A Little Gay Leaven Works Through the Whole Lump: James Merritt’s Grandchildren Celebrate Special “Guncle” Jonathon
In recent years, James Merritt, former Southern Baptist Convention President and current pastor of Crosse Pointe Church in Duluth, GA, has personally involved himself in several efforts to advance leftist causes in the SBC. At the 2021 convention, Merritt used his position on the resolutions committee to promote resolutions that allowed Critical Race Theory to continue to creep into the SBC on a national level. Merritt even went so far as to claim that opposition to CRT in the convention was responsible for the failure to reach people with the Gospel, stating, “If you would focus on the gospel and not CRT, everybody would be saved by now!”
At the 2023 convention, when messengers overwhelmingly passed an amendment that barred women from holding the office of Pastor, Elder, or Deacon, James Merritt joined former SBC Presidents J.D. Greear and Ed Litton in convincing the convention to pass an amendment that set up a task force to study the definition of “friendly cooperation,” a move intended to effectively upend the implementation of a ban on female pastors that would take place if the amendment that bars women from holding the office of pastor passes a second vote at the 2024 convention.
According to Merritt, however, there is no reason for any concern about drift within the SBC, and all those who have concerns should be ignored.
While working with his institutionalist buddies to promote CRT in the convention and subvert the will of messengers who resoundingly voted to not allow churches with female pastors in the convention, James Merrit also continued to support his son Jonathon, a left-leaning Religion and Culture journalist who officially announced his descent into the depravity of homosexuality in 2021. James has refused to denounce his son’s lifestyle. Jonathon sometimes moonlights in the pulpits of gay-affirming synagogues of Satan. James has even gone so far as to praise Jonathon for his preaching, releasing a message encouraging his thousands of followers to listen to a sermon from his son, commending it as both “brilliant” and “faithful to the gospel despite it being neither.
This is despite the fact that Jonathon is clearly living in open sin and has disqualified himself from teaching and preaching. much less being associated with.
“But actually, I wrote to you not to associate with any so-called brother if he is a sexually immoral person, or a greedy person, or an idolater, or is verbally abusive, or habitually drunk, or a swindler—not even to eat with such a person. For what business of mine is it to judge outsiders? Do you not judge those who are within the church? But those who are outside, God judges. Remove the evil person from among yourselves.” 1 Corinthians 5:9-11
The rotten fruit of James Merritt’s refusal to directly address the sin within his own household fell off the tree years ago, and its rotten seeds have now sprouted in the form of grandchildren who now call that which is evil “good.” Jonathan Merritt recently announced that upon his arrival at a family Thanksgiving celebration, his niece presented him with a bracelet she had made for him, a bracelet that bore the word “Guncle,” a term that means “gay uncle.” According to Jonathon, his niece gave him the bracelet to remind him that he was “special.”
Judgment begins in the house of the Lord. Unsurprisingly, when a denomination like the SBC appoints leaders like James Merritt who fail to provide Godly leadership in their own families, the fruit of such leadership is theological downgrade, as can be seen on full display in the current state of the SBC.
Compromise frequently begins on a personal level when leaders have a friend or family member who experiences an emotional or spiritual “experience” that takes them beyond the pale of Biblical orthodoxy. Instead of calling the lost in his own family to repentance, James has chosen to turn a blind eye to sin. Consequently, future generations of his family are now worshiping at the pagan altar of “Guncle” worship, praising that which is an abomination in the sight of God.