The Opinion Pages | Op-Ed Contributor
Why I'm Leaving the Southern Baptist Convention
OKLAHOMA CITY — The first time I was called a nigger to my face was by a fellow camper at a Southern Baptist Convention retreat near Oklahoma City. I was 13, and it was 1995. Devastated, I complained to a counselor who suggested I pray for the ability to turn the other cheek. Since then, I have done just that and more: I've been an ordained minister in the convention for almost a decade.
But I've had enough. Today I am officially renouncing my ordination in the Southern Baptist Convention, the country's largest Protestant body, with about 15 million members, and the world's largest Baptist denomination.
My reasoning is simple: As a black scholar of race and a minister who is committed to social justice, I can no longer be part of an organization that is complicit in the disturbing rise of the so-called alt-right, whose members support the abhorrent policies of Donald Trump and whose troubling racial history and current actions reveal a deep commitment to white supremacy.
This decision was not easy. I have fond memories of attending church picnics with my mother. I met my childhood best friend in church. My family has always belonged to churches, and it still does.
Continue reading the main storyAn incident last month has compelled me not only to leave, but also to explain why.
During the Southern Baptist Convention's annual meeting, Dwight McKissic, a prominent black pastor in Arlington, Tex., introduced a resolution that denounced white supremacy and the "retrograde ideologies, xenophobic biases and racial bigotries of the so-called alt-right." The resolution should have been immediately adopted. It was not.
A contingent of predominantly white, old-guard members refused to take the resolution seriously, even while many black and progressive clergy members advocated its adoption. It was not until chaos ensued that a reworded resolution vowing to "decry every form of racism, including alt-right white supremacy, as antithetical to the Gospel of Jesus Christ" was adopted.
What's more, while they hesitated to adopt a resolution that condemned white supremacy, they did not hesitate to throw out activists who tried to raise awareness about the ways in which the convention fails its L.G.B.T.Q. members.
For me, the damage had been done. I wasn't at the meeting, but after I heard about what happened, it became clear to me that it was time to go. I don't know why I stayed so long.
This is just the most recent example of the kind of retrograde thinking on race by convention members. In April, five white professors at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in Fort Worth dressed in a way that mimicked gangsta rappers. They posed for a picture wearing hoodies, hats to the side and flashy necklaces. One of the professors was holding what looked like a gun.
The university president apologized and lamented the "moment of bad judgment," but nothing meaningful was done. To me, their performance constituted more than bad judgment. Mockingly stereotyping African-Americans revealed the moral bankruptcy of their souls. These men are responsible for preparing ministers for the work of the church, after all.
Sadly, they are in good company. In April, the Pew Research Center reported that 78 percent of white evangelicals, many of whom are Southern Baptists, approve of President Trump's job performance. Around that time, Jerry Falwell Jr., the president of Liberty University said on Fox News, "I think evangelicals have found their dream president."
None of this is new. The convention has a history of being on the wrong side of history. It was founded in 1845 because white Southern Baptists disagreed with the antislavery attitudes and abolitionist activities of Northern Baptists. During the civil rights movement, members of the convention almost unilaterally supported segregation.
They have since worked hard to convey the appearance of racial inclusivity in an attempt to attract black churches to shore up declining convention membership. The convention even issued a formal apology in 1995 for its support of slavery and segregation.
To be sure, many prominent convention leaders have opposed Mr. Trump and the alt-right. Indeed, one of them, Russell Moore, went so far as to voice his criticism before the election.
But not enough has been done to address the institutional nature of white supremacy in the convention. Many churches are still hostile to the Black Lives Matter movement, and even more were silent during the rise of Mr. Trump and the so-called alt-right. For all of its talk about the love of Jesus Christ, the Southern Baptist Convention's inaction on the issues of racism and homophobia has drowned out its words.
I've discussed my concerns with many other black ministers my age, and virtually all of us have questioned our membership. At least five of them have quietly left the convention over the past year. (To be sure, I will still remain a minister in the Progressive National Baptist Convention, a liberal black Baptist organization, founded in 1961 by the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.)
An organization with a history of racism does not change easily, and asking for forgiveness is not tantamount to doing what is needed to eradicate the lingering stain of it. To be sure, seeking to change a broken system from within has merits, and in this age of Trump, we need institutions that can bind us together.
Yet it saddens and scares me to think that the church, especially given its role in the black community as a place for moral correction and existential validation, may no longer be able to serve that purpose. Despite our need for such a place, acquiescence in the face of racism and homophobia won't heal them; it will only allow the wounds to fester.
I want to be a member of a body of believers that is structured around my Christian beliefs of equity, not one that sees those issues as peripheral. The equality of all people should be a fundamental principle that is a starting point of the convention's existence, not a side issue to be debated.
I love the church, but I love black people more. Black lives matter to me. I am not confident that they matter to the Southern Baptist Convention.
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