Baptist Leader Down: What’s The Good News?

 

Glass church image 2023
Geoffrey Sutton and Bing AI

Baptist Leader Down: What’s The Good News?

The latest leader of the large US group, the Southern Baptist Convention (SBC) resigned last week. Willie McLaurin was interim president and CEO. The committee searching for a permanent leader discovered “McLaurin’s education credentials that he presented in his resume are false.” According to RNS, McLaurin admitted to the falsification and resigned on Thursday (17 August).

False Claims

Last week I joked with friends saying I studied at Oxford as I posted photos of the amazing museums, I visited during the few days I enjoyed in one of the UK’s fabulous centres of learning. Technically, one could make a case that I did study at Oxford, after all, I did learn a lot. But Willie McLaurin went much further. Here’s what the Baptist Press reported: “On his resume, McLaurin listed earned degrees from North Carolina Central University, Duke University Divinity School and Hood Theological Seminary. Those entries proved to be false.” So, no joking matter.

Failed Leaders

People who grew up in conservative faith traditions like me are tuned in to moral failure. After all, our clergy were big on pointing out the nuanced ways we had sinned and needed to repent. As a psychologist, I was intrigued by the tidal wave of forgiveness research and the lesser ripples of leadership restoration by misguided religious leaders who appeared to forgive and restore errant leaders to some other ministry where they could carry out their penchant for sin.

Good News

If there is anything refreshing in this SBC story, it is their transparency. Instead of covering up wrongdoing, the story was released to the public and the leader has resigned. When religious groups deal with the egregious moral failures of their leaders in an open manner, they create the possibility for trust among those who have not left their group. And they may gain additional respect from those outside the group—the respect religious leaders need if they are going to have a credible voice to influence the moral values of society.

To the extent that leaders of religious groups influence the lives of congregants and society, perhaps we can hope this openness and willingness to deal with ingroup wrongdoing can extend to political groups and other organizations in the US.

Leaders live in glass houses.

Read more about Christian Morality

 

Geoffrey W. Sutton, PhD is Emeritus Professor of Psychology. He retired from a clinical practice and was credentialed in clinical neuropsychology and psychopharmacology. His website is  www.suttong.com

 

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