The Gospel is designed to unify. Cultural Marxism is designed to cause division. When Cultural Marxism is propagated in the name of the Gospel, it gets division rather than unity.
Endlessly signaling his Social Justice virtue, Al Mohler commissioned a taskforce at Southern Baptist Theological Seminary to research the slave-holding history of the founders of that institution, which has already been researched and written about extensively and repented for repeatedly.
We wrote about that White Guilt-laden report in our article, Virtue Signaling Southern Baptists Apologize for Slavery for the 1,394th Time.
With the Southern Baptist Convention being in record-breaking decline, one might think SBC seminaries would be busy focusing on teaching evangelism and focusing on baptism figures. Instead, they’re implementing taskforces to study 160-year-old sins that have been endlessly repented of.
Make no mistake about it and have no misconceptions. There is no major momentary tragedy or crisis that leads Al Mohler and so many other Social Justice liberals in evangelicalism to focus so heavily on racialism. They are just children of their age and influenced more by the current
No such luck. Instead, they’re demanding reparations.
Wendell Griffen, a Baptist pastor and Arkansas judge wrote at Baptist News Global:
We should also not ignore or excuse the seminary’s refusal to commit to
engage in reparations and restitution for more than 150 years of systemic racial injustice practiced, preached and taught under the guise of preparing people for careers in pastoral ministry, religious education, missions and theological study as followers of Jesus…Rather than commend Mohler and the authors of the study, we should remind them what John the Baptist said about the need to “bear fruits worthy of repentance” (Luke 3:8).
While Mohler, Dever, Duncan, Moore and the Evangelical Intelligentsia are telling us that Social Justice is a “Gospel issue,” it seems that the only people really forsaking the Good News of the New Covenant are those insisting upon reparations.
You see, the New Covenant under which the Gospel provides the means of our salvation by faith – also known as the Covenant of Grace – tells us that one of the results of Christ’s work is that children will no longer be held accountable for the sins of their father.
29 In those days they shall no longer say: ‘The fathers have eaten sour grapes, and the children’s teeth are set on edge.’ 30 But
everyone shall die for his own iniquity. Each man who eats sour grapes, his teeth shall be set on edge. – Jeremiah 31:29-30
There are words for those who demand a monetary payment in order to grant forgiveness for the sins of one’s father…robbers, thieves, and immoral swindlers, greedy for filthy lucre, and unforgiven themselves (Matthew 6:15).
The lesson from Mohler’s blunder is that such overtures won’t earn applause from the intended audience, but only from the peanut gallery who are already convinced he walks on water. What Mohler’s white-guilt taskforce teaches us is that you shouldn’t negotiate with terrorists.
Sooner or later, we will have a discussion about the sin of black Christians who refuse to forgive. When will someone look at the black Christian of slave ancestry and tell them that to not forgive, when forgiveness is asked, is a sin just as real as slavery?
Refusing to forgive – and holding forgiveness ransom in exchange for extortionary payment – is a gross sin, and God hates it. It is, for lack of a better term, akin to simony.
Griffen continued:
Repentance will require the seminary’s leaders and other stakeholders to do much more than admit a history of racism, white supremacy and white religious nationalism. SBTS must – in obedience to what John the Baptist said as well as the example of the tax collector from Jericho named Zachaeus who Jesus confronted (Luke 19:5-9) – pledge to give up the ill-gotten wealth it gained and now enjoys in part because of that wicked history. It is telling that Mohler hasn’t shown any sign that he even considered doing that, let alone that he urged the seminary’s trustees to do it.
Of course, to be comparable to the story of Zachaeus, the Biblical narrative would have had to included an account of Zachaeus’ great-great grandchildren re-paying the debt of their distant relative. Fining someone for what their distant relatives have done and distributing that wealth to people who weren’t personally harmed is hardly “justice.” In fact, it is theft.
Throughout his article, Griffen claims that black people today suffer as a consequence of the actions of SBTS slave-holding founders. Griffen, it should be noted, he is a lawyer, judge, and of a higher socio-economic status than 99% of SBTS students whose tuitions would have to cover the reparations given to Griffen or other black evangelicals as a part of Mohler’s “repentance.”
Ultimately, the reason Christians should be against reparations is the same reason they should be against slavery, and that is because theft is wrong. It is wrong to steal from a man for the same reason it’s wrong to steal a man. And, ultimately, wrong is wrong.
