Critical Race Theory Haunts Southern Baptists, Catholics and other Protestants

 

About 20 years ago there was a castle revolt in the Southern Baptist Convention. Seminary Presidents and denomination office holders were voted out. In came a group of Bible thumping sin condemning air heads who said the denomination would fail unless they took over. But, they were sewing the seeds of failure. Albert Mohler, Jr. was the leader of the revolt and put himself in a high-paying post of a seminary President. Since then, the denomination's numbers have consistently fallen. 

To stem the decline, other Southern Baptist officials recently adopted a statement agreeing with the intellectual concept of Critical Race Theory. This was to offset the denomination's founding which was based on slavery followed by segregation.  Black churches are leaving the denomination and the thinking was that by blaming prejudice on society the church would not look so bad. Critical Race Theory teaches race is a societal problem, i.e., cultures put racism in the heads of children. It stays there into adulthood.

But wait! What if everything the church teaches did not come from the Bible but was a adoption of what was already in society? The entire "Bible-based religion" would be just a bunch of ideas that came from elsewhere, society. Most of Christianity has the same problem.

Now the original cast of characters from the palace coup 20 years ago is trying to stave off a coup against themselves. They issued a statement condemning Critical Race Theory. They prefer to claim Southern Baptist anti black theology was merely a mistake and not a product of the culture at the time. A prominent conservative Methodist recognizes why the old white men of the original coup prefer the "mistake theory" and oppose the Critical Race Theory. 

The link author points out what I wrote about a couple of weeks ago. If society, Critical Race Theory, was the reason for treating black people as inferior, what will be the explanation as to why women are treated as inferior? Is it because of the Bible teaches women are inferior as Southern Baptists have always said? Or could it be simply a reflection of societal values at the time the denomination started. This latter is Critical Gender Theory.  If the denomination's views on both race and gender were not from the Bible but were merely ideas then in the culture and adopted as religious, secular ideas may be the entire denomination and it is not based on the Bible after all. 

We can add to the problem Southern Baptist Convention's condemnation of homosexuality and gender uncertainty. Maybe they, too, were not in the Bible but were secular ideas inserted into religion. 

In the election just past Southern Baptists said the election was about abortion. Abortion is a really interesting "sin" because only a few decades ago the denomination was in favor of abortion rights. Now it has to say it was "wrong" about both race and abortion. If the denomination follows only the Bible how could it have been wrong both of these? Certainly, the door is open that the reason Southern Baptists decided to condemn abortion was money. They saw Catholics bringing in big bucks by condemning abortion-- a back door way of condemning women. 

The old white men must cling to the "mistake theory" and condemn Critical Race Theory because their jobs depend on keeping it out of the Southern Baptist Convention.