Bait and Switch

At the end of an article about a Southern Baptist church that refused to let a black couple marry in it is this:

Earlier this year, the convention elected its first black president, the Rev. Fred Luter Jr. of Franklin Avenue Baptist Church in New Orleans. At the same meeting, delegates voted to give churches the option of calling themselves Great Commission Baptist churches, for those who wish to break free of the Southern Baptist name to seek more followers.

Okay, let's put aside for a moment the appalling cruelty of that church's decision, not to mention the hypocrisy - this was a heterosexual couple that was getting married, for crying out loud, and they were members of the church - and the callousness of putting a note on your web site and pretending that's an apology to people you won't talk to in person, and let's put aside even that whole we're-getting-better thing about Luter.

The Southern Baptist Convention just admitted that lots of people don't want to go to Southern Baptist churches - and their answer to that isn't 'let's fix the problem'. It's not even 'okay, fine, let 'em be like that'. No.

Their answer is to formally allow Southern Baptist churches to call themselves something else so they can "seek more followers". Followers who have already decided they don't want to be Southern Baptists.

Lying for Jesus: Master Class.