By Will Hall, Baptist Message executive editor
NOTE: Dashes were substituted for letters of a curse word in paragraph five. Also, [fire emoji] is used in paragraph nine to indicate Smith substituted a picture of flames for the word “fire.”
NASHVILLE, Tenn. (LBM) – Kevin Smith, pastor of Family Church Village in Palm Beach, Florida, was unanimously elected trustee chairman of the Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission of the Southern Baptist Convention.
His Sept. 13 election is being heralded as historic because this is “the first time a black individual has assumed this leadership role within the organization,” according to the Christian Post.
Smith was lauded for his “deep ties in SBC life” and as someone who “personally understands the importance of cooperation as a Baptist distinctive,” in an ERLC press release published the same day.
However, others pointed out that he attacks those who hold opposing views to his beliefs.
National media sources cited Smith as saying, “I think some Southern Baptists just bent over and became political wh—s with this whole Trump stuff,” when he was an audience member commenting to a panel at the 2022 SBC Annual Meeting.
Prior to that statement he declared, “I think some Southern Baptists lost their minds when a black man was elected president. Not all, but some,” in an apparent reference to the election of former President Barack Obama.
“I think some Southern Baptists were unloving to black people beginning in 2012 with the killing of Trayvon Martin,” he added.
But Smith also has made critical comments about those who oppose the move by some congregations to allow women to preach or serve as pastors.
In an otherwise innocuous June 4, 2020, thread with a comment from Beth Moore, Smith tweeted,
“I see why can’t-preach white-boys fear her … she has [fire emoji], they have talks, posing as sermons.”
However, two days later he tweeted, “Saints, constant nagging, suspecting, slandering, or warring among those supposedly worshipping the one true God is not a good ‘witness,’ and might be evidence of #idolatry.”
He added, “’How delightfully good when brothers live together in harmony!’ Psalms 133:1 CSB.”
According to an online bio, Smith taught at Southern Baptist Theological Seminary “for over a decade.” He also states that he studied at SBTS as well as Hampton University and the Church of God Theological Seminary. But he does not indicate what degree programs he completed.
He was elected president of the Kentucky Baptist Convention in 2015. In 2016 he was named executive director of the Baptist Convention of Maryland/Delaware, serving in that role for five years. He has served as an ERLC trustee since 2018.
