[Sioux City, Iowa] Dave Miller, aka The Company Man™, is a 2nd Vice President of the Southern Baptist Convention, an office typically reserved for non-celebrity pastors. Think of it as “throwing a bone” to the little guys, while most other major offices are staffed by denominational superstars and major conference speakers. Miller is the owner-operator of SBC Voices, a group blog that use to discuss primarily Southern Baptist issues. Lately, the website has focused on promoting the Social Justice movement and has widened its repertoire to various aspects of wokeness that extend past the boundaries of the Southern Baptist Convention. Since jumping on the liberal-progressive bandwagon, SBC Voices has suffered a tremendous blow in their readership, down from about 70k on Alexa rankings to more than 200k (that’s bad…that’s really bad). In spite of losing their readership because Southern Baptist laymen and small-church pastors don’t want to be a part of the liberalization of the denomination, Miller and SBC Voices have persisted in the type of Useful Idiocy for which they are best known. Now, Miller has called for the exclusion of Caucasians from the SBC hiring process for at least one if not several more of its entities.
Nothing says “racism” like excluding someone from a position because of the color of their skin, amiright?
Miller argues that the SBC is at a “crucial juncture” to fills its open entity positions with minorities. He also argues that time is fleeting, and the SBC needs to do it quickly before it runs out of time. Demonstrating a special kind of stupid, Miller claims that the “push-back against efforts at racial reconciliation” provides just the opportune time to punish some people for their ethnicity and reward others for their ethnicity. Oblivious to any facts regarding what these words mean, Miller writes obtusely:
There has been recent push-back against efforts at racial reconciliation; pejorative labels such as Cultural Marxism and critical race theory have been thrown around and the use of the phrase social justice has been equated to liberalism and secularism.
Uh, a few things here. To characterize the Dallas Statement on Social Justice and the Gospel as being a “push-back against efforts at racial reconciliation” is grossly and intentionally misleading. None of the drafters and few of the signers of that statement desire anything but racial reconciliation. Our argument, on the other hand, is that segregating people by the color of their skin will not bring racial reconciliation. Marxism doesn’t bring unity, people. It brings conflict. And the fruits of this Marxist ideology has been nothing but conflict since evangelicalism got “woke” last year. What Dave is attempting to do here is label conservatives who believe in color-blindness (like all of the Civil Rights Leaders did) as “racist.” What Dave Miller is attempting to do is nothing different than the frantic, braless, hairy arm-pitted feminists banging on the door of the Supreme Court building the other day. He’s attempting to paint his opponents with the brush of bigotry, just to diminish their opposing point of view.
Those who opposed the TGC-ERLC MLK-50 event weren’t racists. We just didn’t want the SBC venerating a bisexual, whoremongering sex-trafficker and heretic. But again, in Miller’s view, that means we were pushing back against “racial reconciliation.”
Next, the reason why the terms of “Cultural Marxism” and “Critical Race Theory” have been thrown around is because what we’re watching is **literally** Cultural Marxism (that’s a thing) and Critical Race Theory (again, another thing). These terms aren’t “pejoratives” like “moron, dummy, stupid-face, banjo-playing albino” or something of the like. These are actual words with actual definitions that actually describe what’s being promoted by Southern Baptist leaders. Southeastern Seminary is actually promoting Critical Race Theory on its blog, for crying out loud. Timothy Keller, the driving force behind The Gospel Coalition and its takeover of the SBC’s Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission (ERLC), is an honest-to-goodness Marxist and credits Cultural Marxists with his worldview even in his own writing!
Finally, and I’m not sure I need to belabor the point, the reason we have equated Social Justice with liberalism is because it has always been equated with liberalism…always. Dave Miller might be old, but he’s certainly not paid attention to religious affairs outside the SBC for most of his long life. This is nothing new. This is why Albert Mohler opposed Social Justice when he debated Jim Wallis on the subject in 2012 (yes, the same Jim Wallis that now serves on George Soros’ Evangelical Immigration Table with Russell Moore). This is why Russell Moore, prior to 2008, also opposed Social Justice. This is why conservatives have always opposed Social Justice. It’s a Commie term made up by Marxist Jesuits in South America, it ruined the black church in the form of Liberation Theology, took over the mainstream denominations in the United States, and has always been promoted by people like Jim Wallis, Rachel Held Evans, and pretty much any lady preacher with a rainbow cleric smock.
The next major step in racial reconciliation in the SBC will be the hiring of a minority leader for one of our entities. If it doesn’t happen now, in this window of racial angst in America, when there are five entities open, the window may close. The SBC may have charted a course for its own irrelevance.
Somebody tell me, how many steps to “racial reconciliation” are there? The SBC appointed Fred Luter to the SBC presidency for no other reason than the color of his skin (let’s be honest). The SBC appointed the first black Pastor’s Conference president, HB Charles, who then implemented an Affirmative Action quota, choosing minorities as half the speakers. Unfortunately, this led to unqualified men and outright heretics, like Tony Evans, preaching at the event (but he’s black, so his heresies don’t count). The SBC has apologized for their ancestor’s complicity in slavery umpteen-hundred times. Please, do tell, how many steps to racial reconciliation are there? Is there an endgame in sight? When can we consummate our reconciliation?
Dave Miller thinks the SBC will be “relevant” if we appoint as many minorities as possible to SBC entities. He thinks the SBC will be “irrelevant” if it doesn’t appoint as many minorities as possible. I’m pretty sure the Gospel makes a denomination relevant or not, and there is not a hint of Affirmative Action anywhere in Sacred Writ.
If we hire 5 white guys to lead our denominational entities, we may be telling our ethnic brethren, especially the Black community, that they are guests but not partners. They are welcome to participate in our denomination but they should not expect positions of real power and influence. The time is now. If we let this time pass, it may be too late.
Newsflash: If our “ethnic brethren” are upset that entity heads are “white guys,” they’re the racists.
Miller continues:
And please, enough with the, “let’s just get the best man.” Why do we suddenly trot that out when we talk about hiring a minority for a position? Do we assume that minorities are not capable, not the best man? There are some able and willing men in the pipeline with much darker pigment than this Iowa white man has.
First, we have to clarify “best man” because these guys (like Miller) are considering putting somebody in a skirt (or pantsuit) into an entity position. So, insisting that we choose a “man” is, unfortunately, something we have to be clear about. Second, we have been complaining about not hiring the best man for years. This is nothing new that has arisen from the Marxist-instigated race wars of the last six months. Ronnie Floyd has a fire engine baptistry, after all. We complained about him (and he’s white under all that spray-tan). And third, while we agree that there are many qualified “people of color,” we deny that Affirmative Action is the best way to find them. Affirmative Action doesn’t skim the cream at the top, but the sludge off the bottom, and that’s how you wind up with guys like Tony Evans and Dwight Marxissic.
We should never hire an unqualified, incapable man just because he is Black or some other race. That would be foolish. But there are good minority candidates for these jobs. We don’t have to settle, just open our eyes.
Settling is exactly what Miller wants us to do, and we know that from his declaration that there are “good minority candidates.” While this is true, there is no guarantee that the best candidate for each of the five entity openings is a minority. Miller doesn’t want the best candidate, he wants a “good minority candidate.” That is settling, whether he likes it or not.
That’s how logic works.
[Contributed by JD Hall]
