Before we jump into part II, catch up on part I of this Critical Race Theory, Southern Baptist Convention and the Mass Black Exit series.
Y’all give me grace. I know it’s been 2 weeks but I wanted to share Part II from pure, honest, transparent intentions coming from a good place. Too many people have experienced church hurt and this 2-part series shares part of my church hurt story. So I needed to make sure that what I shared didn’t have any ill-intentions underneath the surface. Especially since I’ll be revealing the church that I was a member of for almost 3 years. With that being said, let’s get into Critical Race Theory, Southern Baptist Convention and the Mass Black Exit part II.
Critical Race Theory
Now I was a member and employed at Cornerstone Baptist Church in Arlington, TX from 2002-2005 where Dwight McKissic Sr. is the Founding/Lead Pastor. So my perspective on part II is personal. Leaving that church also was the start of my 15 year absence from attending any church. I didn’t understand it at the time but the theology taught and the rigidness of how Christians are to behave seemed contradictory to what I saw first-hand. Or understood about the Bible at that time. And I also didn’t know it was an Evangelical church until last month. Now I know why I’m adamantly against Evangelicalism. I experienced it first-hand in the most Black conservative way possible and it stained my perspective of the Black church and God to be honest. The past few years I learned how to separate my relationship with God from church and understand they are 2 different types of relationships. God is personal and the church is for community.
This series was triggered by a letter I saw on Twitter sent to my former Pastor, Dwight McKissic, about his recent remarks related to Critical Race Theory and the Southern Baptist Convention.
Pastor McKissic on Roland Martin Unfiltered
Those remarks are valid as the resolution that the SBC put out really contradicted an earlier stance when it came to race. I’m not even going to try to explain the resolution because it seemed contradictory and confusing to me. So please read it yourself.
Southern Baptist Convention
Pastor McKissic did what a Christian is supposed to do. He warned of their unrighteousness.
17 “Son of man, I have appointed you as a watchman to the house of Israel; whenever you hear a word from My mouth, warn them from Me. 18 When I say to the wicked, ‘You will certainly die,’ and you do not warn him or speak out to tell him to turn from his wicked way to save his life, that same evil man will die in his sin, but you will be responsible for his blood. 19 However, if you have warned the wicked and he does not turn from his wickedness or from his wicked way, he will die in his sin; but you have freed yourself [from responsibility]. 20 Again, when a righteous man turns from his righteousness (right standing with God) and sins, and I place an obstacle before him, he will die; since you have not warned him, he will die in his sin, and the righteous deeds which he has done will not be remembered; but you will be responsible for his blood. 21 However, if you have warned the righteous man not to sin and he does not sin, he will surely live because he took warning; also you have freed yourself [from responsibility].”
Ezekiel 3:17-21 (AMP)
Now that we’re aware of what the hoopla is about. Let’s go down memory lane to see how this has been documented from Pastor McKissic’s experience. Please be aware my commentary is sprinkled in with facts that can be verified. (I cite my sources.)
Pastor McKissic has documented patterns of or acts of racism in the Southern Baptist of Texas Convention since the early 2000s. And the Southern Baptist Convention since the early 90s. Y’all I joined the church in 2002. So if he knew then why has he stayed and kept Cornerstone Baptist Church in the state and national convention? Now after receiving a racist derogatory letter he left the state convention on Jan. 15, 2021. And is waiting on a vote in June to decide whether he’ll stay in the national convention. But really? The SBC is leaning into adopting the resolution condemning Critical Race Theory. Sorry, Pastor, but your faith blinded the crucial reality of the people you’ve done “church” with for the past 45 years. The SBC denounced the letter by John V. Rutledge. Well Rutledge isn’t a member so that was easy to do. But the SBC has been real quiet about Pastor McKissic’s statement to leave as reported by the Dallas Morning News.
What struck me in that article was his reaction to 2 executives in the Texas convention calling Madam Vice President “Jezebel Harris”. When he himself wrote an entire blog post calling Pastor Yvette Flunder a Jezebel in 2015. So we’re going to detour a minute to explore why he said it was okay for him to do so and not those other pastors. It’ll make sense in the full context of this piece.
Pastor McKissic eluded to a woman Pastor, Yvette Flunder, in 2015 as a Jezebel due to her same-sex marriage. And he said Madam Vice President wouldn’t be a Jezebel because she is not a sexual deviant as explained in the Bible. Their use was racial and political while his use is ecclesiastical. He opens his blog post up with Revelations 2:20-21.
20 But I have this [charge] against you, that you tolerate the woman Jezebel, who calls herself a prophetess [claiming to be inspired], and she teaches and misleads My bond-servants so that they commit [acts of sexual] immorality and eat food sacrificed to idols. 21 I gave her time to repent [to change her inner self and her sinful way of thinking], but she has no desire to repent of her immorality and refuses to do so.
Amplified Version
But it says acts of sexual immorality in there. So is he saying same-sex marriage is an act of sexual immorality? If that’s the case, what about all the cohabiting members of churches all across the country? Are the women Jezebel’s too? What are the men called who sleep with women they aren’t married to but attend church just the same? So he says that Jesus rebuked Jezebel because of the sexually deviant practices that were taught at the Church of Thyatira. But all sex before marriage would be considered deviant, right? Because the “norm” is to get married then have sex. What about sex with a minor, another person’s spouse, sodomizing young boys, taking advantage sexually of women (or male) church members? These are some deviant sexual practices that run rampant in church yet not a peep. But let a same sex couple show up and sex is now bad. If that’s the case then a lot of ministry leaders need to step down now. I’m not talking about what they did before ministry, I’m talking about what they’re doing right now. Now based on the excerpts he shared of her sermon, homegirl was all over the place. If anything, her theology may need to be looked at because saying you belong in a Testament III for who she’s married to is a stretch homegirl. But to condemn her for being in a same-sex marriage while willfully ignoring hetro-cohabitaing or church ministry leaders doing sexually immoral acts is bothersome to me. Shouldn’t they be condemned too? Not really. Most of the most vile sexual deviants in church are praised and celebrated both in life and their homegoing. But same-sex marriage is the only vilified sexual sin to a person’s face.
[Disclaimer: I’m neither pro or anti support of the LGBTQ+ community. I’m all for being kind and cordial to everyone. I will speak up for people being mistreated though. We’re all humans and a little kindness does matter. Let God sort out the sin. Call it out once and leave it to God.]
The reason this mattered is because Pastor McKissic is calling out sins within the SBC back all the way to the early 90s in another blog post. And yet he stayed. So those other sins were okay to deal with even if they bothered you but you forcefully called out same-sex marriage. Sir, I need that same vigor for all the Evangelical sins you denounced in your 2011 guest blog post for SBC Voices.
He wrote this piece to share how the SBC unfairly and might I add unChristianlike treated a musician who is affiliated with Bishop T.D. Jakes. All because the SBC wanted to target Bishop Jakes. The SBC hang up is on the fact that Bishop Jakes used the word “manifestations” to describe the Trinity. We are the manifestation of God though. We can’t manifest anything but through God what He wants is manifested and we become stewards of that.
“…I pray that the Father forgive the SBC for they know not what they do. The SBC views every evangelical denomination as having some views that are “incorrect but not cultic.” Says Pastor McKissic. They do know what they are doing. They choose to spew their interpretation of the Bible which suits their personal self-interests against anyone who can challenge their stance with Biblical fact. And yet, you stayed.
I do like how Pastor McKissic called out the sexual violations of women by men within the SBC. Yet, example after example he gave how women have been blocked in ministry. Yet you stayed. He says, “The “camel” that the SBC has been swallowing from her inception until this very hour is racism, sexism and factionalism—“they are not one of us mentality.” And yet, you stayed. Then you give more examples of outright, abhorrent racism. Yet, you stayed. Good Lord you give racist examples from the early 90s when you were doing mission work with Cornerstone in South Africa by people within the SBC. And yet you stayed.
This statement sums up how Black Evangelicals are viewed within the ranks of the SBC, “Blacks in the SBC are a mission project—not mission partners.”
The reason I made a stink about Pastor McKissic’s stance on same-sex marriage is how this one sin overshadows all others. All others get a pass, or people “repent” yet continue to commit the same sin or just plain outright forgiven without apologizing, acknowledging or repenting. Also he led a huge movement with a rally at City Hall in Arlington about marriage being between 1 man and 1 woman. I attended the rally, had the bumper sticker on my car and even got run off the road bc of it. I did track that person down and had a talk in front of Blockbuster on Matlock across from the church. I made my perspective known and so did he. If you read my disclaimer above, I believed that then. I just belonged and was employed by a church that has rigid views on that subject. And those views by the church don’t prevent me from being kind to others. Even if they are in a same-sex relationship or marriage.
Okay how does all of this play into this series, Critical Race Theory, Southern Baptist Convention and the Mass Black Exit? Evangelicals have used the Bible as a political weapon since their inception. Yet, Black congregations have run to sit under their tutelage for dollars for their churches or missions. But like I was told, if you accept someone’s money, you also accept their beliefs. Or at least have to agree to them. So they are against every sin in the Bible except racism. Because if they were against racism then that resolution wouldn’t exist, they wouldn’t have backed the orange hamburglar who used to occupy 1600 Penn Ave and their blatant disrespect of Black clergy to hold executive positions would not be an issue. Y’all my research was a lot to digest and these were just acts he experienced personally or was made aware of. But he stayed through all of that.
The Mass Black Exit
We’re finally to what was the straw that broke the camel’s back as to why Pastor McKissic and Cornerstone Baptist Church are at least leaving the Southern Baptist of Texas Convention. This is from his statement on his blog written January, 15, 2021.
For some reason this play of events bothers me. If you’ve read until now, then you know he knew things were off for a good minute. But that didn’t stop him from removing his church and their annual $400,000 to go towards a fund in the SBC. That’s a lot of money to give to an organization that says you’re not ever going to drive the bus in their organization.
In 2006 in response to my chapel sermon, he stated, “If you have a private prayer language, you may ride on the bus at SBTC, but you will not be able to drive the bus.” I found that statement incredibly offensive as an African American and as one who has been spiritually gifted to pray, praise, intercede and give thanks in tongues, under the inspiration and influence of the Holy Spirit, as is taught in I Corinthians 14. I shared my pain and disagreement with Dr. Richards. He assured me that his comment was not intended to imply a racial connotation, only a theological one. Dr. Richards was gentle, respectful, and kind in his response to me, although he disagreed with my beliefs and practice. I visited him in 2006 to express to him why our church was withdrawing membership in the SBTC. However, I remained a member from then until today, simply to not break fellowship over a tertiary issue. I DECIDED TO STAY ON THE BUS FROM 2006 UNTIL JANUARY 2021. But, today, I have decided it is time to “get off the bus.” I no longer want to ride, and I certainly do not want to drive!
‘We Are Getting Off The Bus’ blog post – Pastor Dwight McKissic
You felt insulted enough to want to leave but stayed another 15 years? And you didn’t get over it if you vividly remember what was said 15 years ago. Is it finally that you and so many other Black Pastors are seeing the reality? The reality that you’re only there for them to accept your church’s money but not there to partake in contributing to the theology, development or decisions for the SBC.
I do like that Pastor McKissic and Cornerstone are strengthening their relationship with the National Baptist Convention, USA. That’s one of the historically Black Christian denominations founded in this country. My mom grew up in that denomination. It truly felt like a family at Mount Olive Missionary Baptist Church in Fort Worth, TX. I was on the drill team and everything. And my siblings and I loved attending their summer camp and other youth related activities. He gets to serve on their Executive Committee. Knowing what I know about Pastor McKissic as a Pastor/Leader I do feel this is a great benefit and adds value to the NBC as a whole. This I am pleased with. And that church planting collective he plans to build hopefully will bring more diverse churches to the fold and truly be steeped in the Word of God but not the charisma of the Pastor.
The mass Black exit is happening. Black congregations are leaving the Southern Baptist Convention and should if they value their own self-worth. To take us out the last quote was within one of the articles I linked in my blog post. But it holds so much truth to it that it only makes sense to end with it.
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