Southern Baptist ERLC Fellow purges syllabus of Conservative Christian Apologist.

Does a commitment to Critical Theory trump using resources to help students?

A Southern Baptist ERLC Research Fellow and professor at Cedarville, a private, Baptist college in Ohio promoted by the Ohio Baptist Convention, announced he had purged a prominent Christian Apologist from his college classroom. The professor, Dan DeWitt, attacked the conservative Christian as divisive. Dr. James White, an apologist, scholar and signer of the Dallas Statement on Social Justice and the Gospel, addressed the issue on social media. Dr. White pointed out the influence of Critical Theory on the Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission (ERLC) of the Southern Baptist Convention.

White tweeted, “@DanDeWitt is a professor at @Cedarville. He also happens to be a research fellow at the @ERLC. That, of course, is the connection, as we know the influence of critical theory at the ERLC.”

Critical Theory is the dangerous and growing wordly philosophy approved by Southern Baptists at the recent convention. Dr. Albert Mohler warned against Critical Theory in a recent episode of The Briefing. Mohler said, “The main consequence of critical race theory and intersectionality is identity politics, and identity politics can only rightly be described, as antithetical to the gospel of Jesus Christ. We have to see identity politics as disastrous for the culture and nothing less than devastating for the church of the Lord Jesus Christ.”

DeWitt cited divisive rhetoric as the reason for deletion of the Apologist’s work from the course.

DeWitt earlier tweeted, “We should not, we cannot, have prospective students, parents, and alums perceive that we support hate mongering by Christian leaders who thrive on controversy and cruel comments.”

White tweeted that the ERLC research fellow blocked him on Twitter. He said, “I note with a small bit of irony and actually a chuckle that @DanDeWitt blocked me on Twitter before I made note of his tweet. Hey Dan—if you are going to accuse me of unChristian behavior, why not just be up front and name names? Then folks can fact check your accusation.”

On Facebook, Dr. White wrote, “Ponder this: he listed my resources in his syllabus. Whose views have changed? Mine, or his? Who would have found the thesis that fatherlessness and sexual infidelity are more central to the prevalence of abortion amongst black women than slavery to be even a contentious statement back then? Historically and biblically, it still isn’t a contentious statement—except for those who who are dedicated to The Narrative of critical theory. So, DeWitt will not direct his students to apologetic information that might be useful to them due to a commitment to CT. This is what is heading our direction, folks. CT can only divide, it can never unite, and it can never create anything but disunity amongst believers. And once you get ‘woke,’ you are forced to make that your ultimate priority and lens—everyone else must bow or be rejected.”

This is not the first instance of Southern Baptist elites banning conservative Christians standing against Critical Theory. We reported on two pastors who had articles deleted from an SBC website earlier this year because of their “divisive” rhetoric against Neo-Marxism in the church.

Look for this de-platforming of conservative Christians to continue.