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Prominent Southern Baptist Pastor Steve Gaines Lauds Pro-Choice Politician

In the aftermath of the stunning victory of now Senator-elect Scott Brown in Massachusetts, one prominent Southern Baptist megachurch pastor took to Facebook to offer a “HALLELUJAH”

Steve Gaines, pastor of Bellevue Baptist Church outside of Memphis, Tennessee and successor to the late Adrian Rogers, had this to say on his public Facebook page:

“Well Hallelujah!  We have a conservative senator in Massachusetts!  The liberals have awakened the sleeping giant called “normal people.”  Marriage is for 1 man & 1 woman; babies are for nurturing, not murdering; govt’ should be little, not gigantic; and free enterprise is better than socialism/communism.  Normal people, it’s not too late for America.  The Wizard of Oz of liberalism has been exposed!”

Scott Brown is a long-time supporter of abortion rights.  He’s a pro-choice Republican.  He is, however, against partial-birth abortions and a proponent of parental consent/notification laws.

On the subject of gay rights and the legal status of same-sex couples, Brown is a supporter of civil unions and during the campaign noted that he “[has] the same position as Barack Obama.”

And of course, Brown posed nude in Cosmo magazine back in 1982 - talk about Family Values…

It’s interesting that what passes for “conservative” nowadays among Southern Baptist megachurch pastors (or at least among this particular SBC megachurch pastor) is support for abortion rights and civil unions.  My my my, has the tent become quite a bit bigger overnight among the fundamentalist elite in the SBC?

Nah.  But what we do have here is just another example of the blind loyalty of Southern Baptist leaders to the GOP.  Baptist Press -the PR arm of the SBC - regularly hammers pro-life Democrats for supposedly, somehow compromising their pro-life convictions in this complex health care reform debate.  Meanwhile, one of the SBC’s most prominent pastors showers a pro-choice, pro-civil union Republican with nothing but love.

Wonder if we’ll see Baptist Press weigh-in with some negativity directed towards the social views of Scott Brown?  Doubt it.

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Discussion

1. Jan 21, 2010—4:21 pm | Permalink Bart Barber says

Surely Progressives aren’t the only ones entitled to celebrate progress!? Scott Brown elected to replace John Cornyn? Major step backwards. Scott Brown elected to replace Ted Kennedy? Step forward.

In my mind, it’s as simple as that.

2. Jan 21, 2010—5:36 pm | Permalink peter says

BDW,

I agree with Bart. (His is better than I can do :^)

With that, I am…
Peter

3. Jan 21, 2010—6:12 pm | Permalink big daddy weave says

Let me play conservative for a moment and channel a line or two from an old episode of West Wing:

So it’s “progress” that Scott Brown wants to allow a few less babies to be murdered than Martha Coakley?

4. Jan 21, 2010—6:14 pm | Permalink big daddy weave says

Since we know that “partial birth” and teens procuring an abortion without mommy or daddys consent amounts to such a large percentage of abortions performed each and every year, right?

5. Jan 21, 2010—6:46 pm | Permalink Bart Barber says

Well, it certainly isn’t regress. Nor is it stasis. Thus yes, it must be progress.

It is ENOUGH progress? Does it entirely satisfy me? No. But progress it is.

6. Jan 21, 2010—8:20 pm | Permalink big daddy weave says

By definition it is indeed “progress” I guess but the progress is truly negligible in my opinion.

Were he a Democrat, I’d say that Scott Brown’s views put him well within the Pro-Choice mainstream.

The Roe decision, after all, did allow for abortion access to be limited. Coakley and the NARAL crowd seem to support a perspective that would require a more liberal reinterpretation of Roe.

After I heard Coakley’s comment about Schilling, I knew that it was all down hill. Brown victory may be historic but Coakley’s campaign should also be considered historic as well. She was just awful.

And well, hopefully Brown’s victory will cause the Democratic elites in Mass and elsewhere to wake up, smell the roses and get in touch with mainstream Democrats who are frustrated by local, state and national parties putting forth absolutely lousy candidates.

7. Jan 22, 2010—5:56 am | Permalink Bart Barber says

“absolutely lousy candidates”

Now THERE’S a commodity shared by both parties!

8. Jan 22, 2010—7:38 am | Permalink Jim says

Baptist Press has regularly promoted pro-life Democrats — Stupak and Shuler among them.

Baptist Press also mentioned that Brown was pro-choice and for civil unions. The differences between Brown and Coakley, though, were stark. Read the Baptist Press story.

9. Jan 22, 2010—7:43 am | Permalink Jim says

Also, Scott Brown opposes gay marriage and opposes overturning Don’t Ask Don’t Tell, while Coakley takes the opposite stance. They also have different views on taxpayer funding of abortion, etc.

There’s a lot in Brown’s win for social conservatives to cheer — even though Brown is indeed pro-choice. He’s far from the ideal, but he’s a drastic improvement. Yes, progress was made for social conservatives.

10. Jan 22, 2010—5:07 pm | Permalink Danny says

Politicians and Preachers should find different beds to sleep in. There no purity in politicians and the same goes for preachers for that matter.

11. Jan 23, 2010—2:00 pm | Permalink Political Gridlock in the U.S.A. « Very Important Stuff says

[...] in the 1982.  And yet the Republican label is enough to send a Fundamentalist mega-church preacher into ecstasy over Brown’s election. Categories: Politics Tags: Gridlock, Kevin Brum, parliamentary system, Ronald Brownstein [...]

12. Jul 25, 2010—9:54 pm | Permalink debbye says

This comment has been deleted by the moderator for violation of website standards.

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