Simon Cox Blog: Southern Baptists, Racism, and the alt-right: It's Time to Make This Right, Plain, and Clear

Wednesday, 14 June 2017

Southern Baptists, Racism, and the alt-right: It's Time to Make This Right, Plain, and Clear

Last night, here in Phoenix at the Southern Baptist Convention, things got a bit unhinged.

Emma Green explains in a story in The Atlantic, A Resolution Condemning White Supremacy Causes Chaos at the Southern Baptist Convention.

And she’s right. There was some chaos, but maybe not in ways that social media always understands. And it’s chaos using Robert’s Rules of Order with polite Baptists asking why they can’t just condemn White Nationalism.

But, this is important and Southern Baptists need to make this right, plain, and clear.

As a current Southern Baptist who, until recently, was an SBC-related employee, and who just spoke at the Pastors Conference that preceded the business meeting, I watched a lot of this unfold.

Here are three things you need to know about what’s happeneing in Phoenix.

1. There is not some alt-right wing at the SBC arguing the other side of this motion. The issues were around what the committee considered poor wording.

Now, I don’t think that’s enough of a reason, and I imagine that by this afternoon the SBC will agree. The committee had the power to reword the resolution, and should have, because Southern Baptists need to speak to this issue.

Nobody here is defending the alt-right, a mix of far-right groups with significant ties to white nationalism.

The alt-right is antithetical to the Christian gospel, as I explained in my tweet:

And Southern Baptists need to speak to that for several reasons, not the least of which is that too many Southern Baptists were on the wrong side of the fire hoses in Birmingham. They need to get on the correct side of the rising tide of racism, often associated (rightly or wrongly) with where many Southern Baptists live.

Yet, nobody here ...