PROPOSED RESOLUTION #10 ON THE ANTI-GOSPEL OF ALT-RIGHT WHITE SUPREMACY

You’ve read about the Resolutions Committtee’s decision not to bring a resolution on the alt-right and white supremacy to the floor.  You’ve read about a messenger’s attempts to bring the resolution out of committee.  You’ve read about some of the ensuing conflict.  And you’ve read about the announcement last night that a resolution was being crafted on this issue.  The full text of the proposed resolution is printed below.  The resolution is scheduled to be voted on at 2:45pm today.

WHEREAS, Scripture teaches, “From one man [God] has made every nationality to live over the whole
earth and has determined their appointed times and the boundaries of where they live” (Acts 17:26); and

WHEREAS, The Psalmist proclaimed, “The earth and everything in it, the world and its inhabitants,
belong to the LORD” (Psalm 24:1); and

WHEREAS, The Apostle Peter said, “God doesn’t show favoritism, but in every nation the person who
fears Him and does what is right is acceptable to Him” (Acts 10:34–35); and

WHEREAS, Our justification before God is based on faith in Christ Jesus alone and not in our ethnicity
(Galatians 3:27–28); and

WHEREAS, Scripture proclaims that Jesus is purchasing by His blood believers “from every tribe and
language and people and nation” (Revelation 5:9); and

WHEREAS, Throughout eternity we will gather with a “multitude from every nation, tribe, people, and
language” in worship of our risen Savior (Revelation 7:9); and

WHEREAS, The Baptist Faith and Message conveys that all Christians are obligated to make the will of
Christ supreme in their own lives and in human society, opposing all forms of racism, selfishness, and
vice, and bringing government and society as a whole under the sway of the principles of righteousness,
truth, and brotherly love; and

WHEREAS, We know from our Southern Baptist history the effects of the horrific sins of racism and
hatred; and

WHEREAS, In 1995, the Southern Baptist Convention repudiated “historic acts of evil, such as slavery,”
committed “to eradicate racism in all its forms from Southern Baptist life and ministry,” and “genuinely
repent[ed] of racism of which we have been guilty, whether consciously or unconsciously”; and

WHEREAS, In recent years the Convention has nominated and elected individuals from a variety of
ethnicities, including electing our first African-American president in 2012; and

WHEREAS, In recent resolutions the Southern Baptist Convention called on “all Christian men and
women to pray and labor for the day when our Lord will set all things right and racial prejudice and
injustice will be no more” (2014); expressed continued grief “over the presence of racism and the recent
escalation of racial tension in our nation” (2015); and urged fellow Christians to discontinue using the
Confederate battle flag, acknowledging that it is “used by some and perceived by many as a symbol of
hatred, bigotry, and racism, offending millions of people” (2016); and

WHEREAS, More than 20 percent (nearly eleven thousand) of our cooperating Southern Baptist
congregations identify as predominately non-Anglo and for the last three years more than 50 percent of
Southern Baptist new church plants have been predominately non-Anglo; and

WHEREAS, B&H Academic recently published Removing the Stain of Racism from the Southern Baptist
Convention, highlighting our continuing need to root out vestiges of racism from our own hearts as
Southern Baptists; and

WHEREAS, Racism and white supremacy are, sadly, not extinct but present all over the world in various
white supremacist movements, sometimes known as “white nationalism” or “alt-right”; now, therefore, be
it

RESOLVED, That the messengers to the Southern Baptist Convention, meeting in Phoenix, Arizona,
June 13–14, 2017, decry every form of racism, including alt-right white supremacy, as antithetical to the
Gospel of Jesus Christ; and be it further

RESOLVED, That we denounce and repudiate white supremacy and every form of racial and ethnic
hatred as of the devil; and be it further

RESOLVED, That we acknowledge that we still must make progress in rooting out any remaining forms
of intentional or unintentional racism in our midst; and be it further

RESOLVED, That we earnestly pray, both for those who advocate racist ideologies and those who are
thereby deceived, that they may see their error through the light of the Gospel, repent of these hatreds,
and come to know the peace and love of Christ through redeemed fellowship in the Kingdom of God,
which is established from every nation, tribe, people, and language.

It is important that this resolution mentions the alt-right by name.  If we can denounce gambling, surely we can repudiate the alt-right and their white supremacy.  I am thankful for this resolution.  I’m sorry that it wasn’t offered from the very beginning when the Resolutions Committee first made their report.