by Rod D. Martin
June 13, 2019

For those of you (rightly) concerned about the implications of SBC Resolution 9, regarding Critical Race Theory and Intersectionality:

First, I want to stress that though we lost this battle, it was only a battle, not the war, and only a brief one for which those attuned to this issue were ill-prepared. I’ll come back to that, and what we can do about it.

It is positive that the Resolution expressly subordinates CRT and Intersectionality to Scripture, expressly states that much of their use outside the church has been abhorrent, and so forth. It demands their use only as tools of inquiry, while the Bible alone is to be the final arbiter of any conclusion.

Of course, that’s exactly what the so-called “Moderates” said about their interpretation of the Baptist Faith and Message 1963. The Moderates were anything but, and they too employed their own set of contra-biblical “tools of inquiry”, chiefly German Higher Criticism, to dissect the Bible like a lab rat, to grate it like cheese.

I humbly do not believe that most of our Messengers yesterday know a lot about Critical Race Theory or Intersectionality. In fact, I think if I gave my dear readers a short essay test on those two topics, very few of you would have a lot to say. I do not think the Messengers understood what they were voting for, not most of them: they saw “this must be subordinate to Scripture” and they trusted the men and women on the platform. 

But it’s no accident that one of the key members of the Resolutions Committee that produced this dreck is a seminary professor who has recently written in favor of Black Liberation Theology. It’s hard to imagine that he doesn’t know the meaning of his words, or that these theories are not mere tools of inquiry, but rather full-blown anti-Christian worldviews. I feel quite confident that most of the Resolutions Committee understands that with him. And I know there were quite a lot of Messengers who did also, having overheard more than a few of their conversations in the hall.

So is this “the end of the SBC”? Far from it. But we are clearly in a fight. And I’m asking you to help rather than hand-wring.

The Resolution will not change the teaching in any of our seminaries, but it is the camel’s nose under the tent, and it will give a bit of cover to those who teach wrongly. Very few of our seminary professors do at this point, but that could change. A better resolution correcting the errors of this one could help, and perhaps that’s something we should pursue. 

More important, you need to personally acquaint yourself with these topics sufficiently to discuss them. That’s actually not as hard as it sounds, and there are plenty of resources because none of this is new: this is the old Cultural Marxism repackaged for a church audience, designed to co-opt our institutions into service of the left. You can easily equip yourself, and yes, I can help you.

Still more important than that, you need to discuss these things with your pastors and your fellow believers. Don’t be surprised if their eyes glaze over at first. Also don’t be surprised if they react with hostility: most of them don’t know what you’ll know, and you’ll be educating. Men (and some women) they trust have taken a different position, and have done so in the name of “racial reconciliation” and combatting misogyny (of course). They want to be kind and inclusive, as ministers of the Gospel ought to be. But if you can show them — patiently and with graciousness — what these things mean, most of them should be able to overcome their own “arguments from authority” and see just how harmful these alien worldviews really are (not to mention how hurtful they are to the very minorities they claim to uplift).

And then? Well, then you need to do what I always tell you to do: Show Up. And bring friends.

In 2020, Southern Baptists will elect a new President. It will be an open seat and anyone could be elected. That new President will appoint new Resolutions Committees. But he’ll also appoint those who fill every position on every board and committee of the Southern Baptist Convention. Those men and women hold the future of all our institutions: all six seminaries, the International Mission Board, the North American Mission Board, the Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission, etc.

Who chooses those men and women is of immense importance. There lies the future of the SBC, by far the largest Protestant denomination in all of Western Civilization. Don’t think that those who know exactly what they just did don’t know that too.

So the question is, will you Show Up? Because if you’re one of those who just talk and kibitz and complain when you could act, you’re not part of the problem, you are the problem. 

Become informed. Have gracious but frank discussions. And Show Up (with friends).

By this means, Southern Baptists became the only people ever to recover their denomination from the liberals. Our denomination is not lost by any means.

It doesn’t have to become so now.

IF you Show Up.

#SBC19
#SBC20

— The SBC, Critical Race Theory and Intersectionality originally appeared as a Facebook post by Rod D. Martin.