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The Southern Baptist Convention (SBC), the largest Protestant Christian church denomination in the United States, may pay a price for its hesitance to address the spread of critical race theory even among conservative evangelicals.
Not only is the church divided on the issue, but black leaders are as well.
Washington Post featured columnist Eugene Robinson in an article titled, "The Cold Truth about Republican Hot Air over Critical Race Theory."
Dr. Ben Carson wrote an article yesterday, explaining how and why: "Fighting critical race theory---here's how we stop this blatantly racist ideology."
Some clarity.
Be informed, not misled.
The Southern Baptist Convention CRT issue is layered and a bit complicated. You can read Ezra Dulis' entire story here.
However, the story is noteworthy because the Southern Baptist Convention is the largest Protestant denomination in the US with 47,592 congregations and 14,089,947 members. And its convention is the largest deliberative body in the world with about 16,000 participants last month.
Christian voices have been sounding the alarm on CRT and its far-left ideology even before it became the most dominant discussion in the country. Most all schools and some churches have begun using CRT materials, including Southern Baptist churches,
A number of sermons, panels, books, and small group curricula have subtly entrapped believers with extra-biblical commands about "whiteness", "privilege", and "allyship", exploiting the "feeling" of words like "racism" and "white supremacy" while imbuing their meanings with what we should see as positive, Biblical things like hard work or receiving advantages from one's parents.
Dulis says:
"And this kind of theological drift was noticeably infecting the SBC at its highest levels. Russell Moore, then head of the SBC's Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission (ERLC), put on a conference commemorating the 50th anniversary of Martin Luther King, Jr's assassination (MKL50). The presentations lionizing King (an important, positive figure in American history---who, by most accounts, did not affirm the core tenets of Christianity, such as the literal resurrection of Jesus"
The story then documents a number of cases where CRT teaching has been advanced by individuals who have now been elevated to denominational leadership and notes that in their 2019 convention, the SBC passed a resolution about the potential benefits of using critical race theory as an "analytical tool."
In this convention, the article explains, they tried to elect a denominational president that would be a "uniter"---a "moderate" and in their efforts, a little-known pastor named Ed Litton was narrowly elected.
Now the conservatives have discovered there are multiple accounts where Litton has plagiarized large portions of other pastor's sermons---which is now an issue. And, the content he has borrowed is mostly from religious left pastors like Tim Keller and others.
Using critical race theory materials is not isolated to the SBC. Worse yet, is that some denominations are using it with no objections---from anyone in the church.
Some light on the subject.
The Washington Post is rising to the occasion.
Eugene Robinson is an African American who writes a regular column for the Post. Recently, the Post, which identifies itself with the slogan "Democracy dies in the dark," published a feature article by Robinson titled, "The Cold Truth About Republican' Hot Air Over Critical Race Theory."
He says the Republicans are throwing a "hissy fit" over CRT and it's nothing more than "an attempt to rally the party's overwhelmingly White base by denying documented history and uncomfortable truth."
He calls the resistance to CRT being taught in schools, etc., a "cynical ploy" while defending the New York Times "1619 Project" and his own Washington Post.
His "truth tantrum" goes on and on, concluding that the teachers who are teaching CRT are not just trying to be "woke"..."They are performing an essential task of education: contextually explaining where we are and where we need to go."
He says:
"The nation can be redeemed---but not without first acknowledging the need for redemption. The Republican Party is trying to prohibit that acknowledgment, and is doing so for short-term political gain. The flap over critical race theory is just another scam from a party that believes in nothing except the unprincipled pursuit of power."
Dr. Ben Carson has a totally different view of CRT.
Yesterday an article written by Dr. Carson was published calling on Americans to stop this blatantly racist ideology.
Carson says:
"Growing up poor in Detroit, if I had believed, as critical race theory (CRT) proponents claim, that my destiny was based on my race, I would not be where I am today. We cannot allow CRT to rob American children of that same hope that was instilled in me."
He says Ibram Kendi, the creator of the so-called antiracist doctrines that lie at the core of CRT, claims that CRT is an "imagined monster" concocted by conservatives as a scare tactic to deny talking about race---"This is clearly false," he says.
Ben says:
"To start, it's important to understand that the term 'antiracism' as used by Kendi, which sounds non-threatening enough, does not mean what you think. Indeed, far from being antiracist, the ideology promoted by Kendi and fellow travelers is anything but. It redefines reality to assign guilt and blame based solely on race. Classifying persons in such a manner is literally the definition of racism."
He says, "This divisive ideology seeks to replace the traditional American value of equality of opportunity with a regime that assumes all White people are racist oppressors and labels all racial minorities as victims."
"While the classical Marxism from which CRT was born focuses on class conflict, CRT substitutes class for race," he says, " wholly ignoring the demonstrated failure of Marxist ideologies---unlike the people of Cuba who are protesting against Marxist failures at this very moment."
Carson says:
"Research has shown that factors such as the presence of a stable two-parent family, educational choices and economic prosperity, among others, account for the large bulk of observed racial differences, rather than the boogeyman of racism. Thus, CRT and antiracism are founded on racist, conspiratorial drivel."
"The results of this extremist ideology have been devastating," says Dr. Carson.
He notes, "The massive rioting in Portland and other parts of the country, whose damage has made them the most costly riots in US history, are the fruits of a generation raised on racial grievance indoctrination."
But there may be a silver lining in all this, he says:
"But if there's a silver lining in the Marxist's aggressive zeal to force CRT on our communities, it's that their efforts are waking up the nation like few issues in recent memory, mobilizing citizens around the country to engage school boards and local governments to remove racist conspiracy theories like CRT from schools, businesses and government."
He concludes, "This renewed engagement could be a promising first step in eroding the decades-long dominance of Marxism in American education."
Indeed.
Thomas Jefferson was fond of saying, "The price of freedom is eternal vigilance."
In the New Testament Peter warns us: "Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour" (I Peter 5:8).
Be Informed. Be Vigilant. Be Discerning. Be Prayerful. Be Engaged.