Dr. Al Mohler: Opportunist or Convictional Southern Baptist?

According to credible reports from colleagues and close friends, Dr. Mohler abruptly switched “sides” during the Conservative Resurgence (CR) of the Southern Baptist Convention (SBC). Up until 1990, Mohler is said to have embraced the Moderate/Liberal theological wing in the SBC. However, after the 1990 New Orleans convention, Mohler reportedly informed one of his closest friends that “our side” is “doing very badly” in the struggle for the soul of the convention. Accordingly, Mohler is said to have gone back to Atlanta where at the time he was editor of The Christian Index, Georgia Baptists’ state paper, and immediately began writing strongly conservative articles in the paper.

While Mohler has offered another narrative concerning his change of heart, his old friends and colleagues at Louisville’s Southern Baptist Theological Seminary insist his change was consistent with his person as they knew him. In their words, Mohler was an “opportunist.”

What we do know is, only recently Dr. Mohler declared that he is theologically not now where he was in 1995. Now he appears to be embracing, accommodating, and/or advocating a Social Justice model for interpreting Scripture including supporting faculty who explicitly embrace and advocate Critical Race Theory and Intersectionality.

Thus, in light of Dr. Mohler’s declaration and apparent shift in hermeneutical models for interpreting Scripture, the question begging us to ask is,

Has Dr. Mohler switched theological sides yet once again?