J.D. Greear’s Most Recent Defenses

We discuss here Rev. Greear’s various actions and statements because of the disproportionate influence he has here in North Carolina among Southern Baptists and throughout the Convention.

It turns out that he has recently written a book defending his position that pastors should not discuss anything political in the pulpit. Furthermore, he has written an article at the Gospel Coalition website advocating that churches should not be discussing political matters in response to the Charlie Kirk assassination.

In other words, he is digging in his heels.

It is interesting that he uses the term “culture war” in the title of both his book and his article. The implication is that Christian pastors should refrain from engaging in the culture wars, and maintain a position above them. And it is all for the sake of “the gospel”– i.e., to avoid turning off the people you are trying to evangelize.

In reality, of course, the “culture wars” have been waged by the left against Christians for a period of nearly a century. But in fact, the culture wars waged against us are a spiritual war. This is a war that J.D. Greear and the pastors like him refuse to engage.

I learned about his most recent writings in a perceptive article written by Tyler Cox— a Southern Baptist layman– at the Center for Baptist Leadership website. I will excerpt heavily from this article:

The fact that Greear is arguing that the lines are no different today than they were, say, in 1999, reveals a stunning lack of discernment. It might sound cliché, but it’s true: Greear has no idea what time it is...

He’s trying to create a pure “gospel nucleus” that floats above the messy realities of politics. But this misunderstands how public moral order actually works. Political identity, law, and custom aren’t just consequences of discipleship, but are means by which people secure both earthly and heavenly goods. They create the conditions in which gospel ministry either flourishes or withers.

When a nation intentionally arranges its laws and customs in light of Christian ends, that’s not “adding politics to the gospel.” It’s simply Christians faithfully stewarding the public square. It’s political action shaped by theology, not a distraction from it…

Who could argue against putting the gospel first? However, in practice, it detaches discipleship from the very social and political structures that make discipleship possible, including families, churches, schools, and the rule of law itself. Simply saying “just preach the gospel” naively assumes civic conditions will remain friendly to Christian witness. It incredulously imagines we can ignore institutional hostility and still raise Christian children…

When institutions that protect life and nurture virtue are being actively dismantled, when laws are rewritten to deny biological reality, when children are targeted, and when religious liberty is squeezed, polite apoliticism is not an expression of neighborly love but an abandonment of it. It is abdication…

The actual threat is silence or timidity that lets hostile political projects define reality for people—especially young people—who will never hear robust catechesis anywhere else. The culture is catechizing your congregation 24/7. Is the pulpit?

The reality is that the “neutral zone” past ministry models assumed, where you could simply preach the gospel and let culture do its thing, no longer exists. That world is gone.

We’re now in a context where silence is interpreted as consent. Progressive ideological projects are not merely neutral policy disagreements about tax rates or zoning laws. They’re active attempts to remake civilization’s foundations: what a human being is, what a family is, what a man or woman is, whether children belong to parents or the state, and so on.

When reality itself is contested, when the fundamental goods that make human flourishing possible are under assault, purity tests and institutional timidity simply cede ground to those who have no qualms about wielding power. Staying neutral or apolitical is just losing by default. And a pastor who refuses to name the moral stakes affecting life, family, and religious freedom forfeits his ability actually to protect the flock…

You’re not a partisan-hack pastor for publicly denouncing the Left. One could argue you’re actually being prophetic. And oftentimes the restraint Greear is referring to is the failure to be prophetic…

You want to be faithful? Speak plainly…

The question is: “When does pastoral moral witness require public political speech and action?” And the answer is clear: When public policy systematically attacks truth, life, and human flourishing.

So my question for Greear would be, “Does this describe him?” Was he publicly rebuking those systematically attacking truth and life? Did he rebuke BLM’s ideological roots in Marxism and its open assault on the created order of family and sexuality? Did he publicly oppose Joe Biden’s aggressive promotion of abortion up to birth, his administration’s attempt to erase distinctions between men and women, or his targeting of faithful Christians through federal policy?

We know the answer to these questions. Greear has a long and documented history of proudly using the pulpit to push Leftist politics, such as DEI-based hiring quotas and more…

The Great Commission includes teaching disciples to obey everything Christ commanded. That “everything” includes His teaching on marriage, family, sexuality, the value of children, justice, truth-telling, and the dignity of all image-bearers. These truths have political implications.

To preach the gospel faithfully in our moment requires naming what threatens human flourishing and opposing it with both spiritual and political means.

Anything less is actually not faithfulness, but failure.

Amen.