Two Ominous Mistakes Southern Baptists Made When They Passed Resolution 9

An Excerpt from “Two Underlying Things About Resolution 9 that Are Affronts to Scripture, Despite the Resolution’s Declarations to the Contrary”

The complete article is available here.

Unintended Consequences

So, what messages have the members of the Resolutions Committee and Southern Baptists who voted for Resolution 9 risked sending, even as they declared in writing that God’s Word is “the first, last, and sufficient authority with regard to how the Church seeks to redress social ills, and we reject any conduct, creeds, and religious opinions which contradict Scripture”? These insights may sound harsh, but I believe they are accurate.

First, Resolution 9 and those who have supported it have inadvertently insulted blacks and other minorities by implying that to reach them evangelistically, Southern Baptists may need to employ belief systems or even “tools” that have led people to unbiblical conclusions. Minorities do not need to be so “coddled,” nor even coddled at all! They are like everyone else with regard to their sinful condition and their need of Christ. Share the gospel with them, and watch them respond! I may be oversimplifying the situation, but not by much. Do we as Christians really believe in the power of the gospel, and in the power of the Holy Spirit to convict the human heart?

Second, Southern Baptists who support Resolution 9 are unintentionally slamming the gospel itself, as well as God’s Word in a larger sense. Last time we quoted Pastor Josh Buice, and here we need to cite him once again. Dr. Buice wrote,

If CRT and intersectionality are insufficient alone to diagnose social ills, what about the Scriptures—are they insufficient alone to diagnose social ills? In a day where we’ve already watched the evangelical world attach woke to church—now the SBC has attached woke to the Scriptures.

These actions carry dangerous implications! We must repudiate any and all ungodly philosophies and belief systems, including—and now perhaps especially—the religion of social justice, a religion that includes CRT, INT, wokeness, and numerous other unbiblical ideologies.

The Importance of Sensitivity and Compassion on the Part of White Christians

Having said all of that, I would hasten to ask you—please do not misunderstand. None of this is to say that we as Christians can afford to overlook the cultures, sub-cultures, or perspectives often held by blacks or other minorities as we seek to effectively reach them for Christ. White Christians have a responsibility to be sensitive to the obstacles blacks and other minorities face in their everyday lives. In a recent Conversations That Matter podcast, host Jon Harris interviewed Tom Buck and Jared Longshore. At 32 minutes and 27 seconds in, Longshore says this:

Jared Longshore / You Tube / Conversations That Matter

It is true that in our land, African-American people have suffered greatly. The sin of racism has been against them, throughout slavery, and Jim Crow, and all of that. And so, should we not listen to people that have experienced something that we haven’t? Well, absolutely we should! Right? A pastor comes out and says, “We need to have an open ear!” You know, ’cause look—if you’re a white person, you haven’t experienced some of these things. Used to be, people [would] have an open ear, be patient, people [would] listen. Be quick to listen, slow to speak. I don’t want someone going, “Oh! He’s a critical race theorist!”

Thankfully, slavery, Jim Crow, lynchings, and various other racist atrocities no longer occur in America. But that’s not to say racism against blacks and other minorities doesn’t ever rear its ugly head. Indeed, it has and it does. Jared Longshore is right. Whites—especially white believers—must listen to minorities and work to make sure they have equal opportunities in a free American society.

We don’t need CRT and INT to do this! We don’t need any social justice ideology to look individuals in the eye and listen to them intently and with concern; nor do we need any of these belief systems to contend for true biblical justice¹ in our churches and in society.

And true biblical justice is what we desperately need.

May God enable us to uphold Christ and the gospel always, even as we reach out to evangelize people of all races and ethnicities, working with other Christians across racial and ethnic lines as we do.

To access additional Word Foundations articles on social justice, go here.

Note:

¹Exercising authentic biblical justice means “rendering impartially and proportionally to everyone his due in accord with the righteous standard of God’s moral law.”

top photo credit: 2019 Southern Baptist Convention meeting in Birmingham, Alabama