The Racism Narrative and Black Churches Leaving the SBC
As a conservative, Bible believing Southern Baptist, you are the voice of our convention. This bulletin will be an invaluable tool to help you communicate truthfully, fairly, and clearly as you preserve and promote biblical conservative distinctives in our churches and our convention. I encourage you to use this information for your own posts, articles, sermons, and addresses as we “take it to the churches” together.
James biesiadecki, Senior Pastor, First Baptist Church Bartlesville, Oklahoma
The news cycles have been filled with smears about Southern Baptists and the issue of racism. This information is promoting the seemingly irrefutable evidence of systemic racism in the convention, and highlighting several prominent departures and threatened departures of black churches from the SBC— particularly over the statement of seminary presidents in the SBC condemning Critical Race Theory. (https://www.baptistpress.com/resource-library/news/seminary-presidents-reaffirm-bfm-declare-crt- incompatible/ ) Although these examples and departures are promoted as evidence of deeply rooted white supremacy and unrepentant racial bigotry, these responses could actually speak more to the gullibility of our media hungry populace, and the weakening of doctrinal integrity in the SBC than to racism at all. There are three prominent pastors and churches often cited in these articles. Knowing who they are, and where they contrast Southern Baptist belief and practice will unmask the flawed narrative being promoted. Here are highlights of these personalities:
Dwight McKissick, Pastor of Cornerstone Baptist Church in Arlington, Texas.
McKissick’s posting of the deplorable, racist letter he received from a man detached from the Southern Baptist convention for over 20 years, and who now holds aberrant views of Christianity altogether must certainly be hurtful, but seems suspiciously timed at worst, and ill-informed at best—stacking the narrative against the denouncement of Critical Race Theory. The man writing the letter is universally condemned, and is not a Southern Baptist… Interestingly he left the convention after the incredible and Christ-honoring actions of the SBC against racism in 1995. Nobody can deny the racism of the man, or the hurt that must bring, but this does not prove there are ongoing systemic problems IN the convention.
https://www.relevantmagazine.com/faith/church/a-black-pastor-received-a- horrifyingly-racist-letter-when-he-announced-he-was-leaving-the-southern- baptists-of-texas-convention/https://booklocker.com/books/9142.html
McKissick has long been a controversial figure in SBC life: In 2007 Trustees of SWBTS were near expelling him from the board asserting the inappropriate use of confidential materials and the manner in which he communicated his disapproval, but McKissick resigned in response. McKissick opposed the trustees attempting to prohibit the hiring of seminary professors who speak in tongues. McKissick claims to have his own prayer language and has argued for broadening our Southern Baptist position on glossolalia at convention meetings. He has had ongoing conflict with SWBTS.
https://sbcvoices.com/harboring-conflicting-emotions-regarding-paige- pattersons-counsel-on-spousal-abuse-and-the-resulting-implications/https://baptistnews.com/article/embattled-trustee-mckissic-resigns- from-southwestern-seminary-board/#.YBRZzi1h1pQ
Not only in 2016, did he present a resolution for the repudiation of the Confederate flag but in 2020 also requested the removal of the names of Boyce, Broadus, Manley and others from SBC buildings due to their personal slave ownership. (JD Greear retired the Broadus gavel used since 1872 to open the SBC meetings following the same logic in response George Floyd’s wrongful death.)
He was highly critical of the Executive Committee for their response to sexual abuse allegations in the convention without regard to the difficult and unprecedented involvement of the Executive committee, and the complexity of practicing hierarchical authority over our autonomous churches: “The SBC EC has bowed to political expediency over biblical principles in their hasty & unwise decision to minimize & marginalize & reenact the pain of the victims, in order to assuage the wrath of the accused, alleged violators,” wrote McKissick. “the same mindset undergirded slavery/Jim Crow in SBC.”
McKissick introduced a resolution to fight the supposed rampant white supremacy and institutional racism within the SBC, signaling his approval of Critical Race Theory.
He is profiled as a major supporter of a progressive leaning statement favoring CRT.
His Twitter feed often voices outright support for CRT:
Ralph Douglas West , Church Without Walls in Houston, Texas
West took the stage with Al Sharpton at the Fountain of Praise Church in Houston. There he proclaimed, “We are better than we used to be, but not as good as we ought to be, and that’s not good enough -- which means you have to take up the work of racial justice.”
West was outraged at Southern Seminary President, Al Mohler not only for denouncing CRT, but also for supporting Trump over Biden in the 2020 election.
Theresa Hairston was a member of West’s church and was the editor of Gospel Today Magazine. The magazine made news when the then-recent edition of the magazine highlighted female pastors. Lifeway pulled them from the shelves. This egalitarian interpretation of Scripture was the position of Pastor Wells she claims to have heard in many sermons.
Southwestern Seminary had to fire professor Rev.Jacque Hood Martin when sherefused to take down her pastoral website. At the time she was serving with West as a pastor on staff at Church Without Walls.
http://edition.cnn.com/2008/US/09/23/martin.hairston/index.html
Charlie Dates, Progressive Church of Chicago, Illinois.
Progressive church was only in SBC for one year. This one-hundred-year-old church has been and is currently a member of the Progressive National Baptist Convention, a mainline, African American denomination known for ordination of women, and flexibility in same-sex marriage.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Progressive_National_Baptist_Convention
Charlie Dates has been courted by SBC leaders who opened speaking engagements for him in the SBC seminaries between 2016-2019. According to him, it was in these “backroom conversations” he was “promised a new era of advancement on race and theology.” He finally, and reservedly joined the Southern Baptist Convention in a dual affiliation.
In response to the Seminary Presidents statement condemning CRT, Dates concluded, “Southern Baptists have no place to speak to racism,” because in fact, they are the “theological architects of American slavery.” “None of our denominations, black or white, are as relevant and biblically prophetic as our present age requires.” Southern Baptists “lack the moral character” to deal with real issues.
Preserving and Promoting Southern Baptist Distinctives
The departure of many of these pastors and churches has much more to do with the disparity between SBC beliefs and practices and theirs. The false and dubious articles and posts both formal, and informal highlighting church departures ignore the reality that although there may be residual pockets of racism in the SBC (as there are everywhere in the world) our Southern Baptist correction on the issue of racism has been nothing short of a miracle considering our beginnings. Our resolutions concerning racism have declared the repentance and lament over that beginning, and our commitment to its eradication. Our statement in the BF&M 2000 presents an unambiguous and immovable belief in the inerrancy, authority, and sufficiency of Scripture that enables such a rejection. The seminary presidents were right to reject Critical Race Theory as we continue to denounce the racism it tries to address. CRT is a godless, flawed, and misleading approach to understanding and resolving the issues of racism. It will not result in racial reconciliation but will further brokenness and un-Christlike responses to the problem. Here is what Southern Baptists believe instead:
Baptist Faith and Message 2000
“Man is the special creation of God, made in His own image...The sacredness of human personality is evident in that God created man in His own image, and in that Christ died for man; therefore, every person of every race possesses full dignity and is worthy of respect and Christian love. https://bfm.sbc.net/bfm2000/#iii-man
“In the spirit of Christ, Christians should oppose racism...In order to promote these ends Christians should be ready to work with all men of good will in any good cause, always being careful to act in the spirit of love without compromising their loyalty to Christ and His truth. https://bfm.sbc.net/bfm2000/#xv-the-christian-and-the-social-order
Resolution on Racism at the 150th Annual meeting in 1995:
“Therefore, be it RESOLVED, That we, the messengers to the Sesquicentennial meeting of the Southern Baptist Convention, assembled in Atlanta, Georgia, June 20-22, 1995, unwaveringly denounce racism, in all its forms, as deplorable sin; and...Be it further RESOLVED, That we lament and repudiate historic acts of evil such as slavery from which we continue to reap a bitter harvest, and we recognize that the racism which yet plagues our culture today is inextricably tied to the past; and...Be it further RESOLVED, That we apologize to all African-Americans for condoning and/or perpetuating individual and systemic racism in our lifetime; and we genuinely repent of racism of which we have been guilty, whether consciously (Psalm 19:13) or unconsciously (Leviticus 4:27); and...Be it further RESOLVED, That we hereby commit ourselves to eradicate racism in all its forms from Southern Baptist life and ministry”
How do we respond?
Pray for wisdom to see through the façade of political maneuvering that attempts to undermine the denouncement of CRT.
Pray for healing in our nation and in our churches over the issue of racism.
Teach the truth on racism from a biblical perspective showing its unquestionable sinfulness, and the reconciliation only possible in Christ.
Promote the BF&M 2000, and the Resolution on Racism with its clarity.
Affirm the statement of the Seminary Presidents formally and informally.
Post it in your social media circles, point it out in your small groups, and affirm it as a church.https://www.baptistpress.com/resource-library/news/seminary-presidents-reaffirm-bfm- declare-crt-incompatible/
Support any resolution effort to correct the seeming affirmation of CRT in Resolution 9 at the SBC annual meeting in Nashville, 2021.
Support a resolution of support for the statement of the seminary presidents at the State Convention Annual Meeting.
Support a candidate for President of the SBC that will appoint trustees to entity boards who will preserve, protect, and promote biblically conservative Baptist distinctives. (I.e. Mike Stone of Georgia)
Call for Baptist state schools to affirm the statement of the seminary presidents or produce one in like order.
Sign up and encourage others to join the Conservative Baptist Network so we can keep our churches informed. https://conservativebaptistnetwork.com Go to the bottom of the page and fill out to “join”. Your voice matters!