lives with the trauma and the scar that she murdered her own children,” but has since found forgiveness from God.
“Can we not rise and stop the Holocaust?” Ascol asked.
There were some, however, who — while they are pro-life — opposed the resolution, arguing it was too harshly worded.
Alan Branch, a professor Christian ethics at Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, said he didn’t favor the resolution “because it advocates a particular political strategy” and could ostracize “godly politicians” who are working within the political system to make gains for the pro-life movement, but would be unable to turn the tide entirely.
“This is a poorly worded resolution,” he said. “I thought about trying to amend it, but, as a seminary professor, it would take me too many hours to straighten it out here on the floor.”
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Similarly, Josh Wester, director of research for the SBC’s Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission, which is staunchly pro-life, took issue with some of the language in the “abolition” resolution.
“This resolution, while it is aimed in absolutely the right direction, is the wrong resolution,” he said, noting the SBC is known to be “resolutely against abortion” already, describing the procedure as a “heinous evil, a grievous sin.”