Southern Baptists told their condemnation of racism isn’t enough; Told criticism of Beth Moore and David Platt is wrong
The Pastor’s Conference of the 2019 Southern Baptist Convention began Sunday evening, and it was full Social Justice Warrior inspired Woke. Ed Litton, pastor of Redemption Church Mobile, Alabama said conservative, bible-believing Southern Baptists haven’t sufficiently dealt with the sins of the past (lynchings dating to 1886) and are too divided over current controversies involving women preachers and praying over the president. So much for the Soul that sins is the one condemned and all that inconvenient stuff. Nope. Southern Baptists need to repent of sins they haven’t even committed. Oh, and don’t criticize Beth Moore and David Platt.
Litton preached on Matthew 5:4 “Blessed Are Those Who Mourn.” Litton said there is a “hole in our repentance.” He encouraged Christians to walk through the Trail of Tears and realize what sin has done.
One might respond, “I’m not guilty of those sins. That is a form of rationalization. Nehemiah was not guilty, yet he wept for the sins and condition of Jerusalem,” Litton said.
This is a common theme among the Social Justice crowd. There must be more than individual repentance and it must involve a long process of tearful reflection. Of course, only one ethnicity must engage in that, but shhh! Don’t focus on that.
Litton also discouraged disputes over issues that roiled conservative evangelicalism in the last week: women preachers and David Platt’s prayer for Donald Trump.
“I wonder if we as Southern Baptists are dragging our feet in dealing with issues.” Litton said. “Are we dragging our feet fighting battles we shouldn’t fight?”
Defends Beth Moore and David Platt
“The most recent flashpoint are attacks against two people who I frankly love, Beth Moore and David Platt,” Litton said. “I know you are free to say what you want, but I thought under Christ you may not be free to just say anything.”
Litton then took a swipe at public critics of Moore and Platt in the ministry and media.
“You say, ‘I’m here to correct everybody,’ God help you,” Litton said. “We are being played by Satan for the cause of division that will strangle the Gospel from taking this world for the glory of God,” Litton said.
The division in the church shows the church is reflecting the “political culture of our nation more than the culture transformed by the love of Jesus Christ. We need to check ourselves,” Litton told Southern Baptists.
This raises an interesting problem. If someone is teaching error, or promoting incorrect doctrine in public, does it help or hurt the church if the error is uncorrected?
Can there be unity in error?
Should there be?
Racism & the Southern Baptist Convention: Resolutions not repentance
Litton said the Southern Baptist Convention resolutions against racism are not repentance for lynchings or racial sins of the past. Litton said all these resolutions have done is show, “We have resolved to say something, and that is not repentance.”
“SBC resolutions are not the same as repentance,” Litton said.
He then repeated it for emphasis, “Our resolutions at this Southern Baptist Convention are not the same as repentance. Our resolutions on race led nobody to weep over four girls who were bombed and killed at 16th Street Baptist Church blocks away from here. It has led nobody to weep over the 3,446 African-Americans lynched since 1886.”
Litton expanded the definition of racism to include indifference to the issues of African-Americans.
“You say, preacher, I am not a racist, Are you indifferent?,” Litton asked. “The opposite of love is not hate, it is indifference. And there is a sin of being indifferent about what our Africa-American brothers and sisters are experiencing in this country—what they have, and there is an opportunity for us.”
Final thoughts
During the sermon, he cited II Corinthians 7:10 on godly sorrow: “For godly grief produces a repentance that leads to salvation without regret, but worldly grief produces death.”[1]
Of course, notice the worldly sorrow in the verse. Where does it lead? Is demanding people repent of sins they haven’t committed not the epitome of a worldly view? Isn’t that loading people down with unnecessary burdens?
Also, isn’t there a bit of a double standard at work here: Litton eschews public criticism of David Platt and Beth Moore, but engages in a critique of the critique.
Of course, the sermon was popular among the rising Social Justice Warrior Southern Baptists.
[1] Christian Standard Bible (Nashville, TN: Holman Bible Publishers, 2017), 2 Co 7:10.
These people need to be churched. Why are they even speaking? They are clearly false teachers dressed in sheepskin. Social justice warriors do not belong in the pulpit!
“Social justice warriors do not belong in the pulpit!”?
You must be having wrong understanding of God, man, and the gospel
of Jesus Christ. Is the church supposed to leave social justice to the world then?
How would you explain “Trump ends Obama era program”
ad you published in here?
“Every tub has to sit on its own bottom.”
Let that sink in.
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Do you think only blacks are suffering? What about Indians, Asians, Mexicans, . . do you think the churches in America are open to them? Let’s all grow up and get beyond race rhetoric and talk about something more important – reaching the lost world for Christ, showing the love, unity and compassion of Christ?! Let’s be Christians, transformed disciples, followers of Jesus Christ, honestly.
Can’t believe the SBC is going through this racism bit again! When is enough, enough. Let’s grow up and just treat everyone with respect and dignity. We have to get past singling out one group of people over another…
Wait, so you have a problem with the convention defending David Platt? Why?
“Go ye into all the world and Preach the Gospel. Baptizing them in the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit”, Jesus.
Why doesn’t the SBC split? You can have one group that wants to follow the Bible and the other group to champion social causes and bring in their kingdom.
All I can think to do on this is pray. I am truly grieved by the confusion that is being stirred within SBC on many fronts, and this is just another example. We continue to prioritize culture and educated opinion over the Bible, and it is exhausting to follow.
This is ridiculous. We have African-American SBC churches…we’ve had an African-American SBC president. Minorities are well represented throughout the SBC. The reason baptisms are declining in the SBC is not a lack of repentance for the past…but a failure to evangelize in the present. Enough of this emphasis on social justice and get back to what we are commissioned to do…winning souls. Do THAT…and social justice will take care of itself.
I agree with everything you have to say. This is just the tip of the iceberg. We will see more division and possibly churches withdrawing over this. There is also rampant financial, political and moral corruption in the SBC ministries – Sunday School Board, Foreign Missions, seminaries, ERLC, to name a few. A tiny piece of advice – you will be taken more seriously if you put your name on your articles and you omit the sarcasm – stick to the facts with supporting documentation.
I’ve been engaging in dialogue over the last week. Commenting on FB threads from Ben Shapiro, Todd Starnes, Michael Farris, and even confronting Michael Kelsey on his FB page…all about the issue of Platt praying for POTUS, and then “explaining” it to the “woke whiners”. They weren’t complaining about Trump’s policies, or character, or that Platt’s prayer constituted endorsement of the POTUS. They were complaining that Platt was insensitive to the hurt felt by minorities. Platt alluded to it, Michael Kelsey’s FB comment made that crystal clear. POTUS on stage at the church for prayer threatened “racial reconciliation”. Platt’s sermon last week attempted to wriggle out of this conundrum by explaining the need for “unity” in the church and adding conditions to the Biblical command to prayer for leaders and those in authority. (Delineating between whether that means bringing POTUS on stage for prayer means an improper tacit endorsement). There can be no Biblical unity where truth is made so ambiguous. Platt is trying to have it both ways, and navigate a middle ground. Discernment is being able to tell not right from wrong, but “right” from “almost right”.
Having grieved as a student wife in the late 70s-mid 80s (aka the end of SBC Golden Age) over the mean/demeaning takeover events at SWBTS perpetrated by the so-called “purification” of the SBC led by the Houston judge and numerous pastors touting return to Baptist code on errancy etc., I can see no other explanation than we are now seeing payback! Vengeance is still the Lord’s…. SBC has def reaped what was sown throughout my lifetime. The exemplary graded choir programs and the publication-sales structures, along with the missionary influences both “foreign” and “home” are worthy aspects that regrettably are now gone! In 1971 I went to NE Brasil and began a dual culture lifestyle as one of Stan Nelson’s Journeyman recruits, and see it as my first intense lifechanging spiritual growth experience! I strive to remember what was God- and not man-inspired…. Leaders began to worship power – focusing on exclusivity and exclusion. Sad. Pitiable. A serious Accountability issue…and it just gets worse!
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