Remember last summer when the Southern Baptist Convention (SBC) banned the Confederate Battle Flag? Because, you know, of all the things going on, scapegoating an indigenous people-group and attacking their cultural and ancestral symbols is way up there with being the hands and feet of Jesus.
Apparently, last year’s charade of an “apology that was needed” wasn’t penance enough for white Southern Baptists who allege they simply want to purge themselves of their denomination’s roots in using the Bible to defend slavery. And I guess virtue-signaling against all proud Southerners wasn’t enough of a “racial reconciliation” endorsement for the race hustlers in their organization.
No, last week, the SBC decided to denounce “every form of racism.” Okay, fair enough. Not that I think racism is the ultimate worst sin on the scale of human evil, but hey, I suppose I can understand why some evangelicals thought it might be an expedient thing to do in such racially charged times. Protestants are about being “relevant,” you know.
But in a final re-drafted resolution, which passed by unanimous vote, the SBC ratcheted up the politically correct rhetoric, citing specifically the “alt-right” in their repudiations of “white supremacy.” Shamelessly absent was even a mention of the scourge of anti-whiteness pervading our culture, the conspiracy theory of “white privilege” that’s used to bludgeon anyone who’s not a “person of color,” or the glaringly obvious racism of Black Lives Matter and Antifa.
Yep, no mention of those Marxist social movements, which are much more prevalent, have a sickening level of media and institutional cover, and are inherently prone to violence. Nah, the SBC has to go after the “alt-right” and even went so far as to equate the maligned stereotype with “white nationalism.”
This is really shocking considering that the nebulous label is a huge tent that, in reality, is really comprised of anyone who’s not a leftist. Hence, the biased language and juvenile claims of the resolution are truly deceitful and dangerous. I mean, bearing false witness is a pretty big deal.
For instance, I’m a Christian who’s definitely not a leftist, so by default, I’m on the right as far as parlance and principles go. Yet, I’m anathema to political nationalism and national socialism. But the SBC have perpetuated a false dichotomy: either side with our social-justice aims or you’ll be pegged a Nazi.
Like Vanderbilt’s Dr. Carol M. Swain posted on Facebook, “Jesus and the Gospel had nothing to do with [the resolution]. Black supremacy and extortion was what was on display.”
Rev. Dwight McKissic, the pastor who wrote the original draft of the resolution, which was reported to have used even more “incendiary language,” claimed that politics wasn’t his drive. “It was motivated by this movement growing, the violence of the movement … The white people took up the fight; I sat back and prayed. They forced this issue.” Ah, sweet, sweet Christian unity.
From what I can gather, it is Antifa and BLM who are the barbarians. They and their leftist colluders are the Philistines. In contrast, I see the small but loud white-nationalism faction within this vast “alt-right” as a non-violent and mostly esoteric subcategory.
And the last time I checked, intellectual pronouncements, no matter how repugnant you think they may be, aren’t violence. But punching, pepper-spraying, spitting, kicking, bludgeoning with bike locks and flag poles, throwing M-80 explosives, setting people on fire, blocking roadways, and killing are.
“Southern Baptists were right to speak clearly and definitely that ‘alt-right’ white nationalism is not just a sociological movement, but a work of the devil,” said the SBC’s Rev. Russell Moore, who also happens to be a former Democrat staffer and current envangeleftist activist.
Funny that Moore used the phrase “sociological movement” to decry the alt-right, yet that is exactly what the SBC has become: a movement that blends social justice, the Social Gospel, and Black Liberation Theology, protects the real racists, and co-opts something beautiful and life-affirming for its own selfish ends. That is truly the “work of the devil,” not some boogeyman of white supremacy, where there’s a white-hooded racist hiding behind every corner.
As Reformed bigwig Tim Keller once said, “Love without truth is sentimentality; it supports and affirms us, but keeps us in denial about our flaws.” But this resolution wasn’t some act of love gone wrong, where pastors had every good intention, but missed the mark in execution.
In pragmatic terms, perhaps it was a political stunt to get #SBC17 trending on Twitter. Maybe Baptist leaders see their dwindling membership numbers and are selling out white souls for the “vibrancy” of America’s changing demographics.
“As white male evangelists, we have no problem admitting that the future does not lie with us,” editorialized progressive pastor and sociologist Tony Campolo in the New York Times. “We are not confident that evangelicalism is a community in which younger, nonwhite voices can flourish.”
“… We cannot continue to allow sisters and brothers who are leading God’s movement to be considered ‘other,'” he added, of course, begging the question: So then, is it okay to allow the withering of white voices and for your white brethren to be considered “Other”? Must white Christians really go to the back of the bus in order to achieve salvation?
With progressives firmly ensconced in the shadow government, SBC churches might view this politically correct resolution as merely a way to safeguard their 501(c)(3) tax-exempt status. After all, mimicking the world is a great way to avoid setting off the alarm of government bureaucrats.
Or maybe, just maybe, they see castigating the mythical rampancy of white supremacy as an easy way to deflect attention away from the increasingly endemic anti-whiteness in our culture, and it’s all-too-frequent parroting in mainline Protestantism. It’s almost as if in some quarters, white souls don’t matter much these days.
“But why does this even matter to you, Dissident Mama?” my readers may be asking. “You’re not even a Protestant, so why pick on evangelicals so much?”
Well, I used to be a Protestant of the Southern-Baptist variety when the 2016 flag brouhaha became the final straw for me. I went to a quite conservative church back then, but even there, I began to see the social-justice seeds being sown little by little, sermon by sermon, community group by community group, till church culture started to feel more and more like secular culture.
Honestly, I almost gave up on church altogether. I wasn’t angry at Jesus or anything, but I was beginning to understand what Ghandi meant when he said, “I like your Christ; I do not like your Christians.” What a horrible place for a person of faith to be.
And I had come to the sinking realization that much of American evangelicalism isn’t very welcoming to white people who refuse to accept the false doctrines of white guilt and white privilege. I understood that white folks are constantly asked to empathize with others, yet nonwhites can have as much in-group preference as they like.
I saw that white Christians are rarely given equal import when wanting to open up about their trials and struggles. “C’mon, we know all about you’re ‘privileged’ white middle-class story. How hard can things really be for you?”
Just “become all things to all people, that by all means I might save some,” as Paul said in 1 Corinthians. Of course, that’s a standard to which only white folks are expected to meet.
White evangelicals are increasingly treated like they possess a deficiency, require a greater penance than anyone else, and have a moral responsibility to apologize for existing or being Southern or voting for Trump or liking a flag or not being a leftist or whatever is the cultural whim of the moment. Not very nice things for a Jesus people to do.
I felt as if church – a place that’s supposed to be about healing, fellowship, and true freedom – was more like a progressive caste system in which the Southern white man must wear the yoke of burden of every “aggrieved minority.” It’s tight around his neck, but the Bible-toting dictators will loosen it, only if he behaves.
Well, I decided I didn’t want to behave, and thankfully, I’ve found Orthodoxy. But I care about all souls, Protestant and Orthodox, black and white, male and female. And when shepherds are leading the good-natured, guilt-ridden, and gullible within their flocks astray, as well as encouraging the genuine dividers, I see this as a real injustice, not the “social” kind that cares only about certain folks.
It’s spiritual abuse for all Christians, white and nonwhite alike. God doesn’t want any people to self-flagellate due to their racial or regional identity.
Rather, He is pleased by the authentic diversity of mankind, not the forced progressive kind. Even the SBC resolution concluded that “through the light of the Gospel … the Kingdom of God … is established from every nation, tribe, people, and language.”
Yep, God sent His Son for all tribes, not just black folks, Rev. McKissic. Indeed, all lives matter to Christ. Amen to that.
