Thread: Tonight in Tennessee, Oscar Franklin Smith will die by means of lethal injection. He is one of 47 people on death row in my home state, and will be the 140th person executed since 1916. tennessean.com/story/news/202… I've gone back and forth on the death penalty. Many on either side of the issue find it to be simple, but it has been complicated for me over the years. I still don’t quite know how I would articulate a position on it.

Over the last day, I’ve been sharing threads that give the full texts of particular resolutions that were passed at the last three SBC Annual Meetings. In 2018, we passed one on Christlike Communication and the Use of Social Media:

https://twitter.com/acwhit/status/1481088175313403904?s=20

WHEREAS, The Scriptures charge the Church to “walk worthy of the calling you have received, with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love, making every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace” (Eph 4:1–3); and WHEREAS, The Scriptures likewise command the church to “be like-minded and sympathetic, love one another, and be compassionate and humble” (1 Pt 3:8); and

WHEREAS, Jesus sends His church into the world as ambassadors of the ministry of reconciliation (2 Cor 5:20); and WHEREAS, As ambassadors, we are called to embody gospel reconciliation in our corporate life together (Eph 2:11–22; 4:1–6; Phil 1:27; 2:1–8; 4:8– 9) and in our cooperative efforts among local bodies of Christ (Acts 15:6–35; 2 Cor 9; Phil 2:19–30),

WHEREAS, Due to the size & publicly deliberative nature of the Southern Baptist Convention, the interactions between its people & entities often become newsworthy & are published in Christian & secular media as representation of the faith of believers in our Lord Jesus Christ;and WHEREAS, The use of social media by Christians for dialogue, expressing opinions, and argumentation also is a public representation of the faith of believers in our Lord Jesus Christ; and

I’ve held back during recent SBC discussions, because I believed it was best. I intend to cooperate fully however I’m called upon during the investigation, but I’ve deliberately chosen not to litigate things in this space. However, I want to make one point I believe is important. The last few weeks have been intense, with great division. Some believe the EC actions will have serious institutional consequences. I get that. Sometimes after weighing everything, we still take a path because we believe it is the right one. That seems to be what happened here.

Thread: I was honored to be able to participate in this recent project, around a topic of great importance alongside a friend I deeply respect, @nathanafinn.

https://twitter.com/Baptist_Center/status/1270061014952955905

We took this project on at the encouragement and with the trust of @HarwoodAdam, because we believed that the discussion of how we relate to one another in the church matters.

THREAD: The last few weeks have been intense, and have sparked many conversations among Southern Baptists. It is important, however, to acknowledge that these conversations are not new. In fact, we were having a similar conversation this month in SBC History. Twenty-five years ago, Southern Baptists passed a “Resolution On Racial Reconciliation On The 150th Anniversary Of The Southern Baptist Convention.” sbc.net/resolutions/89…