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Southern Baptist in NC

Keeping Christ central in the world of Southern Baptists

Jun 08

6

A Joint Resolution

Posted by Tim Rogers on June 6, 2008
Posted in Dr. Dwight McKissic • SBC Issues • Southern Baptist Convention  | 18 Comments

The following resolution is one that I sent before the deadline to the Resolutions Committee. I presented this resolution after a time of grapplying with the issue.  Allow me to present a brief history and then I will present the resolution.

In a comment thread on another blog the issue of race was being discussed.  In that discussion my Brother Dwight McKissic made a statement that caused me to think very deeply.  Brother Dwight said that on a recent visit to the Executive Committee building he noticed a very strange phenomenan.  As we traversed the hallways he was moved by the lack of minority presence.  Thus, he inquired concerning the highest ranking African American.  He was told that the highest ranking African American was the head custodian.  I openly argued that I trusted the hiring process that Dr. Chapman has in place at the EC.  However, deep inside I had concern that we had no minority representation.  It is not that we had little, but we had no minority representation.  The comment concerned me because I know that I went to school with some very bright African Americans.  One Brother and I studied for tests together and he usually had a much better grasp of the material and his grades reflected his intellect.  He is now employed in our state convention. 

Before anyone thinks this is solely about African American minorities, it isn’t.  As a convention we have many minority churches but in leadership we have few minority voices.  After much prayer and wrestling with what to do, I contacted Brother Dwight with the possibility of presenting this resolution as a joint venture.  He helped me word it and we came to a consensus of statement in order to ask that our leaders begin to pray.  We just want them to do what I did.  Look at the landscape and pray about what God would have us do.  This is not about quotas.  It is about finding God’s people–red, yellow, black, and white–to fill the positions of leadership.  This leadership could be in the committees, or in the employment positions.  Just pray about it as you look to fill the positions is the action called for in the resolution.

On Equality in Ethnic Representation

 

WHEREAS, In 1995 Southern Baptist expressed a commitment to eradicate racism in all its forms from Southern Baptist life and ministry; andWHEREAS, we have committed ourselves to be doers of the Word (James 1:22) by pursuing racial reconciliation in all our relationships, especially with our brothers and sisters in Christ (1 John 2:7), to the end that our light would so shine before others, that they may see (our) good works and glorify (our) Father in heaven (Matthew 5:16); and

 

WHEREAS, Southern Baptist publicly express our gratitude to God for his reconciling grace, and reaffirm our intention to love our neighbors as ourselves, denouncing in strongest terms every expression of racial and ethnic prejudice, discrimination, and hatred; and

 

WHEREAS, According to Lifeway there are 2,416 African American churches and 684 missions, 1,307 Hispanic churches and 1,665 missions, 583 Korean churches and 27 missions and 137, Chinese churches and 71 missions affiliated with the Southern Baptist Convention; and

 

WHEREAS, there is among our minority Brothers and Sisters an emergence of strong leadership, pulpit ability, administrative capability, and denominational, theological, and scriptural fidelity as is represented in the Baptist Faith and Message; and

 

WHEREAS, The Southern Baptist Convention does not appear reflective of this racial diversity among her entity heads, employees, the various boards of trustees, executive and cabinet level leadership to any significant degree. Therefore be it

 

RESOLVED, That  the messengers to the Southern Baptist Convention, meeting in Indianapolis, Indiana, June 10-11, 2008, express our appreciation to entities seeking to address a balanced representative of minority leadership; and be it further

 

RESOLVED, That we urge our entity leaders, working under God’s timing and at their discretion, to help resolve any imbalance of minority representation within their entity; and be it finally

 

RESOLVED, That we encourage our President and all committees to identify ethnic leadership from within the Southern Baptist family to serve on boards, committees, and programs of the Southern Baptist Convention so as to reflect more completely the oneness in Christ we share as a denomination and as a witness for our Lord everywhere and with everyone.

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Apr 08

18

Racism: A double-edged knife

Posted by Tim Rogers on April 18, 2008
Posted in Dr. Dwight McKissic • Dr. Paige Patterson • Executive Committee • Racism • SWBTS  | 19 Comments

One thing that happened to me when I received Christ at twenty-nine years of age was my attitude toward people of various ethnic background changed. I was extremely racist in my attitudes and thoughts and I realized a love for people of opposite skin color that I never knew existed.

There was one item that caused me considerable floundering on my racist attitude and that was the racist attitude I experienced from people of the opposite race. I did have some friends that were African American before I got saved and all I heard them speak about was getting a ‘white girl’. I saw in military service the attitudes from some African American soldiers that African American girls were not even on their radar screens. They wanted only to be with ‘white’ girls. When I got saved this was an area that God had to deal with me on and I still find myself asking forgiveness for various thoughts that come into my mind.

However, I also believe that racism is as much alive within the African American community as it is in the Anglo community. It seems that some argue that African Americans cannot be racist because to be racist you have to be in a majority and African Americans are not in a majority. I am not sure how one would define racism but I believe I will use the definition found in Websters: “a belief that race is the primary determinant of human traits and capacities and that racial differences produce an inherent superiority of a particular race.“

According to this definition, it seems that Senator Obama received a pass on his recent racial slur. Notice what he says about his grandmother who is Anglo.

“The point I was making was not that my grandmother harbors any racial animosity,” he said. “But she is a typical white person. If she sees somebody on the street that she doesn’t know. . .there’s a reaction in her that doesn’t go away and it comes out in the wrong way.“

Notice that Senator Obama fell into the classic definition of exhibiting a racial attitude. He believes, according to his statement, that because his grandmother is ‘white’ she displays certain traits that make here inferior to him. The Senator got a pass from the media on this and it seems that he has dodged this statement because I had to look to find it in a Google search.

What does that have to do with me as a Southern Baptist. It seems that Southern Baptist have taken a negative hit on racism in some of the post on the blog world. My friend and fellow blogger Bart Barber had some hurtful comments directed his way when he honestly said ‘Yes’ to the question; “Does racism exist in the SBC.” I am not one to place words in another’s mouth but what I understood Dr. Barber to say was that we all had racists thoughts to some extent. If an African American jokes that someone cannot sing or dance because they are white, then that is a racists statement. I am not offended by the statement, because I know I cannot sing or dance. I do not know if it is because I am white, but I know it just is not in me. However, after watching Dancing with the Stars, I must admit there are some dancing white boys on that program. :) I say that comical statement to point to you that the statement itself can be perceived as racist.

As we can go back and forth with the various racist statements that really are not offensive, I must confess that in Southern Baptist life I do see a place we can improve and make certain that our actions match our words. Brother Dwight McKissic pointed something out about his visit to the Executive Committee in Nashville. The highest ranking African American employed at the Executive Committee is the Head Custodian. According to the Richard Cliff at LifeWay we have 823,208 African American; 185,223 Hispanic; 75,937 Korean; and 23,743 Chinese members of our 16 million members. That means that the SBC is made up of 20% minority church members. I must admit that when I saw these numbers I was a bit embarrased that the highest ranking African American at the Executive Committee was the Head Custodian, when African Americans make up the largest minority population in the SBC.

I believe it is time for us to call on our convention leaders, in some way without developing a quota system, to bring balance to this discrepancy. Do I believe we have this imbalance because of racism? No, I do not. We all know how people get positions and it is mainly due to relationships formed in Seminary. Our seminaries have attracted mainly Anglo students. Our convention must take some blame for this. This resolution passed in 1995 certainly has not helped to recruit students to our six seminaries. I believe this correction can begin in our seminaries, in the recruitment of minority seminary students. According to this press release it seems that SWBTS is getting it. But, it must not stop there. I believe that our committees and entity heads must be open to moving minorities into various positions of leadership. I pray that as we move forward, we as a convention, will grasp that minority relations is more than just words presented at an annual meeting in the form of a resolution. We are Brothers and Sisters in Christ and we should trust the Christ living in all of those who profess Him.

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Jul 07

31

The Hypocrisy of Endorsements!

Posted by Tim Rogers on July 31, 2007
Posted in Dr. Dwight McKissic • Dr. Frank Page • Dr. Morris Chapman • Dr. Paige Patterson • Executive Committee • SBC Outpost • SBC Seminaries  | 52 Comments

Every day I examine my life in order to strive to maintain a walk of consistency. Many times I say things that counter that consistent walk and thus become guilty before God of hypocrisy. It is at such times, just described, that I have to ask and receive God’s forgiveness and then I move on. I am the first to admit that I see hypocritical things in my life that I have to deal with. This term hypocrite, we all know, came out of the Greek drama where actors were called hypocrites because they wore a mask to play a part that was not really who they were.

In a post on SBC Outpost, we see that one of the contributors, and originator, of the blog called Dr. Patterson a liar. As was pointed out to me in the not so distant past, a liar means that you have a lifestyle of lying. It does not mean that you mis-speak on something that you truly thought was the truth, it means that you intentionally live a lifestyle that constitutes lying in order to gain an advantage. The article clearly tries to point to such in Dr. Patterson’s life. Because this contributor has placed this on the news organization’s website blog, Dr. Patterson has now been labeled a liar by the entire group of people behind SBC Outpost. (This group does this with no fear of retaliation from Dr. Patterson for libel. Why? They know that Dr. Patterson still believe 1 Corinthians 6.) Not only do those who are contributors to this news organization gossip mill hold responsibility for labeling Dr. Patterson a liar, but also those who have endorsed signed onto their cause.

Here is where the endorsements scream hypocrisy. These entity heads, plus the President of the Southern Baptist Convention, have endorsed signed onto a cause to get rid of Dr. Paige Patterson as President of Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary. First, let me say that I disagree with the direction that the SBC Outpost guys desire to take our convention. By the public endorsements, we have now been told by the President of the Southern Baptist Convention, along with other men whose salaries are paid because my church gives to the Cooperative Program, that these endorsers have a desire to push the convention in a direction different than that of the framers of the Conservative Resurgence. Guess what that means on the local church level as my church begins budget planning? Also, guess what that means when the next literature order comes due? And, guess what that means for Lottie? Isn’t it amazing that the endorsement of our Executive Director and convention President came one year after the convention voted to ensure that those holding office as trustees should come from churches that have a goal of 10% of their undesignated funds? If the convention in Greensboro would have known about the, now seemingly, planned prayer meeting after the Presidential election in the suite of the very ones that on Wednesday Morning argued for the free use of alcohol, I believe the vote would have been different for Dr. Page.

Another hypocritical act in the endorsements concerns Dr. Patterson’s publicly stated intentions regarding his actions on Dr. McKissic’s chapel message. Dr. Patterson pulled Dr. McKissic’s sermon from being presented on the website at SWBTS because he spoke against the actions of a sister organization. Dr. Patterson respects anyone’s right to free speech. Dr. McKissic’s right to believe what he believes about Scripture is not the issue. I believe I remember somewhere, sometime Dr. Patterson acknowledging he is a continuationalist in his theology. Dr. Akin freely admitted his position to the entire SBC in San Antonio, and if you remember Dr. Akin received his theology sitting at Dr. Patterson’s feet, thus there is a high probability that Dr. Patterson will fall into the continuationalist camp. Dr. Patterson would not allow that message to go forth for a number of reasons, and the public chastisement of a sister entity coming from a sitting trustee was, as I remember, the main one he noted. We now have the President of the IMB, the very entity Dr. Patterson openly took harsh statements and character assassination for trying to protect the operational integrity of said entity, endorsing a group of journalist bloggers that consists of some who have privately and publicly called for Dr. Patterson to be relieved from his position at SWBTS.

In the rule of fairness, I am being told that endorsements are no more than a blurb on a book cover. Two responses to that argument. First, SBC Outpost is not a publishing organization, neither are they a news organization. Remember their “Breaking News“? Ask Pastor Robert Jeffress if he will give them an endorsement. He may, who knows! Endorsements are more than book blurbs. If that is the case, what Seminary Presidents have endorsed this group of journalist bloggers? Has the presidents of any of our seminaries been contacted? Why were they not? Was Dr. Patterson contacted to endorse this illustrious news organization group of bloggers?

The endorsers can try to say what they like, but it is as clear as the nose on your face that there is a group of leaders jockeying for position, in order to be the voice of the SBC’s future. That, my friends, is not how the SBC has operated in the past. The Conservative Resurgence did not come about because there were irreconcilable differences in the tight circle of moderate leaders. Those who led the Conservative Resurgence did not try to woo and encourage moderates to sign onto their movement.  The Conservative Resurgence came about because the PEOPLE IN THE PEW recognized the leaders of the seminaries and other entities were not heading down the road of focused Baptist Distinctives but were trying to lead us down a road of fuzzy “Baptistic” Dissimilarity. Guess what? Inerrancy of the Scripture is just one distinctive for which the people in the pew fought. These same people in the pew have not lost their sight and they still remember that the fight then was for the Baptist distinctive of inerrancy of the Scripture–JUST ONE OF MANY BAPTIST DISTINCTIVES. These endorsers can endorse all they like but they fail to remember the words of one of the Conservative Resurgence past leaders–A skunk by any other name still stinks!

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