Francois Ntone

Southern Baptists vote against the alt right at the 2017 convention

The Southern Baptists and Racism

In a previous post, I had mentioned that the Southern Baptists adopted in 1995 a resolution that unequivocally rejected their former support of slavery and racism.  This was a major act of repentance, considering that the Southern Baptist denomination was founded in 1845 as a result of a split from northern Baptists over the issue of slavery.  Given that history, the leadership of the denomination has been aware of its responsibility in promoting racial reconciliation.  Indeed, in 2015, the denomination passed a resolution supporting racial reconciliation, and in 2016, it called on Christians to stop displaying the Confederate battle flag.

However, any progress made in recent years has been stained by the surprising support expressed by white evangelicals for the Trump presidency.  In my post Hate and Extremism and Their Religious Justifications, I related the findings reported by Southern Poverty Law Center on the link between Trump and the rise of extremism and hate groups.  Based on that information, it is not surprising that black members of the Southern Baptist denomination have been wondering how sincere their white brothers are regarding racial reconciliation.  These feelings were best expressed in an opinion written by Lawrence Ware, a black minister, in the New York Times on July 17, 2017.  Ware explained why he was leaving the Southern Baptist Convention:

“My reasoning is simple: As a black scholar of race and a minister who is committed to social justice, I can no longer be part of an organization that is complicit in the disturbing rise of the so-called alt-right, whose members support the abhorrent policies of Donald Trump and whose troubling racial history and current actions reveal a deep commitment to white supremacy.”

Ware had been an ordained minister in the convention for almost a decade, in spite of some early negative experiences with some of the membership:

“The first time I was called a nigger to my face was by a fellow camper at a Southern Baptist Convention retreat near Oklahoma City. I was 13, and it was 1995.”

Ware also related a disturbing incident where white professors, for some strange reason, stereotyped African-Americans for entertainment purposes:

“In April, five white professors at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in Fort Worth dressed in a way that mimicked gangsta rappers. They posed for a picture wearing hoodies, hats to the side and flashy necklaces. One of the professors was holding what looked like a gun.

The university president apologized and lamented the ‘moment of bad judgment,’ but nothing meaningful was done. To me, their performance constituted more than bad judgment. Mockingly stereotyping African-Americans revealed the moral bankruptcy of their souls. These men are responsible for preparing ministers for the work of the church, after all.”

But Ware says these professors are in good company.  He makes his point by referring to a report from the Pew Research Center that indicates, as I reported recently, that 76% of white evangelicals approve of Trump’s job performance.  He is particularly offended by a comment by Jerry Falwell Jr., president of Liberty University, who said on Fox News: “I think evangelicals have found their dream president.”

Problems at the 2017 Southern Baptist Convention

At the last annual gathering of the Southern Baptist Convention in June 2017, an alternate resolution against the alt right movement was adopted.  It was an alternate resolution because it differed substantially from the original resolution proposed by Dwight McKissick, a black pastor who leads Cornerstone Baptist Church in Arlington, Texas.  According to Kate Shellnut from Christianity Today, McKissick wanted the SBC to “go on record to abate darkness that’s invading our nation right now.”  His resolution therefore contained some strong language:

“There has arisen in the United States a growing menace to political order and justice that seeks to reignite social animosities, reverse improvements in race relations, divide our people, and foment hatred, classism, and ethnic cleansing… this toxic menace, self-identified among some of its chief proponents as ‘White Nationalism’ and the ‘Alt-Right,’ must be opposed for the totalitarian impulses, xenophobic biases, and bigoted ideologies that infect the minds and actions of its violent disciples.”

According to Emma Green from The Atlantic, McKissick had also inserted references to the “Curse of Ham”, which had been used by the Southern Baptists as a biblical justification of slavery, as I discussed in another post.

On Tuesday June 13, the first day of the convention, the resolutions committee announced that it had declined the resolution.  This led to backlash from many participants and a strong reaction on social media.  Considering that many resolutions representing standard conservative beliefs (including a resolution calling for defunding of Planned Parenthood) had been easily adopted, black delegates, in particular, strongly felt that a resolution on white supremacy should have been a no-brainer.  On the other hand, white supremacist Richard Spencer tweeted his approval of this development.

Barry Duke, the head of the resolutions committee, explained why the resolution was denied:

“We were very aware that on this issue, feelings rightly run high regarding alt-right ideology… We share those feelings … We just weren’t certain we could craft a resolution that would enable us to measure our strong convictions with the grace of love, which we’re also commended by Jesus to incorporate.”

But clearly many who opposed the resolution simply felt that it needlessly targeted some Trump voters who did not necessarily see themselves as racist.  The leadership, aware of the urgency of the situation, rewrote the resolution which was then adopted nearly unanimously on the second day of the convention.

The leadership tried to emphasize the fact that the disturbance caused by the resolution was merely the result of procedural imperfections.  However, Lawrence Ware wrote in his New York Times article that the problems at the convention were a major reason why he left the denomination:

“During the Southern Baptist Convention’s annual meeting, Dwight McKissic, a prominent black pastor in Arlington, Tex., introduced a resolution that denounced white supremacy and the ‘retrograde ideologies, xenophobic biases and racial bigotries of the so-called alt-right.’ The resolution should have been immediately adopted. It was not.

A contingent of predominantly white, old-guard members refused to take the resolution seriously, even while many black and progressive clergy members advocated its adoption. It was not until chaos ensued that a reworded resolution vowing to ‘decry every form of racism, including alt-right white supremacy, as antithetical to the Gospel of Jesus Christ’ was adopted.

What’s more, while they hesitated to adopt a resolution that condemned white supremacy, they did not hesitate to throw out activists who tried to raise awareness about the ways in which the convention fails its L.G.B.T.Q. members.”

Ware did not attend the meeting, but he explained that he made his decision to leave the Southern Baptist Convention after he heard about what happened.

It turns out that McKissick was not consulted for the drafting of the final resolution, but was fairly pleased with the rewritten document.  But a question remains: how many members of the Southern Baptist Convention truly believe that a resolution against white supremacy is a no-brainer?

The Resolution Against the Alt Right Movement

The final resolution adopted by the convention is reproduced here for convenience, and can be found on the SBC website.

“WHEREAS, Scripture teaches, “From one man [God] has made every nationality to live over the whole earth and has determined their appointed times and the boundaries of where they live” (Acts 17:26); and

WHEREAS, The Psalmist proclaimed, “The earth and everything in it, the world and its inhabitants, belong to the Lord” (Psalm 24:1); and

WHEREAS, The Apostle Peter said, “God doesn’t show favoritism, but in every nation the person who fears Him and does what is right is acceptable to Him” (Acts 10:34–35); and

WHEREAS, Our justification before God is based on faith in Christ Jesus alone and not in our ethnicity (Galatians 3:27–28); and

WHEREAS, Scripture proclaims that Jesus is purchasing by His blood believers “from every tribe and language and people and nation” (Revelation 5:9); and

WHEREAS, Throughout eternity we will gather with a “multitude from every nation, tribe, people, and language” in worship of our risen Savior (Revelation 7:9); and

WHEREAS, The Baptist Faith and Message conveys that all Christians are obligated to make the will of Christ supreme in their own lives and in human society, opposing all forms of racism, selfishness, and vice, and bringing government and society as a whole under the sway of the principles of righteousness, truth, and brotherly love; and

WHEREAS, We know from our Southern Baptist history the effects of the horrific sins of racism and hatred; and

WHEREAS, In 1995, the Southern Baptist Convention repudiated “historic acts of evil, such as slavery,” committed “to eradicate racism in all its forms from Southern Baptist life and ministry,” and “genuinely repent[ed] of racism of which we have been guilty, whether consciously or unconsciously”; and

WHEREAS, In recent years the Convention has nominated and elected individuals from a variety of ethnicities, including electing our first African-American president in 2012; and

WHEREAS, In recent resolutions the Southern Baptist Convention called on “all Christian men and women to pray and labor for the day when our Lord will set all things right and racial prejudice and injustice will be no more” (2014); expressed continued grief “over the presence of racism and the recent escalation of racial tension in our nation” (2015); and urged fellow Christians to discontinue using the Confederate battle flag, acknowledging that it is “used by some and perceived by many as a symbol of hatred, bigotry, and racism, offending millions of people” (2016); and

WHEREAS, More than 20 percent (nearly eleven thousand) of our cooperating Southern Baptist congregations identify as predominately non-Anglo and for the last three years more than 50 percent of Southern Baptist new church plants have been predominately non-Anglo; and

WHEREAS, B&H Academic recently published Removing the Stain of Racism from the Southern Baptist Convention, highlighting our continuing need to root out vestiges of racism from our own hearts as Southern Baptists; and

WHEREAS, Racism and white supremacy are, sadly, not extinct but present all over the world in various white supremacist movements, sometimes known as “white nationalism” or “alt-right”; now, therefore, be it

RESOLVED, That the messengers to the Southern Baptist Convention, meeting in Phoenix, Arizona, June 13–14, 2017, decry every form of racism, including alt-right white supremacy, as antithetical to the Gospel of Jesus Christ; and be it further

RESOLVED, That we denounce and repudiate white supremacy and every form of racial and ethnic hatred as a scheme of the devil intended to bring suffering and division to our society; and be it further

RESOLVED, That we acknowledge that we still must make progress in rooting out any remaining forms of intentional or unintentional racism in our midst; and be it finally

RESOLVED, That we earnestly pray, both for those who advocate racist ideologies and those who are thereby deceived, that they may see their error through the light of the Gospel, repent of these hatreds, and come to know the peace and love of Christ through redeemed fellowship in the Kingdom of God, which is established from every nation, tribe, people, and language.”