The Worst Christian of 2020

Who is the worst Christian of 2020?

On the surface, this seems like a foolish or even pharisaical question. The fact of the matter is that there are none worthy to stand righteous before God except his perfect son, the Lord Jesus Christ. Every believer struggles with sin every day and will continue to do so until the Lord returns and raises us anew in glory. None of us are really better than another. Yet, we can still fairly ask and answer, “Who is the worst Christian of 2020?” if we consider the question in terms of an individual’s influence on the visible church at large. Who out there, among the professing, has had the most deleterious effect on the health of the body of Christ in the year 2020? Using a number of criteria and identifying candidates from a pool of nominees (obvious charlatans and the theologically heterodox were not included for consideration), I have come up with one professing Christian who can fairly be considered “The Worst Christian of 2020.”

Who is the worst Christian of 2020? The Nominees were as follows:

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After careful consideration of the use of power, influence, responsibility, and the expression of theology, I hereby bestow the title of “Worst Christian of 2020” to R. Albert Mohler.

Dr. Mohler,

Al Mohler, you are the worst Christian of 2020.

You run the flagship seminary of the largest protestant “denomination” (convention) in the United States, an organization which makes the bold claim that it is “trusted for truth”.  In your school’s promotional video you proclaim, “If the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary and Boyce College mean anything, it must mean that we are here in the name of truth.”  This quote is followed by a two-minute brag on how trustworthy your institution is.

I don’t believe that for a minute, not with you at the helm.  The evidence shows that you can only be trusted for the truth you want presented to the public.  When you fired Dr. Russell Fuller, who had worked as a professor for you for 20 years, you asked him to sign a non-disparagement agreement in order to receive his severance.  This was after you, in your seething anger, screamed at Dr. Fuller and called him “an idiot” in front of his colleagues.  You hurled this insult at your subordinate and then expected him to sign a document saying he would never speak about it to anyone after you, in your great power, fired him.  How petty.  How scheming.  How political.  How Mohler.

And what was Dr. Fuller saying that made you so mad, that made you want to eliminate him from your faculty? He was warning against Matthew J. Hall, the current Provost of your seminary.  Matthew Hall, a man you have promoted and defended, once said this to a group of Christians while speaking on a panel:

“Everything you thought was true about your tradition, your denomination, your own family . . . I’m going to pull the veil back. And what looked like this narrative of faithfulness and orthodoxy and truth and righteousness and justice. I’m going to peel that back and show you the rotting corpse of white supremacy that’s underneath that surface.”

Why would any Christian want to teach with a man like that?  Why wouldn’t Dr. Fuller and other Baptists have a problem with a man like that?  I sure do.   I also have a problem with Jarvis Williams, a New Testament Professor in your employ.  He teaches New Testament through a lens of social justice.  One of his own students leaked syllabus from Williams, which shows that his teaching drips with critical theory and a misapplication of the gospel.  Then there is Curtis Woods, who was hired to teach “applied theology” at your school.  His application of theology was apparent in Resolution 9, the shameful affirmation of Critical Race Theory (CRT) by the messengers of the 2019 Southern Baptist Convention.  Woods chaired the Convention’s resolutions committee that year.  That Woods was responsible for drafting a resolution that affirms critical race theory should surprise no one at your school, given that he employed CRT in his doctoral dissertation.  You granted this man a PhD and then hired him to work for the seminary.  Yet you fired Russell Fuller after he opposed CRT being promoted at the seminary.  Finally you, Al Mohler, released a statement with the other SBC seminary presidents publicly denouncing Critical Race Theory.  You employ woke professors.  You fire the man (or men) who opposed hiring and promoting woke professors.  Then you release an anti-woke statement.  What’s the disconnect?  What’s the truth?

My observation of you is that you are a duplicitous man and the “truth” that you advocate is whatever “truth” which is most profitable for you at the time.   In 1984 you opposed an SBC resolution against women in the pastorate. This was before the conservatives came into complete control the SBC.  After the conservatives were firmly in control Al Mohler was all the sudden a complementarian, the most profitable position at the time for a man wanting to take over the presidency of an SBC Seminary.   In 1998, you were asked a question about slavery on the Larry King show and gave a biblical answer.  When the comment resurfaced among the wokeness that is 2020, you repudiated your comment and called it “stupid“.  Did the Bible change from 1984 to 1998 until now?  Or did the culture?  You were duplicitous in 1984 and 1998 and your are duplicitous now.  You’re nothing but an empty public intellectual and politician.  Even now you aspire to the presidency of the Southern Baptist Convention.  If my conservative Baptist audience can look past a reference to a Rated R movie, you quite remind me of the treacherous Earl of Bruce from the movie Braveheart  who supported a rebellion in the north while opposing it in the south and then called his actions  “noble”.  Like you, he was out to survive.

After you couldn’t hide it for any longer (thanks to Russell Fuller and others) that the unbiblical ideology of CRT was being firmly supported at your school, you were forced to release a statement saying you opposed it.  Al Mohler, why should anyone believe that you actually do…or don’t?  I don’t think you believe in anything other than Al Mohler prospering in salary, influence, position, and power.  It is for that reason, not merely your support of woke professors, that you are being declared the “Worst Christian of 2020.”  Of course progressives and liberals are going to worm their way into seminaries.   That’s to be expected.  Where else do such make a living outside of academia and politics?   But how do you handle your school, its employees, and its influence?  You are supposed to train Christian leaders to stand firm in the faith but you can’t be trusted to stand up for the truth unless standing up for the truth is the most popular thing to do at the time.  Just a few months ago, rathering than addressing the growing problem of female “pastors” in the SBC, you just went and claimed that there weren’t any, even though church website after church website shows there are 100 of them.  Your zig-zagging has earned you longevity: a cushy office, interviews on cable news, a big salary,  book deals, a big office, and swanky on-campus housing for nearly 30 years. Just a few months ago, rathering than addressing the problem of female “pastors” in the God, who needs none of those things, surely sees your heart and your deception.  

When you fired Russell Fuller and other professors who dissented against the progressive trajectory of Southern Seminary, you claimed the cuts were because of the financial effects of COVID.  Then, you turned around and hired more professors.  What do your words indicate?  What do your actions indicate?  Your words can’t be trusted and SBTS insiders know it.  In an unprecedented turn of events a sitting trustee at your school went so far as to release a video expressing some of the very concerns documented here…concerns about you and your leadership.

Al Mohler, you are a duplicitous man who tries to use money to hide the truth and keep your cushy job.  The sad state of the Southern Baptist Convention is personified in conniving, political, unscrupulous, empty leaders like you.  Bow-ties, $100 fountain pens, expensive suits, supper clubs, lack of decency, and little concern for the truth…that’s what you and your school can be trusted for but certainly not the truth.

Al Mohler, you are the worst Christian of 2020.

*Please note that the preceding is my personal opinion. It is not necessarily the opinion of any entity by which I am employed, any church at which I am a member, any church which I attend, or the educational institution at which I am enrolled. Any copyrighted material displayed or referenced is done under the doctrine of fair use.  

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