Russell Moore: "Why Not Just Hand the Sermons Over?"

Yesterday, Dr. Russell Moore, President of the Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission of the Southern Baptist Convention, published an article titled "Why Not Just Hand the Sermons Over?" In this article, Dr. Moore argued that officials in Houston-officials who, in our system of government, are supposed to derive their power from the will of the people in accordance with the U.S. Constitution-overstepped the bounds of their authority when they issued subpoenas for sermons concerning matters of sexuality and gender identity. Dr. Moore argued that pastors should not submit to such an erroneous request. The entire article [found HERE] is excellent, but I wanted to particularly draw attention to a couple of quotes that give a hint of the kind of biblical reasoning that Dr. Moore exhibits:

Shrugging this [matter of unjust subpoenas] off is not the equivalent of Jesus standing silently before Pilate.It’s the equivalent of Pilate washing his hands, so as not to bear accountability for our own decisions and precedents set.

The Apostle Paul left Philippi, just as the magistrates wanted him to do, but he didn’t move an inch until the magistrates’ command to do so was revoked (Acts 16:37-39). Peter and John didn’t stay, all the time, in the temple court preaching Jesus. But they didn’t cease while they were under orders to do so (Acts 4:21-23).

Having just taught through Acts at Sayers Classical Academy, I was especially delighted to see the valid application that Dr. Moore made from that book, as demonstrated both by the sentences quoted above and by him mentioning the Apostle Paul's appeal to Caesar versus lower-level unjust authorities.