I’m glad Albert Mohler, president of the Southern Baptist Convention, has a blog. And he doesn’t shy away from controversy, posting the transcript from his remarks at Justice Sunday on the front page of his site. Good for him.

And I’m concerned as he is about some judges imposing their will and preference on the judicial process. But I strenuously disagree with his implication that we must do this to “fulfill our Christian citizenship”:

This pattern of discrimination against those who hold deep convictions about human life and the institution of marriage must come to and end. We’ve got to bring it to an end. We’ve got to do what is necessary to fulfill our Christian citizenship to see it end.

Mohler went on to say:

We need to speak at Christian citizens. What we demand is an up or down vote on the floor of the Senate.

Again, I wince at the language. “We demand.”

As a member of a Southern Baptist church Mohler is speaking on behalf of me - but he’s not speaking on my behalf. I’m a huge fan of the filibuster that Mohler wants to abolish, because it limits the amount of abuse a majority can enact. Democrats who hated the filibuster 20 years ago when they were the majority love it now; Republicans who hate it now loved it 20 years ago and will desperately want it 20 years from now when the inevitably cyclical nature of politics make the Republicans again a Senate minority.

And making power-play demands of political leaders is completely antithetical to the life and example of Jesus, whether that power play is on the political right (as evangelicals are doing now) or on the political left (as groups like Sojourners may be tempted to do if given a chance in the future).