Gov. Bill Lee names new TSU board after House vote. Here are the appointees
NEWS

Keep church, political parties separate, Baptist group urges

Holly Meyer
USA TODAY NETWORK – Tennessee
The group Baptist21 wants a clear division between the church and the Republican Party.
  • Tennessee's presidential primary is Tuesday.
  • The group Baptist21 wants a clear division between the church and the Republican Party.
  • Local pastors among founders, leaders of Baptist21.

The Rev. Jon Akin wants members of his Lebanon congregation to be politically engaged, but the Southern Baptist pastor thinks sermons should focus on the issues, not a particular candidate or political party.

He belongs to Baptist21, a group of young Southern Baptist ministers who want a clear division between their Protestant denomination and the Republican Party. Putting hope in God instead of a candidate means not fearing every election cycle, Akin said.

“I don’t think it’s our role to endorse candidates," said Akin, the senior pastor of Fairview Church. "I think our role is to try to shape, to try to instill a biblical world view in our people.”

It’s an approach to politics that many Southern Baptist leaders support, said Thomas Kidd, a history professor at Baylor University. They want to steer clear of excesses from decades past when a strong link was made between the GOP’s success and the church’s agenda, said Kidd, who co-wrote “Baptists in America: A History.”

This year's lively race for president — Tennesseans head to the polls Tuesday — has spurred conversations among Southern Baptists on the topic, especially as a crowded field of Republican candidates try to court evangelical voters, including in Tennessee.

How evangelicals will influence Tennessee's GOP primary

“Baptist21’s approach has broad appeal among Southern Baptists, but especially among younger pastors,” Kidd said in an email. “Not that these pastors are ‘liberal,’ either politically or theologically. They just have a different view of what role politics should play in the life of the church.”

The Rev. Jon Akin is senior pastor at Fairview Church in Lebanon.

Both U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz, who identifies as a Southern Baptist, and Ben Carson, a Seventh-day Adventist, spoke Friday in Nashville at the National Religious Broadcasters' annual convention. Faith was a part of both of their speeches. Cruz also has a campaign effort to have a pastor from each of Tennessee’s 95 counties support him.

Southern Baptists lean Republican. In Pew Research Center’s 2014 Religious Landscape Study, 64 percent of Southern Baptists said they were Republican or Republican-leaning, compared with 26 percent who responded as Democrats or leaning that way.

Ted Cruz vows to pick conservative to Supreme Court

The Rev. Jedidiah Coppenger, who also is a founding member of Baptist21 in Middle Tennessee, said informal discussions about the merits of the candidates are happening among churchgoers just as they do with friends. Coppenger is the lead pastor at Redemption City Church in Franklin.

The Rev. Jedidiah Coppenger is the lead pastor at Redemption City Church in Franklin.

"On a denominational scale, there has been some obvious disagreement, sometimes pretty sharp disagreement I’d say, over exactly how Christians should engage in the political process," Coppenger said.

Baptist21 raised concerns, including theological ones, about Carson being invited to speak at a Southern Baptist Convention pastors conference last year. Carson later backed out. The group was conflicted but less concerned about Russell Moore, the president of the denomination's Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission, interviewing Republican presidential candidate Jeb Bush at an August mission conference in Nashville. A video interview with U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio also was shown.

Jeb Bush preaches religious liberty at Baptist event

Some Southern Baptist leaders don’t mind getting involved in politics. Cruz received an endorsement from South Carolina Southern Baptist leader Tommy Kelly. Dallas pastor Robert Jeffress has publicly supported, but not endorsed, Trump, who received an endorsement from evangelical leader and Liberty University President Jerry Falwell Jr., according to Religion News Service. But Moore has spoken out against Trump.

While the political conversations grab the spotlight, Baptist21 focuses on a broad swath of issues that interest Southern Baptist leaders, engaging in discussions online and hosting panels at the denomination's annual meeting.

The group, which has a five-member leadership team, was founded eight years ago by about a dozen seminary students in their 20s as a way to bridge the gap between their generation and the pastors who came before them.

USA TODAY's 2016 Presidential Poll Tracker

"Let’s try to be a winsome voice for change, while at the same time joining hands with older generations and try to continue the good things they did," Akin said. "It's been surprising to us. There's just been a lot of young people who have just kind of said 'we resonate with what you're talking about and what you're doing.' "

Today, Akin sees a divide within the Southern Baptist Convention created by how the Gospel influences each person's cultural engagement and everyday life. In a post late last month to Baptist21's website, he explained how the election cycle is highlighting that divide. He said changes, such as religious liberty concerns and same-sex marriage, have caused fear for America's future.

"Some think that a strong leader who can right the economy, strengthen our military, protect our borders and sort of comes close to our views socially can stem the tide. Others think that we are exiles on the margins that will not ultimately change the country through political influence but rather Gospel witness to all political parties and peoples. That is the divide," the post stated.

Religion often intersects with Tennessee politics

Both Coppenger and Akin focus on the issues addressed through Scriptures. Some stances are more clearly laid out than others, Coppenger said. He explained that opposition to abortion is firm, and while caring for the poor and the environment are directives, what is the best policy to use to do that is unclear.

"I think what that does is it makes us a seeking people that are about issues more than personalities," Coppenger said. "We want to stay very clear to the issues and the candidates make it clear where they stand on those issues."

Reach Holly Meyer at 615-259-8241 and on Twitter @HollyAMeyer.