Crossville, Tennessee, pastor Jared Moore is one of six men looking to succeed Bart Barber as the next president of the Southern Baptist Convention.
The new president, set to be elected next week, will be empowered to appoint committee positions and shape the conversation in the nation’s largest Protestant group. (The other Tennessee pastor running, Dan Spencer, has not responded to an interview request). A core divide in the convention today is over the Law Amendment to more forcefully interpret a ban on women pastors.
In a phone interview, edited for length and clarity, Moore discussed his supports for the measure, why he is not concerned that the convention is shrinking and why he thinks submitting to Scripture means laying down your feminism.
Q: Your dissertation in seminary was on gay Christianity. What did you learn through your research?
A: My dissertation was particularly written as a rebuttal to gay Christianity Side B. So Side-A is fully gay-affirming. And then Side-B are folks that say that they’re gay, but that they’re not acting on their gay desires, and they’re going to be celibate.