When regenerate followers of Christ discuss race relations in America in general,
or in the SBC, we should
do so without being overly
critical or biting toward
one another. Ad hominem
attacks only engender more
heat than light. No one is
edified. The apostle Paul
chastised the church at Galatia to avoid “biting and devouring one
another lest those in the church destroy
one another” (Galatians 5:15).

I firmly believe the Gospel eradicates
racist ideas and prevents all forms of
avarice and victimization from poisoning
our hearts. Christ gave His followers a
missiological and eschatological vision
of Kingdom diversity through His high
priestly prayer and the prophecy of
blood-bought worshipers “from every
tribe, language, people and nation” bowing down before the slain lamb in adoration and praise (John 17:21; Revelation
5:9; 7:9). Simply put, biblical theology
and historical truth-telling undergird
distinctly Christian conversations about
SBC race relations.

A prophetic statement

In 1968, a Southern Baptist racial reconciliation leader, Victor Glass, stated,
“Southern Baptists will tend to become
more interracial. We are going to reach
out to all people. Southern Baptists will
become more interracial in membership
and leadership. Some of the white men
coming out of the seminaries could care
less about the color of the skin to whom
they preach.”(1)

When Glass spoke those words to the
predominantly white male-dominated
evangelical denomination, racial strife
in the United States was at its tipping
point. African Americans had become
increasingly frustrated with the de jure
segregation of the Jim Crow North and
South, which held on in many localities despite civil rights legislation and
decisions handed down by the Supreme
Court.

Voices from the religiously diverse black prophetic
tradition demanded equal
rights under the law.
Some of these religious
figures espoused liberation from the oppressive
grip of American racism
“by any means necessary,” which engendered
fear in many hearts. Others took a different approach, believing radical
love and nonviolence would expose the
brutality of white supremacy with hopes
of minimizing mass concern for personal
safety. Those who embraced nonviolence,
“love your enemies and pray for those
who persecute you,” rather than the lex
talionis, “an eye for an eye, a tooth for a
tooth,” were not immune to ridicule in
the public square.

Lamentably, some American citizens
incessantly castigate the demonic and
dehumanizing anthropological views of
our denominational forebears without
celebrating what God has done and is
doing to create denominational beauty in
the 21st century.

The latter-day Civil Rights Movement

The Civil Rights Movement, which
arguably began in the late 1700s, was in
hot pursuit of equal opportunities for black citizens
in the 1950s and’60s. Many
historians, sociologists, political pundits and evangelical Christians have mixed
feelings about the civil
rights operation in America.
Yet, Southern Baptist racial
reconciliation emphasis
existed within the latter-day
Civil Rights Movement.

The phrase “latter-day Civil
Rights Movement” highlights the long
history of the black freedom struggle.

The Civil Rights Act of 1866, for example, granted equal protection under the
law for every American citizen. This
legislation became legal precedent for
demanding a just society based on the
Constitution, the common good and
Christian virtue.

Some religionists think
the Civil Rights Movement was devilish insofar
as the leaders sought to
transform society through
perceived carnal weapons
such as boycotts or sit-ins.
These false notions overlook analogous illustrations in Scripture to the aforesaid forms
of protest.

The Hebrew midwives boycotted Pharaoh’s edict to kill male Hebrew children
(Exodus 1:15-22). Daniel, in opposition to
King Darius, got on his knees and prayed
openly to God in civil disobedience
(Daniel 6:10). He antedated the famed
Greensboro, N.C., lunch counter sit-ins
that courageously defied injustice by well
over two millennia. People of faith have
executed civil disobedience against injustice throughout human history.
Civil unrest, in many cases, gave Southern Baptist leaders impetus to rethink
the convention’s historic relationship to
people of color. When “interest convergence” motivates societal change rather
than the Gospel, we simply change the
furniture in the home
without dealing with
the cracked structural
foundation. Which is to
say, a majority group that
tolerates minority advancement for self-interested reasons will always
clash over the meaning of
situational and systemic
racism. Gospel-saturated racial reconciliation exposes cultural racism without
fear of corporate reprisal.

After 50 years, we can observe Victor
Glass’ prediction firsthand, Southern
Baptists are steadily becoming multiethnic. According to a report titled “The
Many Faces of the Southern Baptist
Convention” released in 2018 by the SBC
Executive Committee, Ken Weathersby
acknowledges that more than 20 percent
of Southern Baptist churches actively
involved with cooperative missions are
non-Anglo congregations. Within the last
15 years, Weathersby notes, “SBC-related
Native American congregations grew by
24 percent; Asian congregations by 52.3
percent; Hispanic congregations by 56.2
percent; African American congregations
by 61.4 percent; and other congregational
expressions (including Haitian and multiethnic) grew by 71 percent.”

Moreover, Roger S. Oldham writes in
the report, “Between 1961 and 1995, the
Southern Baptist Convention adopted
ten resolutions expressing its desire to see
‘greater ethnic participation’ in SBC life.
During those three and one-half decades,
the Convention experienced significant
growth in the number of non-Anglo
congregations cooperating with the SBC,
along with an increase in the number
of ethnic-minority seminary students
trained through the six SBC seminaries.”

If you prefer thinking Christianly on
SBC race relations, this is a key resource
to read.

(1) Victor Glass quoted in W.T. Moore, His Heart is Black (Atlanta: Home Mission Board, SBC, 1978), 31.