Southern Baptists avoid criticism of officeholders, ‘alt-right’

PHOENIX — The Southern Baptist Convention, home to prominent evangelical supporters of President Donald Trump, adopted a statement on moral leadership at the group’s annual meeting Tuesday that avoided pointed criticism of current political officeholders.

The denomination also rejected a proposal to condemn the “altright,” the political movement that mixes racism, white nationalism and populism.

Barrett Duke, a Southern Baptist executive who shepherded the statements through the meeting, said the resolution contained inflammatory and broad language “potentially implicating” conservatives who do not support the movement.

The event in Phoenix is the first Southern Baptist annual meeting since the presidential election, which riled the denomination’s leadership over whether Trump, a thrice-married casino and real estate mogul, was morally fit for office.

The Rev. Russell Moore, head of the Southern Baptist’s public policy arm, was among the candidate’s most vocal critics. In late 2015, Moore called evangelical support for the Republican a repudiation of everything Christian conservatives believe.

Evangelicals who backed Trump generally saw him as a potentially effective leader who could deliver a conservative nominee for the Supreme Court and religious exemptions for opponents of abortion and same-sex marriage.

In voting Tuesday, the resolution on moral leadership urged church, government and business leaders to set a positive example and thanked public officials who “displayed consistent moral character and uncompromising commitment to biblical principles.”

A pastor had asked the convention to essentially reaffirm a resolution on morality adopted in 1998, as President Bill Clinton was under investigation for his affair with Monica Lewinsky.

Instead, the resolution decried how leaders “in every walk of life” had “destroyed their careers” through poor moral choices.

The resolution against the “altright” had been proposed by a prominent African-american pastor, the Rev. Dwight Mckissic.the denomination has been working to overcome its founding in the 19th century in defense of slaveholders.