Southern Baptist Convention is STILL Rooted in White Supremacy

by Ben Sanders, III 

On November 30, 2020, the Council of Seminary Presidents of the Southern Baptist Convention  (SBC) issued a collective statement excitedly reaffirming a twenty-year-old document called the “Baptist Faith and Message” as definitive of the Convention’s confessional and cooperative  stance. The Baptist Faith and Message addresses various social and theological topics including  Scripture, salvation, the Christian and the social order, and peace and war. Not surprisingly, the  statement reaffirmed by the SBC’s presidential council is unabashedly conservative in texture  and tone; both the language used and topics addressed reflect the Convention’s commitment  to theological conservatism anchored in the view that “Scripture is totally true and  trustworthy.” What was notable about the presidential council’s collective statement was its  explicit claim that “Critical Race Theory, Intersectionality, and any version of Critical Theory is  incompatible with the Baptist Faith and Message.” 

The SBC’s rejection of critical race theory (CRT), intersectionality, and critical theory is made  especially interesting by two points. First, not one of these theoretical approaches is mentioned  in the Baptist Faith and Message, the doctrinal document being reaffirmed by the presidential  council’s shared statement; instead, the SBC’s rejection of CRT and intersectionality can be  traced to a June 2019 Resolution. Therefore, rejection of these viewpoints in the context of this  statement represents a doctrinal tangent which the council viewed as critical to clarifying the  social and religious norms of the SBC. Second, the SBC’s unsolicited rejection of CRT,  intersectionality, and critical theory comes just months after President Trump mischaracterized  critical race theory as a “horrible doctrine” being used to “rip apart friends, neighbors, and  families.” The SBC’s unsought denunciation of CRT and intersectionality coincides with Trump’s  pseudo-patriotic critique of CRT in ways that clearly signify cultural and political solidarity.  Moreover, when one considers the overwhelming support Trump received from white  evangelicals alongside the fact that the SBC is the largest protestant evangelical denomination  in the United States with around 85% of its membership being white, it stands to reason that  shared critique of CRT is more than coincidental. 

Though the SBC will surely maintain that its rejection of these “secular theories” was primarily  about faithfulness to the gospel not culture wars and politics, those of us familiar with the  history of white Christianity in America and with how Trump tapped racist white Christians in  route to the White House will recognize the SBC’s theological dog whistle for what it is: the  perpetuation of white supremacist norms in the name of Jesus. The SBC began in 1845 when it  split from its northern counterparts over the issue of slavery (the SBC has a storied history of  using the Bible to support slavery, segregation, and white supremacy). One hundred and fifty  years later, in 1995, the SBC issued a resolution apologizing for its racist past. Unfortunately,  the recent joint statement from the presidential council clearly shows that the ’95 apology – including its rhetoric about racial reconciliation and understanding “that our own healing is at  stake” – was offered from the same kind of white supremacist, paternalistic theology that originally drove the SBC to defend slavery. If the previous sentence seems extreme, I invite the  reader to briefly consider the role and nature of biblical interpretation in both 1845 and 2021. 

In the 19^thcentury, leaders of the of the SBC interpreted the Bible in ways that justified the  slave trade and slave ownership; in 2021, the SBC interprets the Bible in ways that view CRT,  intersectionality, and critical theory as “incompatible” with Baptist doctrine. Put differently,  theories which have largely grown out of and been formed by communities subjected to the white supremacist structures the SBC helped establish and defend with appeals to Scripture are  now being deemed as dangerous and in need of being subjugated to the SBC’s interpretation of  Scripture. As was the case in the 19^thcentury, the SBC continues to use its misunderstanding of  “the authority of Scripture” as righteous justification for marginalizing and rejecting ideas and worldviews that demand justice and freedom for all of creation. 

In the past few weeks, two prominent black pastors have left the SBC in light of its comments  on CRT. Those of us who are Baptist and have met Jesus in the struggle for justice, liberation,  and equity can only hope and pray that more leaders and congregants will make the same  decision. But if history (both recent and extended) is any indicator, the SBC will probably remain  the largest evangelical protestant denomination in the United States, and so the rest of us will  need to remain vigilant. We must sing a new song: a song of faithfulness to Christ that opposes  the white supremacist biblicism modeled by the SBC. This song will be sung in notes that sound  off to many, but when these notes resound with the fullness of our faith and communal  determination, we will find ourselves in the presence of the One who came to oppose  dehumanizing religious teachings in the name justice, liberation, and love. 

Ben Sanders, III is Assistant Professor of Theology & Ethics at Eden Theological Seminary in St. Louis, MO and serves on the Board of Directors of the Alliance.