Comments on: Calvinism: The New Racism in the SBC?

By: Matt Svoboda

Matt Svoboda — Sat, 07 Nov 2009 05:00:42 +0000

amen and amen…. aaaand, amen.

By: Dave Miller

Dave Miller — Sat, 07 Nov 2009 04:58:09 +0000

Seldom have I seen a comment thread that needs to die as badly as this one does. .-= Dave Miller´s last blog ..Significant Servant, October 4, 2009 Essential Reproducble Quality 1 =-.

By: jack

jack — Sat, 07 Nov 2009 04:14:10 +0000

Oh ! Bravo, Bravo, two intellectual theologens who wont influence racism in any way. First because most that practice racism have ever heard either one of you, and secondly because they wouldn’t understand you or how people who lived 400 years ago could cause them to do anything. So you two guys just jump from precipice to precipice and back again while us commoners greet, meet and eat away at the remains of racism most of which is practiced by mentally ill white people and expoused by high hat professors with “doctorates from somewhere” in front of their names. I would draw a crowd to watch you both throw your computers at one another if either had the nerve. Hello east texas willingham et al.

By: Rev Dr. Karl Benson

Rev Dr. Karl Benson — Sat, 07 Nov 2009 03:35:36 +0000

I gave Debbie Kaufman a list of books to read. Dear Dr. Willingham, you would do well to obtain that list from her and read. Then, may be then, you will understand where I am coming from. After reading these books, if you still do not see or understand that at the heart of Calvinism there is racism, then there is no reason for us to continue this disscusion. Praise GOD we are in a country where we have freedom of speech. You, Dr. Willingham, may continue to quack like the Calvinist you are, and I will continue to teach and preach the Word of GOD, in a Christ-like manner to the best of my ability. GOD bless you and have a good safe night.

By: Dr. James Willingham

Dr. James Willingham — Sat, 07 Nov 2009 01:41:36 +0000

My dear Dr. Benson: Your assumptions and views leave a great deal to be desired. It seems rather evident that you have done little study on either calvinism or racism. I noticed that you did not respond to my remarks on Dr. John Hope Franklin’s discussion concerning Renaissance man and his aggressive behaviors which rather lent itself to the mentality of enslaving and abusing people for one’s own selfish purposes. Also I might observe what do you do with the fact that the Methodists split over slavery just like the
Baptists, and thye defended it too? As to calvinism, I think it is rather humorous that you should use the duck idea as George Whitefield complained about his Methodist Chickens becoming Baptist Ducks. The doctrines of grace were truths that many died for before John Calvin was ever born, let alone converted. In the first 17 years of the 1500s before Martin Luther posted his 95 theses, there were 350 prosecutions for heresy in England alone. A number of these involved the truths of Sovereign Grace, .i.e, one said free will and the papacy came out of the universities. Fortunately, England was not as closely tied to the inquisition as say Spain; they did not enforce Rome’s dictums as rigorously. The fact that Calvin had a hand in the death of Servetus is one of the reasons why I do not care much for the term calvinism. That was a result of Calvin’s views on the state church. Baptists do not believe the state should compel faith. Roger Williams whose views on Sovereign Grace are recorded in his works along with the fact that he still held his Baptist views was the person (along with Dr. John Clarke) to establish religious liberty by law, and te Jews built their first synagogue in the New World in Rhode Island which still stands and is still in use. Since Southern Baptist founders were Sovereign Grace believers and even used the term calvinist to describe their theological and soteriological positions, tell, my dear sir, where you are coming from – unless your afraid to do it? Why are you in rebellion against the theology of the founders? I refer to Boyce, Manly, Furman, Gano, Stears, Rice, Mercer, the Craigs, Middletons. Sir, I know my history and I became acquainted with Racism and its causes a long time ago. I was trained in it by African American Scholars in a number of fields. I also know the history of our theology and churches and leaders. I ask again, where are you coming from? You use language in a manner that smacks of proganda techniques. Scholars, normally, do not use such approaches as they do not conduce to objectivity and, hence, to understanding. If you were right, then I should be a racist, a view of people I utterly reject.
.-= Dr. James Willingham´s last blog ..The Climax of the Reformation =-.

By: Rev Dr. Karl Benson

Rev Dr. Karl Benson — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 02:05:42 +0000

It was you Dr. Willington that is afraid of using the term “Calvinist,” in referance to yourself, for what ever reason. I mean no insult to you or any one else, but you are still quacking like the duck you are. If your belief is clearly seen by your conduct. then that term “Calvinist” applies to you also. If you believe what John Calvin taught, my Brother are a Calvinist. I realize that you are a Calvinist, and most likely, you will remain so until our GOD so move to take you home with him. This non-calvinist sees very clearly the racism that is deeply rooted in Calvinism and I will continue to teach and preach that truth. Why talk about the new racism when the old racism is still rooted deep inside of it. Well, until we all come unto the unity of the faith, GOD bless you all and have a good night.

By: Dr. James Willingham

Dr. James Willingham — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 23:20:00 +0000

Dear Debbie: Dr, Benson seems to have an agenda that is not amenable to any amount of reason. Thee are undoubtedly some Sovereign Grace faculty members at Bob Jones, but it is likely that there are Arminians there as well. After all, the school was founded by a Methodist Evangelist,Dr Bob Jones, Sr. That calvinists wrote in defense of slavery; I know from having read the primary sources. Consider for example, Richard Furman’ defense of slavery and saying Baptists would fight for it (circa 1823-24). God’s answer to the folly of that dear man (a member of the convention which would adopt the US constitution and a preacher on whose head the British put a huge reward) might well have been a cannon ball that buried itself in his grave in 1861. But the person of God can and often is wrong about many things in life. Paul as wrong about John Mark, and, though he said love does not become provoked (I Cors.13), he did (Acts 15), and yet later called John Mark profitable to him in the ministry.
Our dear Rev. Dr. Benson seems to forget things like that in his crusade to get rid of the calvinist. One wonders what in the world he is doing in the SBC which was founded by calvinists in order to missionize and evangelize the world to reach the elect while accepting folks whose views did not accord on the atonement. He seems very willing to over look the fact that Arminians wrote in defense of slavery as well as Calvinists, and that Calvinists wrote against slavery as well as Arminians. He also seems to suffer from a problem of methodology. Could he be suffering from the problem of our present flawed Scientific method. As Dr. Jess Moody said in the 60s we are suffering from the paralysis of analysis, and Dr. Benson has read his prejudices into history. He has also failed to take account of culture and man’s fallen nature as sources of prejudice. One ignores other sources at his or her own peril. Having studied Abolitionist History with one of the noted scholars in the field, I think I can reasonably say that the people whom Dr. Benson cites in his crusade to clear the SBC of calvinism must have forgot that Arminians defended the garbage of racism. And, according to Dr. Benson, anomalies like yours truly should not exist. What Dr. Benson might really fear is what this theology might well produce again as it did in 1704 and 1801, namely, another Great Awakening. After all, the folks in Carroll Quigley’s tragedy and Hope really hated what they called determinism as the sought to steal this calvinistic republic (George Bancroft’s term – not mine. Google it sometime.) from those who founded it and fought for it – among whom were not only my predecessors in the Baptist ministry but many of my ancestors). I dare say they fear another great awakening which might well take the whole earth from their grasp for 1001 generations.
Tell us, Dr. Benson, where are you coming from?
.-= Dr. James Willingham´s last blog ..The Climax of the Reformation =-.