Get ready. A storms brewing.

Clouds of suspicion

I’m especially anxious about this summer’s denominational conventions. As a Christian, a member of the PCA, and a Southerner, my interest in the General Assembly will be intense. The same should be true for Southern Baptists regarding their convention. Get ready. A storms brewing.

There are certain high-profile teachers within these two, mostly Southern denominations who have reacted to polemicists both inside and outside of the Church regarding racial reconciliation. It’s not that racial reconciliation per se is illegitimate. There is no doubt that the African and European descendants in American churches need to be unified.

Their divisive language suggests that some of them would coerce their perspective on the rest of us though. It’s likely that they will attempt to use their office to discipline brothers who disagree with them on issues outside of the scope of the authority of the Church.

The Limit of the Church

The authority of the Church doesn’t cover historical perspective. There is no Kingdom of God that governs a particular view of history. The only Christian view of history is one that views history through a Christian lens.

Ironically, the historical interpretive method of viewing all history through the lenses of race, class, and gender is exactly the method used by these otherwise solid teachers like Duncan, Mohler, Keller, and Moore. That historical hermeneutic is false and I am convinced that they are fooled by its adherents such as historian David Blight.

Polarizing Pastor

I once heard a “pastor” threaten from the pulpit that he would “stomp the Confederate flag” if it was near him. Patience was the better part of our honor because he soon experienced a back door revival.

Dwight McKissic is a propagator of that vile rhetoric as well. He is the pastor of Cornerstone Baptist Church in Arlington, TX and the author of several resolutions in the SBC regarding Confederate symbols.

McKissic is calling for disfellowship of SBC members who are “proud of their Confederate heritage”. He justifies his position semantically by using phrases like Confederate heritage and alt right synonymously. To do so is deceptive. It is the worst case of the fallacy of unwarranted assumption. This preacher purposely assumes that all people who are concerned about the honor of their Confederate ancestors have the same views about race. Not only does his argument require such a false premise, he also assumes that all of those folk have the same view as a Nazi skinhead.

Pastor Dwight McKissic divides the SBC with false assumptions.

Here’s the rub. He knows better and has been refuted with the truth about this more than once. He knows of examples of African-Americans who love their Confederate heritage and he knows of European descendent men and women who sit in the pews of SBC churches and love their African-American neighbors. Many of these same people also love their Confederate ancestors and he is aware of that. Pastor McKissic is a liar and a deceiver who espouses untruths and has deceived many well-meaning folk who would otherwise seek reconciliation apart from his lies.
Why does he seek disunity? Why does he coerce church leaders to fear the consequences of his rhetoric? Why does he assume the worst about God’s children?
He is the epitome of the one who sneaks over the walls and destroys the sheepfold (John 10:1).

Make no mistake. McKissic is intentionally divisive. Disfellowshipping entire local churches from the SBC merely because they won’t excommunicate folks who he disagrees with in a matter of US history is ludicrous. Crazy or not, the threat is real. If you’re one of those people or churches, get ready. A storms brewing.

 “Be sober-minded; be watchful. Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour. Resist him, firm in your faith, knowing that the same kinds of suffering are being experienced by your brotherhood throughout the world.” (1 Peter 5:8–9, ESV)