REVIEW: Removing the Stain of Racism from the Southern Baptist Convention

This compelling work, led by Jarvis Williams and Kevin Jones, including input from Al Mohler, Walter Strickland, Kevin Smith, Dwight McKissic, and others, is not a book merely to be glanced at like passing a curious situation alongside the highway as you speed by at 65 miles an hour. We must not give mere token acknowledgement to this issue simply because the media highlights a specific circumstance in the ever transitioning news cycle. Ethnic tensions, systemic racism, and latent prejudices remind us of the deep darkness of sin that is always around us. We cry out as Paul did in Scripture when he said, “What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death?” (Romans 7:24, CSB). This fact we see in our world at-large and in our own lives holds true for our cooperating assembly of churches known as the Southern Baptist Convention as well. The deep-set stain of racism and its continuing effects call for unyielding mortification on our part, as we focus on this issue in our lives together as Southern Baptists today.

As I opened this book focusing on an issue I believe to be of paramount importance for us as individuals, churches, and a convention, I expected to be hit hard with challenges regarding our past as Southern Baptists, with calls to acknowledge the continuing problems in our day, and with concrete plans to help us move forward together as we endeavor to remove the stain of racism replacing it with the Gospel-reflecting ethnic inclusion and diversity which befits the people of God gathering in His churches. I have not been disappointed in the least. At times I mourned the undeniable horror of our past. At times I winced at the confrontation of my need to face this issue in the present. At times I rejoiced in the prescribed remedy of the various authors of both Anglo and African descent showing us a better way forward.

I believe I am near the center of the target audience for this book. As a Southern Baptist pastor involved in our local church’s mission and ministry and also deeply connected with our cooperative ministry efforts through our local association, state convention, and the national entities of the SBC, each chapter offered insightful analysis and helpful recommendations for God-honoring transformation in removing the stain of racism from our midst. Some may find chapters like “Administrative Steps Toward Removing the Stain of Racism from the Southern Baptist Convention,” or “Publishing for Church Leaders to Remove the Stain of Racism from the Southern Baptist Convention” less directly applicable, but I believe such contain helpful information for us all.

I found a priceless aspect of this book in an introduction of sorts entitled “Selected Southern Baptist Convention Resolutions on Race from 1845-2007” (pp. xxv-lix). These highlights captured the progression regarding this issue–the peaks and the valleys–for our beloved SBC. While this introduction is no substitute for the investment of engaging the authors throughout the course of the book, I do believe it to be worth the price of the book itself. Seeing from where we have come and the ever improving trajectory in which we are heading proved quite helpful in reading the rest of the book.

As I wrap up (Pastor speak for, “Here comes sermon number two!), I leave you with the fifteen recommendations Dr. Williams expresses in his chapter, “Biblical Steps Toward Removing the Stain of Racism from the Southern Baptist Convention.” While he enumerates them with commentary, I will simply share the topic line…and hope that encourages, intrigues, challenges you to the point of getting a copy of the book to read for yourself. I am convinced you will benefit greatly from doing so.

Fifteen Concluding Exhortations (pp.44-51)

• Southern Baptists should be quick to listen and slow to speak on race when they do not understand the issues.

• Southern Baptists must pray for and support multi-ethnic church plants in their cities and communities if their churches are not going to pursue reconciliation.

• Southern Baptists must stop making excuses for why our denomination still has the stain of racism.

• Southern Baptists must stop limiting the racial reconciliation discussion to the black versus white divide in our convention.

• The movement of gospel-centered racial reconciliation within the SBC does not need an African-American savior, an Asian savior, a Latino savior, or a white savior. But we need a multiracial partnership of churches working together….

• Southern Baptists need to enlarge their ethnic circles to include more black and brown believers.

• Southern Baptists must recognize that black and brown people can minister to white people and teach them many things about many subjects, including race.

• Southern Baptists must understand that black and brown Southern Baptists need white allies in the work of the gospel ministry.

• Southern Baptists must understand that the kingdom of God does not revolve around whiteness or blackness or brownness.

• Southern Baptists must recognize that whiteness is not normal and everything else abnormal.

• Southern Baptists must not play the race card just to serve their political agendas, to get television appearances, to increase Twitter followers, to gain more friends on Facebook, or to get invites to the big white or black and brown conferences.

• If Southern Baptists want to gain credibility in black and brown contexts on matters of gospel reconciliation, they must befriend black and brown people lacking celebrity status.

• Southern Baptists must recognize that the evangelical movement generally and the SBC specifically still lack credibility with many black and brown communities in part because of their historic failure to do the things mentioned above.

• Black and brown Southern Baptists are not off the hook. We have an important role to play in removing the stain of racism from the SBC, too.”

I pray we will all relentlessly pursue unity in the bond of peace since, “In Christ there is not Greek and Jew, circumcision and uncircumcision, barbarian, Scythian, slave and free; but Christ is all and in all.” (Colossians 3:11, CSB).