McKissic to SBC: Repent of Racism, Part 2

[Big Daddy Weaver]

Rev. Dwight McKissic has been tackling the subject of Southern Baptists and racism in a couple of posts on his blog.

ATTITUDES TOWARD RACE IN SBC LIFE

Also see ABP's coverage here.

A couple comments from ABP readers:

Blacks have got to get out of this affirmative action mindset. It is as if they don't believe they can be promoted without special treatment. Have confidence in you own merit. Someone should never be placed in a leadership role because they are black or white.

Blacks have been marching for equality for so long that they don't know what else to do. We elected a black president for goodness sake. The days of a racist America are over. To get upset at the occasional idiot who says something stupid is unwise. Look at the President's nutty preacher. . . it didn't stop him from achievement. If that was not a hindrance, why do you really think a white guy talking about black ladies wearing hats will cause harm?

Once again, the days of a racist America are over. We have elected a black president. Now is the time to quite whining and tell young black people to make something of themselves. . . just like our president has done. There are no more excuses. Just do it.

.

Guys like this need to start ministering and quit manufacturing a sense of victimhood.

The SBC blogosphere has been strangely silent and not yet offered responses to McKissic's series of posts on race.

[Dave Roberts]

Reading the blog is an exercise in facing reality. We all have racist issues that are still with us. If we want the world to believe, then Baptists have to start acting like Christians in the area of race. I did not hear a victim mentality but more of a prophetic challenge to all Baptists.

[William Thornton]

McKissick, obvously an outstanding pastor, has been quick to play the race card for quite some time. His complaint this time is that the GCRTF didn't have a black person on it and that no SBC entity has a black CEO. Guess we should be on a quota system. His prayer is that one of the three big SBC entities now in a CEO search mode would "appoint" a qualified black person.

Anticipating criticism, he says:

If you think I’m unnecessarily fixated on race, tell me how you would you feel if you were a part of a convention that claimed to be inclusive of all people groups, yet without exception, all executive level cabinet positions are occupied by males of only one people group? Would you think that’s fair? You watch the full GCR report and none of the four presenters ethnically resemble any of the people groups that the report is challenging us to reach except for Anglo males. Do you agree with that approach?

He put it right: he is unnecessarily fixated on race. Maybe one day we will reach the place where people, or groups, aren't judged on the color of their skin but by the content of their character.

I do take his point about a SBT evangelist who, as he described it:

In February, I attended the Southern Baptists of Texas Evangelism Conference where the SBC Evangelist Jimmy Davis, preached a message comparing President Obama to the wicked King Manasseh. Davis clearly communicated that President Obama was not a Christian, being fully aware that the President claims to be a Christian. He challenged the conference to pray for the President’s salvation. As Davis sees it, if the President doesn’t repent of certain social policy positions and his spiritual condition, then he encouraged the Southern Baptist of Texas Convention to “pray that God providentially remove President Obama from office”.

[johnfariss]

I commented on Dr. McKissic's blog, so I will not repeat my comments here. But I do have a question, especially for any SBTC folks: what does the statement from "Evangelist" Davis have to do with evangelism? Granted there is a reference to wanting President Obama to be saved (with the judgment that he presently is not, despite his claim to the contrary), but that seems to be secondary to a political statement. What was the rest of his sermon like?

John Fariss

[TimR2]

What was the rest of his sermon like?

John, I listened to Brother Davis' sermon and I must say there are points that I believe you would agree with. I do know in discussing his sermon with Brother Dwight, Dwight himself pointed out that he agreed with 90% of the message Davis delivered. So his message was not just a tirade of political meanderings. However, to call for our President to be "providentially" removed is what has Brother Dwight's dander up. I agree we should not call for the providential removal of our nations leaders as it speaks clearly that we are asking God to kill them. Of course it also flies in the face of the Scripture's instructions in 1 Timothy 2 where we are admonished to pray for our leaders. Paul certainly was not encouraging Timothy to lead his congregation to pray for Nero to be providentially removed.

[Big Daddy Weaver]

William,

What do you think it's like to be a black pastor in the SBC? I bet its an experience that no white pastor can really understand. It's easy for us white folks to say that race shouldn't matter or doesn't matter. However, that's certainly not the experience of African-Americans such as McKissic who lives in a world where he is constantly reminded that he is the Other.

A quota and intentional diversity are not the same. What McKissic desires in terms of racial diversity is really not different than what people like Les Puryear desire in terms of small church representation.

[Sandy]

William,

What do you think it's like to be a black pastor in the SBC? I bet its an experience that no white pastor can really understand. It's easy for us white folks to say that race shouldn't matter or doesn't matter. However, that's certainly not the experience of African-Americans such as McKissic who lives in a world where he is constantly reminded that he is the Other.

A quota and intentional diversity are not the same. What McKissic desires in terms of racial diversity is really not different than what people like Les Puryear desire in terms of small church representation.

Well said.

I noted that a couple of the comments here reference the SBTC evangelist's sermon and make note of the content of the whole. How many readers here, and how many people in general, bothered to read or listen to the entire Jeremiah Wright sermon with the now infamous fifteen second sound byte that eventually forced the President to resign his church membership? It's pretty easy to pass that over, isn't it?

[Haruo]

Yeah, the point is not that the SBC should have racial quotas, but that it should not need them.

[William Thornton]

William,

What do you think it's like to be a black pastor in the SBC? I bet its an experience that no white pastor can really understand. It's easy for us white folks to say that race shouldn't matter or doesn't matter. However, that's certainly not the experience of African-Americans such as McKissic who lives in a world where he is constantly reminded that he is the Other.

A quota and intentional diversity are not the same. What McKissic desires in terms of racial diversity is really not different than what people like Les Puryear desire in terms of small church representation.

Maybe so. I think you would agree that the small church card isn't quite like the race card. At least in this case he doesn't attribute the sbc non-action to racism, but then what is the sbc supposed to repent from, being racial?

I'm not impressed or persuaded by McKissick's actions here.

[Haruo]

How many predominantly white SBC churches have called black pastors?

[rfuss]

How many predominantly white SBC churches have called black pastors?

How many predominantly black SBC churches have called white pastors?

I suspect it goes both ways.

[Bruce Gourley]

wiite pastors

For the uninitiated, a "wiite pastor" is one who resides inside your Nintendo system. Such a pastor is not to be confused with the televangelist (who resides inside your television set) or one of Andy Stanley's holographic clones (a copy of which may be coming to a church near you).

[David Flick]

wiite pastors

For the uninitiated, a "wiite pastor" is one who resides inside your Nintendo system. Such a pastor is not to be confused with the televangelist (who resides inside your television set) or one of Andy Stanley's holographic clones (a copy of which may be coming to a church near you).

[Haruo]

How many predominantly white SBC churches have called black pastors?

How many predominantly black SBC churches have called white pastors?

I suspect it goes both ways.

I wouldn't doubt it, though I'll admit I'm not well acquainted with the black part of the SBC. In our little Evergreen Association of thirty-odd churches, I know of two predominantly white ones that have called black senior pastors (one of them a woman) but none off the top of my head that have done the inverse, though our largest Black Caucus church has a white Youth Pastor. For that matter, Japanese Baptist has a white senior pastor, and a Korean outreach pastor, and used to have a black youth pastor. But I guess that stuff belongs in the ABC forum; sorry, William.

[Lamar Wadsworth]

The only predominately white SBC churches that I know of that has called a black senior pastor are Seventh Baptist Church in Baltimore and Colonial Baptist Church in Randallstown (suburban Baltimore) MD.