Welcome to Saints and Southern Baptists

On October 21, 2013, Dr. R. Albert Mohler, president of The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, delivered a speech on religious liberty at Brigham Young University, entitled, "A Clear and Present Danger: Religious Liberty, Marriage, and the Family in the Late Modern Age."

Mohler stated that though Latter-Day Saints and Southern Baptist may have significant theological differences, we share strong convictions in religious liberty and the importance of the traditional family. He continued, “I do not believe that we are going to heaven together, but I do believe we may go to jail together. I do not mean to exaggerate, but we are living in the shadow of a great moral revolution that we commonly believe will have grave and devastating human consequences. Your faith has held high the importance of marriage and family. Your theology requires such an affirmation, and it is lovingly lived out by millions of Mormon families. That is why I and my evangelical brothers and sisters are so glad to have Mormon neighbors. We stand together for the natural family, for natural marriage, for the integrity of sexuality within marriage alone, and for the hope of human flourishing...”

“I come in the hope of much further conversations, conversations about urgencies both temporal and eternal. I am unashamed to stand with you in the defense of marriage and family and a vision of human sexual integrity. I am urgently ready to speak and act in your defense against threats to your religious liberty, even as you have shown equal readiness to speak and act in defense of mine. We share love for the family, love for marriage, love for the gift of children, love of liberty, and love of human society. We do so out of love and respect for each other.

That is why only those with the deepest beliefs, and even the deepest differences, can help each other against encroaching threats to religious liberty, marriage, and the family. I guess I am back to Flannery O’Connor again. We must push back against this age as hard as it is pressing against us. We had better press hard, for this age is pressing ever harder against us.”

Having been both a Southern Baptist and a Latter-day Saint, it is my observation that, though there are indeed some significant theological differences, when you factor in our respective histories and cultures, we have far more in common than we do differences. I'm creating this blog in hopes that it can be another source of respectful dialogue between the two traditions. After all, if Dr. Mohler is correct and we do end up going to jail together, it would be nice to get to know each other and find as much common ground as we can. Who knows, maybe in this process we can discover that we can both go to heaven together, as well.