The Race Is On

Why as a Southern Baptist do I often feel like I’m living a bad country song?

“I’d really like to go to Greensboro this year but the pickup needs an overhaul.”

Maybe it’s because deep down I know I’m a redneck, something even an MDiv. can’t erase.

Like Larry the Cable Guy, I apologize, but some things are just funny.

The SBC Presidential race is beginning to be funny. In fact it’s beginning to sound like George Jones’ old country song, “The Race Is On.” You know the one with the classic line, “Well the race is on and here comes pride up the backstretch.”

Before this baby is over there could be a lot of pride kicking in and kicking out.

We’ve got the first entry, Ronnie Floyd, occupying the pole position. He was the odds on favorite until Frank Page entered the race. It quickly became a contest between CP Loyalty and the “Approved” candidate. But this week when Jerry Sutton, threw his hat in the ring, all bets were off and the race became much more than just a “lesser of two evil” choices matchup.

And make no mistake about it, the SBC Calvinist saw the race between Floyd and Page as a no win race for Calvinists in the SBC. Floyd is the epitome of practical evangelism and the story about the fire engine baptistry whether it was true or not was enough to foam the mouth of any 5-point or even a wannabe Calvinist. Page on the other hand articulated his stand against Calvinism very clearly in a book entitled, Trouble With The TULIP, which Tom Ascol aptly dealt with in his blog earlier. To say that Calvinists were concerned about the two man race is an understatement.

But Jerry Sutton is encouraging to Calvinists in the SBC when he said in an interview with the Southern Baptist Texan, that he is “sympathetic with Reformed Theology.” Since he did his dissertation on Charles Spurgeon he obviously knows that Calvinism does not kill evangelism which has been the mantra of several high profile and outspoken Southern Baptist leader/pastors.

As you can clearly see by now the SBC CALVINIST is backing candidate number three, Jerry Sutton. But the sad reality remains as that Country Song mentality kicks back in, this could be just another case of “The Winner Loses All.”