Resolution 9 & Academic Jim Crowism (Part I)
The Reinforcement of Status Quo Politics and the Pathos of Southern Baptist Race Culture
When it goeth well with the righteous, the city rejoiceth; and when the wicked perish, there is shouting. Proverbs 11:10 (KJV)
I have taught in post-secondary education for over 27 years and I am an African American Southern Baptist Pastor with about the same amount of ministerial experience. Having been affiliated with both sides of the political spectrum for most of my life, where there are no distinctions, there can be no superiority, perfect equality affords no temptation. Yet in America, there is an overwhelming temptation to play the race card because it is an easy game to play. I have come to understand the role that propaganda can play in shaping public opinion and it is not an exception in the world of religion; especially when it comes to race. It is true what W.E.B Dubois, Hubert Harrison and other Negro scholars stated when they claimed the color line to be the defining aspect of the 20th Century. Even Thomas Paine when writing about the challenge of the American Revolution, said: Part of America is heaving with the imagery of police brutality and public corruption when it comes to dealing with race. Yet the topic is somehow diverted away from constitutional questions and placed into the realm of social constructs. While police shootings of black men is well documented and historic in nature, the issue of credibility remains a major question when it comes to addressing the validity of the claims made against the government which in times past acted quit discriminatory in its enforcement of law. The alternative question is: Are black people credible in interpreting their own experience or are they untrustworthy or inaccurate in their articulation that police brutality is a part of a broader conspiracy to undermine the rights of all people? Another question: Are black people capable of even representing themselves in any mode of survival? Rather than address the corruption of local governments and seek to eliminate the practice of oppressive governance, the Council of Seminary Presidents; an auxiliary of the Southern Baptist Convention went in another direction that in my opinion side stepped or danced around the issue in a fashion that only James Brown, Elvis Presley or Jackie Wilson could pull off. They did the “Cotton Eyed Joe” and began to invoke the “Red Scare” which is a call from the old Jim Crow Play book when it comes to avoiding the obvious. What infuriates black people, all black people, is the same thing that would infuriate anyone who assumes the practical implication of fair and just laws, but can the Negro be treated justly if he does not have the right to exist in his own sake? Rather than call for the firing of the criminal element within the nation’s police departments and give a clarion call to its churches and members to fight racism and injustice at home, a diversionary tactic was issued at the Southern Baptist Convention in Birmingham which sent the conversation into an area that had nothing to do with the issues that are giving rise to the violence in the streets. When black people call for those things guaranteed under the U.S Constitution, the language dear to all is somehow interpreted to mean that black people are under some socialist influence. For a more clear understanding of the relationship between black liberation and socialism, please read The Crisis of the Negro Intellectualby Harold Cruise.
And the chief captain answered, With a great sum obtained I this freedom. And Paul said, But I was born free. Acts 22:28 (KJV)
It is my opinion that the Southern Baptist Convention and the CSP is not at war with socialism, communism or radical feminism. Instead, the Southern Baptist Convention is at war and in conflict with itself, the flaws of modern evangelicalism and the unscientific, illogical and unreasonable legacy of white supremacy that stained the SBC’s identity at its inception. While I am not shocked or dismayed by the practice of avoidance, denial and dismissal displayed by the Southern Baptist Convention and CSP in its silence in addressing public corruption and the criminal enterprise associated with police brutality; but to associate the invocation of a citizen’s right to protections of the U.S Constitution with a socialist propaganda and respond to such by rendering academic sanctions on faculty regarding the teaching of certain mundane and miscellaneous legal and social theories just because such theories have socialist overtones reeks of academic dishonesty and political maneuvering of the most worldly sort. I don’t even think seminary presidents should have the power or influence to determine what is taught in the classroom. No academy can claim to be unbiased or objective when they restrict the healthy and robust discussion and debate protected by the Constitution. I notice that when certain words are mentioned like white privilege, systemic racism or even slang terms like “woke”, a passive aggressive, micro aggressive posture is assumed by certain Christians as if they have been hypnotized to stop listening upon the pronouncement of these words! How emotional are their reactions to a system well thought out and many don’t know why they detest these words except that they are Marxist. Trust me when we fight against police brutality and white supremacy we use words in the U.S Constitution such as due process, equal protection and freedom which seem to have about as much validity in our culture as the King James Version of the Bible.
“I can’t join you in your praise for the police department”
Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr
Using Martin Luther King’s Letter From a Birmingham Jail as a template, it has been the silence of the church on how to handle injustice that has given rise to the proliferation of doctrines in mainstream media that otherwise could not stand on their own merits. In the middle of the ruckus is the sincere African American petitioner of the court with the bible in one hand and the Constitution in the other waiting to be treated fairly by a government that has been benign to his claims. Before we can inquire concerning the conditions in the black community, we must appreciate the fears of the founding fathers regarding those who will become the object of an oppressive government. We must also examine the relationship between the oppressor and the oppressed from within the terms of colonization to see if the black experience in America is any different than that of other dark-skinned people placed under the burden of colonization. Alexander Hamilton, Thomas Jefferson and others knew that when people are not treated equally in a republic, the result is that the mistreated groups could degenerate into a barbarity. Yet, injustice diminishes a republic entirely. All socialist nations do not come from the ground but spring from the rotten corpses of deteriorated republics. Frederick Douglass, Harriet Jacobs and others noted that slavery caused as much psychological damage to the master as it did the slave. As the slave narrators wrote their accounts, they could not help put illustrate that the more religious a master was the more brutal he was because he had legal as well as religious sanction to brutalize his slave. At this point, we say that America is no better than any other nation when its laws and governmental actions are divorced from reason. What we need is an objective or reasonable theory of values and white supremacy makes this impossible. To be Capitalist, Federalist, Democratic or Republican, one need not be Christian but one must be logical, reasonable and impartial when it comes to the administration of law.
Historically, white police officers were not prosecuted for the injustice done to black men and the same holds true today.
“To talk of friendship with those in whom our reason forbids us to have faith, and our affections (wounded through a thousand pores) instruct us to detest, is madness and folly…” Common Sense, Thomas Paine
This is because prejudice and public opinion motivates the decisions of politicians. It is against those who hide behind Christianity and those who use religion as a moral justification for their selfish political gain that we stand. There have been no calls for socialism in the black community and terms like hegemony, intersectionality and critical race theory have never been the subject of any debates at the grassroots level and any pastor that is among the people in the streets would know this fact. These are terms designated for the academy and are terms of discussion just like any other academic subject. They might work their way into a public conversation but the words by no means have any serious significance when it comes to seeking justice. The problem with so many so-called Evangelicals is that they are emotional, dogmatic and problematic when it comes to addressing real world problems and have no serious inroads into the black community other than the temporal relationships hashed out through impotent ministerial alliances, community boards and trophic reconciliation councils of various sorts. As stated earlier, to be a Capitalist or Republican in a traditional sense, does not even require religious affiliation but to drag all these church folks in government is a disaster waiting to happen and the fears of Jefferson come true. The reason why so many so-called evangelicals have not addressed the real social problems that face our day is because they have no solution worth offering to the people and never had in the past. Some of the most influential “revivals” that have taken place in America were during a time when African Americans were the most persecuted by white supremacy and the claims of spiritual awakening did nothing to help the position of the Negro in their eyes. In my opinion, Evangelicalism is nothing more than a mystic occult wing of the conservative agenda and exists for their own benefit and that is all.
“Usurpation may rear its crest in each State, and trample upon the liberties of the people, while the national government could legally do nothing more than behold its encroachments with indignation and regret. A successful faction may erect a tyranny on the ruins of order of law, while no succor could constitutionally be afforded by the Union to the friends and supporters of the government.” Federalist 21; Alexander Hamilton Wednesday December 12, 1787
It is the social distance that occurs on Sunday morning that causes the problem. Racism will not be done away with within the church until Sunday morning is desegregated and all the racist repent within themselves. Regardless of the mission statements of non-Christian groups like BLM, it is the lack of a mission implementation on addressing government corruptions on the part of the church which makes the platform of so-called leftwing groups in times of crises that much more appealing. Jesus nor His disciples lived in a Republic like ours. They did not have the freedoms that we have today and thank God! Neither Jesus or His Apostles ever backed down from an issue confronting them and we are not acting seditiously when we demand constitutional redress. Jesus Christ and His apostles were wherever the people were and engaged their audiences directly. Jesus responded to the high priest when questioned by him: Have I not taught in the synagogue and the temple and wherever the Jews meet? The Apostle Paul went to the synagogues, lecture halls and town hall meetings disputing, reasoning and opining and alleging concerning Christ. But when his rights were violated by a careless Roman official, he did not hesitate to invoke his rights of due process associated with Roman citizenship! We do the same! When one of us, the least of these are threatened, our experience tells us it is a matter of time before the rights of all are threatened. Southern Baptist are not authorities on anything because they have chosen to isolate themselves rather than directly involve themselves in the lives of the people and call sin, sin. Historically, the civil rights organizations like the Black Panthers and SNCC to name a few were heavily influenced by Marxism but they made friends in the community, lived with, slept with and identified with the sufferings of people. Huey Newton studied Frederick Nietzsche but when Nietzsche shows up with a shot gun quoting the state laws of California it is a problem? Franz Fanon studied Hegel but when Western concepts emerge in the ethos of black liberation that is equally concerning for those seeking to oppress them or deny them justice. My point is that there never would have been a Black Panther Party or a Marxist Party in America had it not been for vicious racism. The black liberation organizations did the work of the evangelist much better than Evangelicals but just for a political cause. Think about it, the Southern Baptist denomination is the largest in America with some of the most influential people and not one Southern Baptist pastor has been asked to speak on public corruption or police brutality or any issue of national concern for that matter. This is because they spend money and program time but have no real link to the people in which they claim to love.
Pastor Robert O. White, II