Resolution on The Elimination of The Confederate Flag from Public Life
Submitted to the Resolutions Committee of the 2016 Southern Baptist Convention
By Wm. Dwight McKissic, Sr., Cornerstone Baptist Church, Arlington, TX
WHEREAS, SBC President Ronnie Floyd has rallied Southern Baptists to “rise up and cry out against the racism that still exists in our nation and our churches,” recognizing we are in a “desperate hour” that calls us to “replace these evils with the beauty of grace and love;”[1] and
WHEREAS, the Southern Baptist Convention has repudiated “historic acts of evil such as slavery”[2] and committed “to eradicate racism in all its forms from Southern Baptist life and ministry;”[3] and
WHEREAS, the Southern Baptist Convention has repented “of any past bigotry”[4] while bearing “witness to the devastating impact of racism;”[5] and
WHEREAS, the Southern Baptist Convention has affirmed that “the race problem is a moral and spiritual problem as well as a social problem”[6] and committed “to do all that we can to improve race relations among all races as a positive demonstration of the power of Christian love;”[7] and
WHEREAS, the Southern Baptist Convention has gone on record as “strongly opposing”[8] racist organizations that attempt to recruit members and promote “racial terrorism;”[9] and
WHEREAS, the Southern Baptist Convention has urged “the members of the churches of the convention to refrain from association with all groups that exist for the purpose of fomenting strife and division within the nation on the basis of differences of race;”[10] and
WHEREAS, the Southern Baptist Convention has 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;”[11] and
WHEREAS, the Southern Baptist Convention has expressed continued grief “over the presence of racism and the recent escalation of racial tension in our nation;”[12] and
WHEREAS, racial tensions and ongoing bigotries are inflamed by the continued use of the Confederate Battle Flag, also known as “The Southern Cross” or the “Battle Flag,” by groups that have been perennially repudiated and denounced by the Southern Baptist Convention; and
WHEREAS, the Confederate Battle Flag is utilized as a symbol of racial, ethnic, and religious hatred, oppression, and murder which offends untold millions of people; and
WHEREAS, on June 17, 2015, nine of our brothers and sisters in Christ were murdered at a mid-week Bible study and prayer meeting at the Mother Emmanuel AME Church in Charleston, SC, by a young man often pictured draped in a Confederate Battle Flag; and
WHEREAS, the State of South Carolina, under the leadership of Governor Nikki Haley and the South Carolina State Legislature – in response to the hatred and racial terrorism demonstrated in Charleston and often associated with the Confederate Battle Flag – permanently removed said flag from the South Carolina State Capitol; and
WHEREAS, the Confederate Battle Flag had flown over the State Capitol since 1962 as an act of protest over desegregation; and
WHEREAS, Oklahoma Baptist University President, Dr. David Whitlock, announced in February 2015 that the university would remove an image of the Confederate Battle Flag from the campus chapel; and
WHEREAS, these redemptive actions by elected officials in the State of South Carolina and the Oklahoma Baptist University deserve commendation; and
WHEREAS, the nine fellow believers[13] murdered in Charleston are true martyrs of the faith and thus deserve commemoration; and
WHEREAS, while the removal of the Confederate Battle Flag from public display is not going to solve the most severe racial tensions that plague our churches or our nation, it does symbolize another development in ongoing efforts to eliminate systemic racism that has divided our people for too long; now
BE IT THEREFORE RESOLVED that the 2016 Southern Baptist Convention, meeting June 14-15 in St. Louis, MO, acknowledges the controversial and necessarily divisive symbol of racism conveyed by the ongoing public display of the Confederate Battle Flag; and be it further
RESOLVED that we grieve over the ongoing racial tensions in the St. Louis area, specifically the pain and anguish that have afflicted the city of Ferguson, MO; and be it
FINALLY RESOLVED that we call on all persons, along with public, governmental, and religious institutions to discontinue the display of the Confederate Battle Flag and work diligently to remove vestigial symbols of racism from public life as evidence of the fruits of repentance that we have made for our past bigotries and as a step in good faith toward racial healing in America, to the end that we truly become – in word and deed – “one nation, under God, with liberty and justice for all.”
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[1] http://www.ronniefloyd.com/blog/8307/southern-baptist-convention/the-wounds-run-deep-racism-and-injustice-must-end-and-let-grace-and-love-begin/
[2] Resolution on Racial Reconciliation on the 150th Anniversary of the Southern Baptist Convention, 1995. http://www.sbc.net/resolutions/899/resolution-on-racial-reconciliation-on-the-150th-anniversary-of-the-southern-baptist-convention
[3] Ibid.
[4] Resolution on Racism, 1991, http://www.sbc.net/resolutions/897/resolution-on-racism
[5] Ibid.
[6] Resolution on Race Relations, 1961, http://www.sbc.net/resolutions/886/resolution-on-race-relations
[7] Ibid.
[8] Resolution on the Ku Klux Klan, 1982.
[9] Ibid.
[10] Resolution on Race, 1945, http://www.sbc.net/resolutions/883/resolution-on-race
[11] Resolution on the 50th Anniversary of the Civil Rights Act, 2014, http://www.sbc.net/resolutions/2246/on-the-fiftieth-anniversary-of-the-civil-rights-act
[12]Resolution on Racial Reconciliation, 2015, http://www.sbc.net/resolutions/2254/on-racial-reconciliation
[13] Names of the Charleston Nine: Cynthia Hurd, 54; Susie Jackson, 87; Ethel Lance, 70; Rev. Depayne Middleton-Doctor, 49; Honorable Rev. Clementa Pinckney, 41; Tywanza Sanders, 26; Rev. Daniel Simmons, Sr., 74; Rev. Sharonda Singleton, 45; Myra Thompson, 59.