The Never-Ending SBC Apology Tour

If anyone doubts the intrusion of Critical Theory into the worldview of the average Southern Baptist Christian, or church, not to mention the Convention at upper echelons as expressed in the annual resolutions proposed and passed at conventions, one need only: a) Observe how many SBC leaders are now linking the pro-life cause with socialism / Marxism / redistribution of wealth / government nanny-state; b) Review the many resolutions expressing some kind of public apology for sins of the past.

This post focuses on the latter.  

For the last twenty years or so, this has been especially focused on the Southern Baptist Convention’s supposedly racist roots, and participation in slavery. One can barely keep up with all the various resolutions apologizing for any and all forms of perceived or real racism, support of slavery in any form, and so on. It’s dizzying. B&H even published a book by Jarvis Williams (professor at SBTS well-known for pro-CRT rants) and Kevin Jones. The title says it all: Removing the Stain of Racism from the Southern Baptist Convention. The book was published in June 2017. And the title assumes by use of the word “stain” that either racism still exists (perhaps even systemically) or at bare minimum is still perceived and present in such a way that it affects the Convention as a whole in various ways. This is, to be blunt, classic Critical Theory rooted in Marxism.  

While there is no doubt that the SBC came into existence due to the Civil War (it did, after all, split the nation into two), and while there is no doubt some SBC leaders and church members were racist and some had slaves, this in no way means the entire Convention of churches was (or is) systemically racist and supportive of chattel slavery! Even in the 1860s, the vast majority of members of SBC churches did not own slaves. They couldn’t afford them or did not own plantations. The average SBC church member has always been blue-collar, quite `rank`ly. And, I dare say that mistreatment, including chattel slavery, of other people was never, and is not now, something the majority of SBC church members endorse. 

Again, this is not to say that prominent Christians of all denominations in America, did not endorse or support the institution of chattel (man-stealing) slavery. While I was in seminary, I actually did a research paper on the biblical arguments used by Christian pro-slavery authors and leaders. I found their arguments wanting, and often just outright repugnant. While voluntary economic servitude (sometimes called indentured servanthood) has always existed, and still exists all around the world, and did characterize the world of the Bible, the man-stealing type of chattel slavery is condemned by the Law as a capital crime. (Ex 21:16; Deut 24:7). But the fact that the actual kidnapping and man-stealing was so often done by fellow Africans, who conquered then sold other tribes of Africans to Europeans, is seemingly all but lost on SBC elites of today. Indeed, as I have detailed in past posts, many of my people (Irish) were captured and sold to Barbary (Northern African) pirates, who then took them to America and sold them into chattel slavery. (Yes, there were white slaves in the American colonies). 

History is replete with innumerable examples of people mistreating other people. Adam’s race is fallen! Every tribe, tongue and nation is fallen in Adam. Sin is endemic. Rampant. Run amuck. Woven into every strand of the human DNA. If we have to publicly apologize for every sin or wrong ever done by those in the past, whether they are our direct ancestors or not, we will never do anything other than apologize. Perpetual sorrow for those deemed oppressors (namely, CIS gendered, white Protestants) with no hope of forgiveness is a hallmark of Critical Theory. Nothing about this is remotely biblical or Christian! Of course we are sorry for past sins of all people, but must we insist upon specifically trying to name each and every sin ever committed? How is this conducive to Christian unity? Or gospel cooperation? We seem to be so busy in the SBC trying to apologize for our past that we are neglecting to evangelize the truly oppressed (by sinful depravity) in the present.    

This worldview of Critical Theory reared its ugly head yet again in the 2022 Resolution on On Religious Liberty, Forced Conversion, and the Federal Indian Boarding School Initiative Investigative Report (https://www.sbc.net/resource-library/resolutions/on-religious-liberty-forced-conversion-and-the-federal-indian-boarding-school-initiative-investigative-report/). This resolution seemed to me to be completely unnecessary. Is there a single Southern Baptist today who delights in the mistreatment of Native Americans, either past or present? I mean, maybe there is a closet Indian-hater out there somewhere, just like there might be a closet African-hater, or male-hater, or female-hater, and so on. But I haven’t met him or her yet! If we white Americans are truly remorseful for the past mistreatment and displacement of the Native Americans, shouldn’t we just give them their land back? Reparations? This kind of virtue signaling in the SBC Resolutions mirrors our culture, which is growing ever-more Marxist. It is starting to truly drive some of us away from this Convention. If “love keeps no record of wrongs” (1 Cor 13:5), then some of us in the SBC are not feeling very loved anymore. 

If we Southern Baptists truly insist that we must continue to be publicly sorrowful for any and all past sins committed against various peoples, then may I suggest a few future Resolutions be aimed at:

  • Apologies by those who voted for President Biden and other Democratic candidates for the violence against pro-life pregnancy centers now being endorsed by this party.
  • Apologies for black people for the pandemic of black-on-black crime. 
  • Apologies by Native Americans for their ancestors’ inter-tribal warfare, which was often brutal, long before white people stood on the shores of the New World.
  • Apologies by the Native Americans for the often unprovoked raping, pillaging, burning and looting of white settlements in the 17th and 18th centuries of American history. 
  • Apologies by Italian business owners who posted signs “Irish need not apply.”
  • Apologies by Irish business owners who posted signs “Italians need not apply.” 

Well, by now you surely get the point. Where does this all end? This insanity needs to stop. If we in the SBC want to show genuine repentance and gospel cooperation, may I suggest we do two things:

  1. Start pouring massive amounts of time and energy into freeing actual slaves all around the world right here and now, including sex slaves (often employed by the porn industry that millions of our church members imbibe on a weekly basis). 
  2. Adopt the Dallas Statement on Social Justice, so we can get back to applying a biblical worldview to these matters, and stamp out godless Marxist ideology from our beloved Convention (https://statementonsocialjustice.com/).   

I won’t hold my breath waiting on these Resolutions to be written or approved by the SBC. I am deeply saddened to see what is happening to this Convention of churches. For anyone who thinks these things are not significant, I simply ask this: Which gospel are we cooperating together to send to the world? The gospel of CRT? Or the gospel of Jesus Christ? 

“For even if we or an angel from heaven should preach a gospel to you contrary to what we have preached to you, a curse be on him” (Gal 1:8).

by Keith McWhorter