The Southern Baptist Convention is gone. It is not, at this point, salvageable. It is time to start pleading with any churches that remain in the convention to come out.

This week has been one of the most interesting of the SBC’s annual conventions ever. Every year, the convention proposes resolutions to “repent” of racism, and they always pass. This year, however, the convention took an unprecedented step in not only guilting every white member on implicit racism, but to affirm the Marxist ideology known as Critical Race Theory.

Critical Race Theory (CRT) emerged as an offshoot of Critical Theory, a neo-Marxist philosophy that has its roots in the Frankfurt School and its methods are drawn from Karl Marx and Sigmund Freud. CRT teaches that institutional racism exists within every structure of society and that these structures are intrinsically designed in such a manner as to protect and preserve “white supremacy” in our culture. Further, CRT does not rely on factual statistics or objective evidence to support the theory, rather it relies on anecdotal evidence and personal experience.

The Capstone Report reports that

concerns that J.D. Greear’s appointments to the 2019 Resolution’s Committee would promote Social Justice were well founded. The Resolution’s Committee report offers a resolution that promotes Intersectionality and Critical Race Theory.

According to RESOLUTION 9 – ON CRITICAL RACE THEORY AND INTERSECTIONALITY, “WHEREAS, Critical race theory and intersectionality alone are insufficient to diagnose and redress the root causes of the social ills that they identify, which result from sin, yet these analytical tools can aid in evaluating a variety of human experiences.”

And, in the Resolved section,

“RESOLVED, That critical race theory and intersectionality should only be employed as analytical tools subordinate to Scripture—not as transcendent ideological frameworks,” the resolution declares.

To add to this, the SBC constitution was amended to enforce churches who were non-complicit in racial or sexual abuse issues — as these “committees” arbitrarily define them — will be excommunicated from fellowship in the convention.

The full text of the proposed resolution can be seen below.

RESOLUTION 9 – ON CRITICAL RACE THEORY AND INTERSECTIONALITY
Wednesday, June 12, 2019


WHEREAS, Concerns have been raised by some evangelicals over the use of frameworks such as critical race theory and intersectionality, and


WHEREAS, Critical race theory is a set of analytical tools that explain how race has and continues to function in society, and intersectionality is the study of how different personal characteristics overlap and inform one’s experience, and


WHEREAS, Critical race theory and intersectionality have been appropriated by individuals with worldviews that are contrary to the Christian faith, resulting in ideologies and methods that contradict Scripture, and


WHEREAS, Evangelical scholars who affirm the authority and sufficiency of Scripture have employed selective insights from critical race theory and intersectionality to understand multifaceted social dynamics, and


WHEREAS, The Baptist Faith and Message states, “[A}ll Scripture is totally true and trustworthy. It reveals the principles by which God judges us, and therefore is, and will remain to the end of the world, the true center of Christian union, and the supreme standard by which all human conduct, creeds, and religious opinions should be tried” (Article 1), and


WHEREAS, General revelation accounts for truthful insights found in human ideas that do not explicitly emerge from Scripture and reflects what some may term “common grace”, and


WHEREAS, Critical race theory and intersectionality alone are insufficient to diagnose and redress the root causes of the social ills that they identify, which result from sin, yet these analytical tools can aid in evaluating a variety of human experiences, and


WHEREAS, Scripture contains categories and principles by which to deal with racism, poverty, sexism, injustice, and abuse that are not rooted in secular ideologies, and


WHEREAS, Humanity is primarily identified in Scripture as image bearers of God, even as biblical authors address various audiences according to characteristics such as male and female, Jew and Gentile, slave and free, and


WHEREAS, The New Covenant further unites image bearers by creating a new humanity that will one day inhabit the new creation, and that the people of this new humanity, though descended from every nation, tribe, tongue, and people, are all one through the gospel of Jesus Christ (Ephesians 2:16, Revelation 21:1-4, 9-14), and


WHEREAS, Christian citizenship is not based on our differences but instead on our common salvation in Christ—the source of our truest and ultimate identity, and


WHEREAS, The Southern Baptist Convention is committed to racial reconciliation built upon biblical presuppositions and is committed to seeking biblical justice through biblical means, now therefore, be it


RESOLVED, That the messengers to the Southern Baptist Convention meeting in Birmingham, Alabama, June 11-12, 2019, affirms Scripture as the first, last, and sufficient authority with regard to how the Church seeks to redress social ills, and we reject any conduct, creeds, and religious opinions which contradict Scripture, and be it further


RESOLVED, That critical race theory and intersectionality should only be employed as analytical tools subordinate to Scripture—not as transcendent ideological frameworks, and be it further


RESOLVED, That the gospel of Jesus Christ alone grants the power to change people and society because “he who started a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus” (Philippians 1:6), and be it further


RESOLVED, That Southern Baptists will carefully analyze how the information gleaned from these tools are employed to address social dynamics, and be it further


RESOLVED, That Southern Baptist churches and institutions repudiate the misuse of insights gained from critical race theory, intersectionality, and any unbiblical ideologies that can emerge from their use when absolutized as a worldview, and be it further


RESOLVED, That we deny any philosophy or theology that fundamentially defines individuals using categories identified as sinful in Scripture rather than the transcendent reality shared by every image bearer and divinely affirmed distinctions, and be it further


RESOLVED, That while we denounce the misuse of critical race theory and intersectionality, we do not deny that ethnic, gender, and cultural distinctions exist and are a gift from God that will give Him absolute glory when all humanity gathers around His throne in worship because of the redemption accomplished by our resurrected Lord, and be it finally


RESOLVED, That Southern Baptist churches seek to exhibit the eschatological promise in our churches in the present by focusing on unity in Christ amid image bearers and rightly celebrate our differences as determined by God in the new creation.