On Monday (Oct. 25), attendees to the Missouri Baptist Pastors’ Conference will hear four sermons on Romans 12:2, a passage where Paul warned against conforming to the patterns of this world instead of being transformed with a renewing of the mind. Two of those sermons will be preached by Robert Jeffress, senior pastor of First Baptist Church in Dallas, Texas. Over the last five years, he’s been one of the most outspoken Christian defenders of former President Donald Trump.
Do not conform?
Robert Jeffress speaks as he introduces President Donald Trump during the Celebrate Freedom event at the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, D.C., on July 1, 2017. (Carolyn Kaster/Associated Press)
During the 2016 campaign, Jeffress dismissed a key teaching of Jesus to adopt worldly standards when choosing a presidential candidate. With this ethic, Jeffress defined Jesus as unfit for public office.
“When I’m looking for a leader who’s going to fight ISIS and keep this nation secure, I don’t want some meek and mild leader or somebody who’s going to turn the other cheek. I’ve said I want the meanest, toughest SOB I can find to protect this nation. And so, that’s why Trump’s tone doesn’t bother me,” Jeffress told NPR.
Do not conform?
Even after rhetorically putting on the “Don’t vote for meek and mild Jesus” bumper sticker, Jeffress somehow claimed to be acting on principle. He attacked Christians who wouldn’t vote for Trump as “fools” and argued those Christians were “motivated by pride rather than principle.” And he practiced what he preached by praying at Trump rallies and meeting frequently with the profane casino magnate in Trump Tower and the White House.
Do not conform?
After President Trump defended White Supremacists in the deadly 2017 rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, by saying there were “very fine people on both sides,” Jeffress towed the party line. He absurdly insisted the president with a long history of racism was really trying to speak against all racism.
Then when Trump attacked Haiti and African nations as “sh****le countries,” Jeffress still defended the president despite the racism embedded in such anti-Black refugee rhetoric: “I support his views 100 percent, even though as a pastor I can’t use that language.”
Do not conform?
After allegations in 2018 that Trump paid off porn star Stormy Daniels to conceal his affair with her, Jeffress again stepped up. Unlike the prophet Nathan who denounced King David, the court preacher offered political absolution. Abandoning the 1990s evangelical position that “character matters” when a Democratic president committed adultery, Jeffress insisted that even though evangelicals are still against adultery it didn’t matter in this case: “Whether this president violated that commandment or not is totally irrelevant to our support of him.”
“I’m asked the question, ‘What would it take for evangelicals to walk away from President Trump?’” Jeffress added. “I’m his friend. I’ll never walk away.”
Do not conform?
It’s not just his rush to a Fox News studio to defend every Trump indiscretion that mars Jeffress’s witness. This year, Southern Baptists have been wrestling with how to respond to an epidemic of clergy sexual abuse after years of denominational leaders looking the other way or even helping abusers get away. Yet, in the midst of this overdue reckoning, Jeffress welcomed one of those tarnished leaders to preach at First Baptist in Dallas just two weeks before the Southern Baptist Convention annual meeting.
Paige Patterson, who was fired by trustees at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary for mishandling allegations of student rapes, intervened to repeatedly assist a preacher the Houston Chronicle called one of the SBC’s “prolific sexual predators.” Yet, despite Patterson being fired for his leadership failure at Southwestern, Jeffress welcomed Patterson to the pulpit and announced, “Paige did a marvelous job there as president of the seminary.” Jeffress added it was a “privilege” to have Patterson there to preach.
In addition to Patterson’s poor record on clergy sexual misconduct, the service at First Baptist occurred just two days after Southwestern released a report accusing Patterson of theft and improper donor solicitation. Jeffress ignored the allegation, though Patterson claimed a “lynch mob” was out to get him.
Do not conform?
Kicking off the Missouri Baptist Convention’s annual meeting with a pastors’ conference featuring Jeffress on Romans 12:2 seems ironic at best. At its worst, it could set an alarming signal for the tone of the meeting. After all, if we can’t figure out what it means to not conform to the world but instead be transformed, then we’ll also fail the second part of that verse: “Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is — his good, pleasing, and perfect will.”
Brian Kaylor
The partisanization of the term “evangelical” under the influence of Jeffress and other court preachers is not good news. To welcome the Foxvangelist as keynoter for the conference suggests MBC leaders want more partisan preaching in our churches. But adhering to the profane rantings of a politician over the red letters of the Bible will lead us down a path that’ll look quite different from the one who taught us to turn the other cheek.
Jesus warned against those who claim to be his followers but then deny him when faith becomes inconvenient (Matt. 10:33). Until Robert Jeffress repudiates the cult of Donald Trump and recommits himself to the Gospel of Jesus Christ, he needs to be the first one listening and the last one teaching.
Brian Kaylor is president & editor-in-chief of Word&Way. Follow him on Twitter: @BrianKaylor.
