In contrast to the UK prayer breakfast in Parliament where the leaders of the nation were called to listen to someone speak from the Bible, the Southern Baptists took up the request from Vice-President Mike Pence to speak at their convention in mid-June.
In a piece for The Gospel Coalition, Jonathan Leeman wrote: ‘… having a political leader address our churches or associations of churches tempts us to misconstrue our mission. Our mission is not the mission of the Republican, Democratic or any other party. Our mission, when gathered, is to work toward Great Commission ends. To bring in a politician risks subverting our gospel purposes to the purposes of that politician’s party. … it undermines our evangelistic and prophetic witness … it hurts the unity of Christ’s body’. There would inevitably be divided political opinions in a church over any individual or party.
Pence devoted much of his speech to touting the Trump administration’s achievements. He said: ‘It’s been 500 days of action … 500 days of promises made and promises kept.’ This proved too much for some in attendance and they walked out. A motion to stop him speaking had failed to gain enough support in the days leading up to his appearance.
