This has been an interesting convention. Yesterday’s events during the Resolutions Committee’s report were a black eye on the Southern Baptist Convention. The resolution that the committee brought out today was an attempt to make things right.
The resolution passed with very little opposition (maybe 3 or 4 voting no). Praise God for that. I will hopefully have some further reflections later, but wanted to give a brief update here.
It was also a blessing and significant that the chair of the resolutions committee began his presentation with a sincere and heartfelt apology for creating the chaos that ensued after they chose to not report out the original resolution.
Evidently, I am the only guy who knows nothing about the Alt Right.
Who is the poster child for that movement? I looked around on ERLC’s website and did a search from the ERLC homepage but nothing came up for “alt right”.
Can you guys help me to get up to speed on who / what the alt right is? Is it different than the KKK? Is it a name for some subset of Trump supporters?
Roger
Roger: You are a very intelligent man. How about simply doing a search on Bing or Google. I posted a video on Dwight’s post on this site. There is plenty of information out there if someone really truly wants truth.
Do a search for alternate right or alt-right.
I just read a post by the Gospel Coalition about them. It’s pretty weird and obscure, and doesn’t have Christian orientation. In fact, they don’t even like Christians. You might check that article out.
Search Richard Spencer….or don’t.
The “poster child” of the “Alt-Right” is Steve Bannon, close, very close advisor to D. J. Trump (AKA The President of the United (?) States.
He and his kind are racist and worse. NOT NICE PEOPLE!!!!!!!!!
John, Vince my husband voted for Trump , I did not and have never voted for a Republican. My husband told me when I showed him the first resolution that he felt this was political and would be submitted if my person had won. I do not think that is true. Now you submit a claim that Bannon is heavily involved in the alt right, which is more of a political statement than a faith based message. I think Dr. Moore did a great job making the resolution as Gospel based and avoiding current political context. My husband cites Bernie… Read more »
I am sorry that should be alternative right instead of alternate. I was typing too fast.
OK. I did my assignment. I looked around at wiki and Google links and found out some stuff about the alt-right. My 20,000 foot flyover assessment is that it is a loosely affiliated group of people who mostly communicate via the internet and blogs who assert such things as [a] white supremacy, [b] being anti – Semitic, and [c] to some extent neo-Nazi. After reading some of their writings I’d say that some of it is “tongue in cheek”. Sort of like a revival of Mad Magazine from the 1960s only its theme seems to be venting because they feel… Read more »
Roger, you may appreciate this article
5 Things To Know About The Alt-Right.
The five things explained are:
1. What are the origins of the Alt-Right?
2. What is the philosophy of the Alt-Right?
3. The Alt-Right is not conservative.
4. The Alt-Right is a counterreaction to the left’s race-baiting.
5. The Alt-Right doesn’t consider Trump and Steve Bannon as part of the Alt-Right.
If you think it’s tongue in cheek, then you’ve never made a public statement about race that an alt-right has seen. Myself and many of my friends who speak out for biblical unity and reconciliation have been viciously attacked with vile and despicable language. The alt-right is a significant, vocal, satanic movement, even if unknown to the majority of messengers. It’s presumed association with evangelicalism and contemporary conservative politics by many call for a response from our Convention. Especially in a season where the recent election has threatened division among Baptists and caused the world to believe evangelical Christians and… Read more »
Todd,
I think you make some great points here. We are often left in the unenviable position of having to distance ourselves from views that we do not in fact hold merely because of a guilt by association cultural view. We should be sensitive to any such events so that we can ensure that we do not hamper our witness to a watching world by ignoring the cultural moment in which we find ourselves.
Grace and peace,
Chad Dougless
Sarah Pulliam Bailey, a very savvy religion writer, has this paragraph in her Washington Post article:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/acts-of-faith/wp/2017/06/14/southern-baptists-are-about-to-vote-on-a-proposal-to-condemn-white-supremacy/?utm_term=.496b6c973a25
“Some of the [Resolution] committee members are affiliated with National Religious Broadcasters and First Baptist Church in Dallas, institutions that are seen as friendly to Trump. The committee considering resolutions has 10 members, one of whom is black.”
Evidently, the committee badly misread the matter, as did I. I’m glad they quickly recovered.
Now that’s a fascinating piece of info right there William. And heightens some suspicions I was already harboring.
So it’s a bit of the old, “I don’t want to damage my gravy train” there?
First thing in my mind–and I haven’t tracked the Annual Meeting at all this year–is the goal of the resolution is to create a clear statement of opposition to something that is defined by being obtuse and ambiguous. I’ve been supportive (perhaps to a difficult-to-comprehend extreme) of our dear friend at Cornerstone on this site precisely because I believe his voice represents a calling out by a group of participants that by culture, by choice, and systemically were marginalized in the life of the SBC since founding largely based on the premise that race is a legitimate reason for marginalization.… Read more »
SBC denounces ‘alt-right white supremacy’
http://bpnews.net/49057/sbc-denounces-altright-white-supremacy
David R. Brumbelow
I suspect even the 10 votes against had more to do with the relative confusion of the process more than anything else. I doubt there is even a single person in any of our churches that truly believes the Bible teaches that White supremacy is anything other than a lie from Satan himself. But many of the churches of the SBC used to peddle a soft line on Black inferiority and White supremacy using the Curse of Ham. My mom taught me about how some Christians used that passage to justify “race”-based slavery. Needless to say I was just as… Read more »
For the record, I was introduced to racist theology grounded within the Curse of Ham as a child – and I am only 30. Just because such views have faded from the foreground does not mean that they their existence is wholly eradicated.
New American Commentary on the Curse of Ham
http://gulfcoastpastor.blogspot.com/2017/06/more-on-curse-of-ham.html
David R. Brumbelow
Thanks David. Do you have a similar exposition on Jim Crow laws and the resistance of Southern Baptists to Civil and Voting Rights Acts? A series on this kind of history that is introspective and thorough–and documents meaningful voices against racism like Dr. Harold E. O’Chester stories he told from the pulpit at Great Hills, Austin about his tenure at a church in Mississippi –would be extremely helpful.