Southern Baptists have been giving the Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission (ERLC) approximately four million dollars a year. Along with promoting a radical animal rights agenda, commissioning research fellows who don’t think abortion is murder, and marginalizing SBC influence among the executive branch of government, ERLC president, Russell Moore advocated building a Mosque in a local New Jersey township that objected not over religion, but standard zoning regulations.
Moore was not alone in his advocacy for Mosque construction, however. Signing the amicus brief in favor of the federal government transcending local municipal control of its zoning ordinance was International Mission Board president, Dr. David Platt. Why the president of the SBC’s foreign mission board was meddling in affairs relating to American zoning law is a good question, and why the president of an organization designed to promote Christian values was fighting for a false temple of worship is equally good question. Thankfully, others are beginning to ask these questions.
Dean Haun is the pastor of First Baptist Church of Morristown, Tennessee, and was – until recently – a trustee of the International Mission Board. Haun claims that he had no idea that the IMB had signed on to the amicus brief to assist in the Mosque construction until he started getting calls from concerned individuals, who had read about it online.
Haun is quoted in Baptist and Reflector…
“When I look at our IMB mission and purpose statements, I cannot see how this action meshes with them…If we defend the rights of people to construct places of false worship are we not helping them speed down the highway to hell?…I want no part in supporting a false religion even if it is in the name of religious freedom…Our Baptist institutions’ names will be on this brief setting legal precedence and supporting the right of mosques to be built all over our nation for years to come.”
Please note that trustees of Southern Baptist institutions aren’t exactly aware of what’s going on with them, aren’t involved in the decision-making process, and seem to serve in ceremonial capacities over runaway entities.
HT/Bob Allen, Baptist News Global
