In a video posted on Vimeo between Al Mohler and several of his protégés at Southern Seminary, during part of the panel discussion, Mohler opens up and fully embraces Critical Race Theory and applies it to the Southern Baptist Convention.
Critical Race Theory (CRT) is a heretical worldview that is incompatible with biblical Christianity. It 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.
In the video below, Mohler says three things that are highly problematic. First, he indicts the entire Southern Baptist denomination of the sin of racism because former Southern Baptist leaders were slave owners who defended slavery in the South. This is problematic because, for one thing, denominations cannot sin — they aren’t human. People sin. If denominations could sin then it seems like the easiest way to resolve the problem would be to dissolve the denomination and start over.
Second, the idea that slavery is evil is a huge problem for Christianity. To declare that slavery, in and of itself, is ipso facto always sinful is to add to the Scriptures. This simply is not a concept that is derived from Scripture. Did slave owners sin? Yes. Were elements of the slave trade sinful? Yes. But that does not mean that every single slave owner in the United States was guilty of sin by the very virtue of being a slave owner? It simply cannot be found in the text.
Third, Mohler — drawing from the Critical Race Theorist Jarvis Williams and his book, Removing the Stain of Racism from the SBC — says that slavery is a “stain” on the denomination that it will carry forever until Jesus returns. This is an outright denial of the power of the gospel to remove the stain of sin. And back to the first point, denominations don’t sin, people do. And Jesus, according to the gospel found in the Scriptures, removes those guilty stains immediately upon repentance and faith. And, as the famous hymn by William Cowper states,
There is a fountain filled with blood
Drawn from Immanuel’s veins;
And sinners, plunged beneath that flood,
Lose all their guilty stains:
Mohler outright denies the efficacy of the cross by embracing this garbage. Mohler has repeatedly said to “look at who he platforms” to find out what he believes. It should now be of no doubt where Mohler stands. Is this who Southern Baptists want as their next president?
