Joel Rainey is the lead pastor of Covenant Church in Shepherdstown, WV.
For more than 4 decades, I’ve been in denial.
It’s not as though the signs weren’t there for me to heed. My mother has been on blood pressure meds for three of those decades. My grandmother died of a sudden heart attack due to a blood clot. My grandfather passed from hardening of the arteries—a complication of his diabetes. He was 64.
But not me. No way! Wasn’t going to happen. I was a former athelete who had convinced himself that my metabolism in my 40s at *#@ pounds was identical to when I was 19. I was invincible. Eating junk food on the run, insane work hours, and ignoring what my body was trying to tell me has pretty much described my routine for the last 20 years of my adult life. Then came the diagnoses—high blood pressure, and diabetes.
At 45 years of age, my family’s genetic lineage had finally caught up with me. It was time to take measures which included finally paying attention to my history, and that of my family. To be sure, this wasn’t about the past. I haven’t bought any grave plots, and I’m not obsessing about my health. I’m still working hard, and loving the ministry. The thing is, I want to keep doing those things and doing them well. I want to walk my now 8-year-old daughter down the aisle (and that won’t happen for another 40 years!). I want to enjoy grandchildren. And I want to utilize our coming “empty nest” to travel globally with my wife as we minister alongside each other. I also wouldn’t mind riding from coast to coast on a Harley Davidson Softail Classic. That’s my dream bike!
You can’t do any of those things if you aren’t healthy. And in my case, you can’t be healthy if you ignore, or deny, your history.
What is true of an individual is also true at the corporate level—including churches and denominations. This past week, my denominational tribe experienced what can mildly be called a public relations faux paux. In many ways, this has been a blessing in disguise, because it has revealed some major blind spots that still exist in our Convention that we need to work on. In the end, we did the right thing. We passed by near unanimity a strongly-worded resolution condemning the “alt-right” movement—a dangerous and currently subversive white nationalist group that uses the red herring fear of “white ethnic cleansing” to promote antichrist ideas that tie national and cultural identity exclusively to ethnicity and race. Make no mistake, these folks are the 21st century equivalent of the KKK.
That many of those attending the SBC in Phoenix were unaware of this movement was also, in a sense, a blessing. Our Southern Baptist family’s ignorance on this subject automatically reveals that our people have nothing to do with it. But on the other hand, 15 minutes of research by the Resolutions Committee would have revealed everything they needed to know about this movement. In our polity, this committee has the right to edit any resolutions. Instead, they simply and initially declined to bring it forward.
To be clear, they didn’t decline it because they are racist. Anyone who knows Barrett Duke, who chaired this committee, would dismiss such a ridiculous assumption quickly. But the initial refusal to deal with something our minority brothers and sisters view as an imminent threat brought a moment of great pain to our large family—and revealed a terrible truth. We are still too often ignoring our “family medical history.”
Just after the attack on Ft. Sumter in 1860, my wife’s great great grandfather left his upstate South Carolina home and walked across the state to enlist and fight for the Confederacy. Not long afterward, my great great grandfather would also enlist in North Carolina for the same cause. Smart phones weren’t ubiquitous in the 1860s, so we really don’t know what their views were of black men and women. We do know that neither man ever owned a slave, and neither man fought to keep slaves. In their minds, they were defending their home “countries” from a foreign federal invader. Nevertheless, the “cause” for which they were fighting included the “right” of white men to keep our African brothers and sisters in bonds.
That’s my heritage, and it doesn’t make me a racist. I too have never personally owned a slave. I’ve never donned a white hood and I’ve never believed my ethnicity made me superior to anyone else. And because of that, the temptation is to shrug my shoulders and say “what’s the big deal?” when issues of race come up. And if I shrug, its because I’m once again ignoring my family history.
This is also true of the Southern Baptist Convention—admittedly birthed because our northern Baptist brothers refused to appoint slaveholders as missionaries. I can understand why some of my white brothers would say “but that was 150 years ago! Why do we have to keep dwelling on it?!” But just as there is a difference between planning my funeral at 45 and better understanding my medical history to get healthy—there is a world of difference between “white guilt” and the outright, unadulterated pursuit of racial reconciliation. What we saw on the floor of the Convention from Pastor Dave Gass and others wasn’t motivated by white guilt or disrespect for denominational leadership. These were prophetic young men who love our tribe enough to wake us up to our tone-deafness and call us to do the right thing.
And eventually, we did. The Committee not only released a superb resolution, but also asked forgiveness. And as was appropriate, the people of our Convention granted that forgiveness as we should have. But we still have a mess to clean up.
There are times when its necessary, not only to say the right thing, but to say it without a stutter. Though we said the right thing, from a procedural standpoint, we stuttered heavily. This was no small blunder, and in its aftermath, we don’t need to be looking at our minority brothers and sisters and asking “what’s your problem?” They have been most gracious to forgive and assume the best. I have yet to see any of my African American brothers call us racists. But that doesn’t mean there isn’t still a deep pain—connected to our past—that we should listen to. Southern Baptists original sin continues to create complications for us. We stuttered in Birmingham in the 1960s when many of our white churches were on the wrong side of the fire hoses and dog leashes. We stuttered in reaction to Martin Luther King’s courageous and audacious stands by saying “he is stirring too much trouble.” And while many of us may think “that was a half century ago!” to our black brothers and sisters, it was just a moment ago in time! And the reason is simple. Its because white people weren’t the victims. They were the perpetrators.
So today, we face another threat. The Confederacy is dead, and those guys in white hoods are also dying off pretty quickly. Its easy to speak out against dead people and dying movements. But it takes actual courage to look a present, living, breathing, GROWING societal cancer like the alt right in the face and say “you are of your father, the devil!” Now is not the time to stutter!
And we shouldn’t look back on this not-so-great moment in Phoenix to learn because we are trying to punish ourselves or those in leadership. We should do it because a brighter future for us all awaits if we do. As pastor of a church that is increasingly more multi-ethnic, things like this affect me at the ground level. When an African American or interracial family comes through our “Discovery” membership class and asks me “are you guys Southern Baptists?” I want to say proudly “yes we are” without qualifying statements or long explanations. Right now, I can’t do that—not because I’m not proud of who we are or think we are bad people, but because we have a self-imposed perception problem. And I suspect many of my fellow pastors feel the same way.
I want a future in which our tribe of churches looks like the world Jesus died to save. I think we are getting there, and the final resolution this past week is evidence of that. But I also think we have a long way to go, and our path from A to B this past week is evidence of that.
So let’s not dwell on our past, but let’s not ignore the past sicknesses, tendencies and sinful habits in our family history. Our life depends on it.
Good word!
I recommended this book in a previous article. I’d like to recommend it here also since it relates to this topic.
“Seven Black Preachers Tell What Jesus Means to Me” written 1971.
It is an outdated book but the relevance is still up to date.
There is a story about Condoleezza Rice that goes like this: Some one said to her you need to learn what it means to be black. Her response was classic. “No one needs to tell teach me what it means to be black, I’ve been black all my life.”
The book I mentioned helps those who aren’t black understand what the other race has to face. Yes, and these are Southern Baptist Preachers.
There are strong reasons why it was important that this resolution was passed. Good article Joel.
There have been nooses found in several places recently. This article is just one of many horrible acts that we should be speaking against. It’s here and it’s real. It’s not made up by the African American community nor is it race baiting. It’s real.
http://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/noose-found-hanging-from-tree-police-say/ar-BBCKkcI?li=BBmkt5R&ocid=spartandhp
Thank you Dave, and well stated. It was wonderful after the vote was finally taken and passed, that we as messengers stood and cheered!
Jim Luders
Joel:
At its core there is a communication problem. A subset of the SBC is aware of stuff that requires that we at least address it while evidently many [most?] — to the extent that they even know about the problem — consider it to be 2nd order. I include myself as a person who has been asleep as I never even heard of the “alt right” until a few days ago when it came up in Phoenix.
I guess this speaks volumes about the need for SBC leadership to actually reflect the whole convention. For example, we saw an example of where the resolution committee was “unlinked” with all constituencies of the SBC. Is there a better process to fill the slots of the various committees?
I think we saw a step to change the complexion of the Pastors Conference to actually reflect rank and file pastors. Maybe, in the same vein, there are some changes that could happen so that the members of the various committees actually reflects various “branches” of the SBC.
Roger OKC
Absolutely one of the best articles ever written. Thank you. I needed to read this.
One point I disagree with you, Joel. Those of us with a long Harley lineage (my father’s first was a 1928 model) know that “bike” is not a proper term for HD’s. “Motorcycle” is proper, and just “motor” is acceptable, and if something less is demanded, “ride” (as in “my ride is a _______). But “bikes” refer to those two wheeled sewing machines from Japan.
The rest of your article is spot on.
John
Well written and spot on! These issues are deeper and more worthy of introspection and (literally) soul-searching than any resolution–no matter how well-written or well-intended–could ever address.
What troubles me about many of our brothers and sisters who are patting themselves on the back over this issue is this: we seem courageous and bold when addressing issues of race, racial reconciliation and racial inclusivity when we are in convention halls halfway across the country, on social media, when we are supporting the distant works of the IMB and NAMB, and even when we take mission trips to the inner cities. Nothing wrong with that at all.
Yet when we return home, many of us return to our 95%+ white churches, our homes in our 95%+ white neighborhoods, sending our kids to their 95%+ white schools, and having our backyard barbeques and birthday parties with our 95%+ white friends. Nothing inherently wrong about that, either, but if we begin to do a better job of integrating racial equality and inclusiveness into our own ministries and daily lives, then a resolution condemning hateful bigots like the alt-right will seem as redundant and unnecessary coming from us as a resolution condemning Satan himself.
Wow… RMK, this is powerful man. I fight this similar battle with my African American brothers who are not willing to cross the train tracks to have dialogue. Yes, I understand their anger and pain, but I’m challenging them to widen their lense and listen to the call of God and obey. Bless you Sir for a clarion call!
RMK:
I don’t think this issue cuts evenly with race. I think it may be more a function of some different set of socio-economic factors.
I live in a neighborhood where we have huge racial diversity. One of my next door neighbors is black. The three families across the street are black.
One of my best friends down the block is black. We happen to share the same hobby of ham radio. Probably 30% of the families in the development are Asian. Maybe 30% are white and the rest have various backgrounds such as Hispanic.
My point is that we can “integrate racial equality and inclusiveness” [your term] into our lives and still not have a clue about various political/social problems such as the existence of the “Alt Right”.
When we have our home – owners meeting there is every race there. The thing we share is at least some common experience in terms of what, for a lack of a better word, is “social mobility”.
People without social mobility might share some of these [a] high crime and incarceration rates, [b] poor family formation in terms of homes with both parents, [c] low income, [d] high drug use, [e] school dropouts. These problems are NOT inherently race-based problems.
Roger OKC
Not too long ago, I graduated from a leading Southern Baptist seminary. During my studies there, I did a thorough investigation of its past and discovered that my good ole’ SBC alma mater was founded by a racist slave owner and that African Americans were not allowed to earn advanced degrees there until only a few decades ago. Furthermore, the entire history of the Southern Baptist Convention is one of unconscionable racism, so I believe it is beyond the pale and the height of incredulity that a denomination with such an atrocious and racist past is now patting itself on the back for sloppily denouncing the Alt-Right movement, which I would argue that most people throughout the SBC has never encountered. The reality is, racism is alive and well where the SBC flourishes the most-in the deep south where they still fly the flag of the confederacy for all to see.
Lee: It is not the past that defines anyone or any institution for that matter, it’s the present and I think you are dead wrong in your portrayal of the present SBC. At least they stood up and that is more than I see you doing. So please if you have nothing but lies to say, I would ask you to move along. I am not the administrator but I can’t read any more of any of your comments. Nor will I engage them. Ever.
In fact I won’t engage in any of the above comments from others either for the same reason.
Lee Enochs, I find it hard to believe that you were shocked to discover that the founder of your seminary was a slave owner. Are you not aware that before the Civil War, the elected officials of most Southern states were often slaveholders, and by you were reasoning, these governments should be held in continuous disrepute because of the previous office holders. Furthermore, many of the Capitol buildings were constructed with slave labor – the U.S. Capitol and the Tennessee State Capitol are two that come to mind.
You knew that the Southern Baptist Convention was formed in 1845 over the issue of slavery, so it stands to reason that some portion of the founders owned slaves and therefore, there was a reasonable probability that a wealthier individual who founded your seminary might own slaves, too.
I’m not defending the past, but what I am saying is that your shock over finding this out that there were slaveholders in the SBC of the mid 1800’s to be more than a little disingenuous. You could have read the Wikipedia article on your seminary and the SBC before you signed up for classes to get the history. For whatever reason, you seem to have a grievance over the SBC and you seem to be using a disingenuous shock over the history of the SBC to express it.
Lee,
Yes, in the 1800s and early 1900s most Southern Baptists had racist ideas. Frankly, most everyone else believed the same, North and South, in those days. By the way, the Democratic Party was racist and pro-slavery.
But in the latter half of the 1900s those attitudes began to radically change. For that, we are grateful.
We should not try to erase our history. Instead, be proud of what we got right, and repentant of what we got wrong.
David R. Brumbelow