Ronnie Floyd doesn’t speak for Southern Baptists. He can’t. He has ZERO authority over southern baptists.
““Our Lord Jesus himself was a so-called ‘illegal immigrant.’ Fleeing, like many of those in our country right now, a brutal political situation, our Lord’s parents sojourned with him in Egypt,” Moore wrote.
“Therefore, without any question at all, Jesus Christ is sympathetic with immigrants,” Floyd added.”
If I meet Floyd, I can and will tell him he’s full of horse poop, and that he’s reading his stupid politics into twisting the Bible and that he ought to be ashamed of himself. And as I said - he does not and cannot speak for the SBC. He has no authority of any kind over me or my pastor or our elders.
Floyd makes no claim of speaking as the Vicar of Christ. If he tried, he’d be booted out of the SBC in a heartbeat. He is just one of 45,000 pastors in the SBC. Nothing more. One of 45,000.
Well, here's their comment on his election as President:
Dr. R. Albert Mohler Jr., president of The Southern Baptist Theological seminary, had praised the Arkansas pastor, whom he nominated, as "dependable" and "faithful" and someone who will "lead all Southern Baptists and lead them well," during his nomination address to messengers prior to the voting.
If has zero power to lead them and "just another pastor", they don't seem to think so when they nominated him. Take it up with Dr. R. Albert Mohler Jr. It seems they go through a lot of trouble to give someone a meaningless figurehead title of "President" in the SBC. The Catholic Church has meaningless figurehead titles, but none of them are "President" of the Catholic Church.
He was also completely unopposed when he was up for a 2nd term. If his far-left pro-illegal views aren't shared by most SBC pastors, you'd think at least ONE of them would have challenged him for the title of "President" since he doesn't represent the majority viewpoint of his denomination. Why would you want to honor someone with the title of President who doesn't represent how the SBC feels? Even if it was a figurehead title, I'd choose the person I think best represents the SBC's theological beliefs as a whole:
http://www.bpnews.net/44954/ronnie-floyd-unopposed-as-sbc-president
>> Ronnie Floyd doesn’t speak for Southern Baptists. He can’t. He has ZERO authority over southern baptists. And as I said - he does not and cannot speak for the SBC <<
If that the case, then the SBC really ought to consider removing the "President's page" from their website that highlights HIS beliefs for the national organization. He certainly gets more attention than the other pastors. It seems to imply he speaks for the SBC as a whole. At the very least, if he was "just another pastor", you'd think they'd have a "Pastoral Highlights" on their page featuring a different pastor every week, instead of focusing on the President when his views are irrelevant and don't matter:
http://www.sbc.net/presidentspage/
I also think you're being a bit disingenuous by claiming he's "just another pastor". There are thousands of baptist pastors in this country, I doubt the unknown ones stand much of a chance of being elected President. Floyd is a very well known, prominent baptist pastor (he heads an Arkansas megachurch and is the Duggar family's pastor), which is probably why he was nominated for President. I'm sure "in theory" any ordinary Baptist pastor could be elected President, just as "in theory" any Catholic can be elected Pope, but we know the actual pool of candidates is pretty small when they meet to elect someone.
>> If I meet Floyd, I can and will tell him he’s full of horse poop, and that he’s reading his stupid politics into twisting the Bible and that he ought to be ashamed of himself. <<
Interesting. I agree there, he seems to be even further left than Francis on immigration. I'd probably tell him he's wrong as well. If I met Pope Francis, I'd also likely tell him in person that I don't agree with him that human activity is the primary cause of climate change, and he should consider other viewpoints on the matter because his conclusion is wrong. And if I met Benjamin Netanyahu in person, I'd tell him I'm utterly appalled that his "conservative" government just passed an abortion policy that is further left than the most pro-abortion Democrats in the United States, and he ought to be ashamed they're killing so many Jewish babies when he's coming here talking about preserving Israel for future generations.
That being said, if Floyd was speaking before Congress to blah blah blah about some liberal topic, I'd be respectful for the event and I wouldn't made snide remarks about his denomination or his character, or attack his relationship with God. I'd do the same for the Pope and Netanayu. That's the Christian thing to do in public. See how this works?