Rave: The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary takes a step forward

The BBQ Pit
1

Although I figured hell would be frozen before this happened the The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary just released a 72 page self critical report, which arguably should have come earlier, but deserves kudos to them for trying to lay out the truth of their past and move forward.

http://www.sbts.edu/wp-content/uploads/2018/12/Racism-and-the-Legacy-of-Slavery-Report-v3.pdf

While not perfect, hopefully President R. Albert Mohler Jr can convert their recent stumbles backwards into massive strides forward. In an era when the entire country and even world seems to be moving backwards on the subject of race it is nice to see some tangible efforts to move the other direction.

Hopefully they move forward with reparations soon and if we are really lucky hopefully some white Evangelicals view it as a call to action.

I know we still have a long road to go, but it is nice to see people taking steps towards that goal. I have been very critical of SBC before on here and nothing will make my happier than if they continue down a path where I have to eat my words.

I hope they keep following this course.

2

They will gain my respect if they say “We’ve looked into this whole ‘God’ thing and have come to realize that we were wrong all along. Sorry, everybody.”

3

Wasn’t the Southern Baptist church formed by Baptists who felt that other Baptists weren’t quite racist enough?

This question might be addressed in your link, but it doesn’t open for me, sorry.

4

I may look through the whole thing later, but I can say this much. Here is the title of the PDF:

Report on Slavery and Racism in the History of the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary

5

Yes, it split off because of its pro-slavery stance.

6

Also, rat avatar: did you mean to put this in the Pit? Is the post ironic, and you’re upset it took them this long, or they’re not doing enough?

7

An NYT article.

(My childhood Southern Baptist church, founded in 1884, once dug up and shared the old minutes from the monthly business meetings. Among other things in those early years, there were people kicked out for drinking Coca-Cola.)

8

With the subject of the posting I figured it would end up here anyway and I wanted people who don’t share my admittedly naive approval to be hindered by rules in the other forums.

9

It’s not like Southern Baptists haven’t admitted to their role in perpetuating slavery and Jim Crow. But for the past few decades, the general stance of Southern white evangelicals (including the SBC) has been “yeah, we did the wrong things back then, but blacks got equal rights in the 1960s and once that happened, nothing more needed to be done, and the past is past, so we’re good.”

So I’d be interested to know if they’ve grappled with their role in perpetuating discrimination during the past 50 years. Even owning up to their role in creating ‘segregation academies’ and gutting funding for the public schools once they couldn’t dodge de jure integration, would be more than they’ve done before now AFAIK.

I don’t expect them to have addressed white evangelicals’ massive support for our incredibly racist President, because their funding would dry up overnight if they did. But it’s still a yuuuuuge moral failure if they didn’t.