If you want to know what it looks like for avowed Marxists, globalists, political idealogues, and their dark money to take over a once-conservative seminary in the name of Social Justice, look no further than South Eastern Baptist Theological Seminary in Wake Forrest, North Carolina. The SBC institution is the epicenter of the ‘woke’ movement in evangleicalism.
Jon Harris, a former student at SEBTS, has led the movement in chronicling the fall of conservatism at the seminary and, more importantly, detailing the infiltration of subversive ideology into the school.
Harris has made an exhaustive (although still incomplete) list of the teachings of the SEBTS “Kingdom Diversity Department) in a pdf and in a video, but we wanted to make the information widely available in long-form in an easily-accessible article at the Rolex of Polemics news sites.
You can find the long-form info below.
PLEASE NOTE: It is lengthy. This is not a news article. This is just the pure dissemination of information, as compiled by Jon Harris. For the sake or organizational clarity, we have divided his evidence into exhibits and summarized each one.
EXHIBIT A1 – Liberation Theology Taught (and Promoted) in SEBTS Curriculum
SEQ CHAPTER \h \r 1Curriculum
Walter Strickland is using liberation authors in class. THE 7940 – Liberation Theologies and THE 4940 – Liberation Theologies
This course examines the form, content and historical development of three types of liberation theology including: Latin American Liberation Theology, Black Theology and Feminist Theology. In addition, the course conducts an exegetical exploration of ‘liberation’ and appropriates it to the contemporary milieu.
Recommended Books
J. Deotis Roberts – Liberation and Reconciliation: A Black Theology
James Cone – God of the Oppressed
Anthony Bradley – Liberating Black Theology: The Bible and the Black Experience in America
Gustavo Gutierrez – A Theology of Liberation: History, Politics, and Salvation
Anne M. Clifford – Introducing Feminist Theology”
Christian Voices on the Cultural Moment: A Collection of Essays by
Southeastern Women on Issues Facing Christians Today
Free Intersect E-book
Human Value and the Pro-Life Ethic by Amber Bowen
“While being a voice for the unborn is a significant part, that issue alone does not encompass the whole of being pro-life…this is true of the unborn child at the earliest stages of development, a child with special needs, a wayward teenager bent on ruining her life, orphans, the homeless, refugees, immigrants, minorities, the elderly.” p. 24.
“Determining a person’s worth based on the choices he or she has made in life is a huge pitfall for American Christians operating under a stronger allegiance to the American Dream than the gospel. We look pharisaical disdain at the homeless people on the side of the road, certain they brought their condition on themselves and are therefore beneath our care and our respect. We do the same for the high school girl who gets pregnant out of wedlock or the middle-aged man suffering from AIDS. We position ourselves to aid in the reaping of what we presume they have sown.” p.27
Why the Church Needs Black Girl Magic by Anteneshia Sanders
“I’ve been the black girl in predominantly white spaces for much of my life. I’m used to standing out from those around me…my skin is dark. The difficulties that come from being a double minority are not lost on me. Most of the time I don’t feel unwelcome, I just feel other. My sense of otherness has only increased in recent years. After events like the murder of Trayvon Martin and Colin Kaepernick’s protests, some sort of chasm seemed to open between me and my white brothers and sisters in Christ…I have found (from sitting at Jesus’ feet) a greater appreciation for who God has created me to be. A growing movement has played an important role in this process. #BLACKGIRLMAGIC. Were you to comb through any social media platform, you would uncover a whole movement of black women celebrating the skin they’re in…they’re pushing back against the idea that the marriage of their melanin and femininity is a novelty. In realizing my blackness and my womanness is a gift, I’ve joined them. The movement has a name: Black Girl Magic p.29-30.”
“The deeper longing is to see the ways that God has wired me and all my sisters for excellence…For the believer, Black Girl Magic is not some manifesto of racial superiority…the celebration of the black woman is not for the sake of division, but for the advancement of the kingdom. The way that women of color are celebrating themselves is the way that the church should be celebrating them too…it is important to women of color to hear fellow believers say “We see you. We hear you. We believe you. We need your gifts. The church needs black girl magic p. 30-31.”
“Not long into my seminary education, I began to question why I had no knowledge of black female theologians. The discovery of Truth’s Table podcast encouraged me in my call…Representation matters p.31.”
“My seminary is steadfast in the pursuit of diversity…I am grateful that my school encourages my pursuit of theological education both as an African American and as a female. It takes this kind of vocal and active advocacy to draw out those who have been historically underrepresented p.31”
“Often we feel like we’re on the outside of evangelicalism looking in. While sometimes uncomfortable and isolating, this offers us a vantage point that allows us to see and hear things that might otherwise go unnoticed by our white brothers and sisters…the voices and insight of black women are vital…p.32.”
“Of course black women are not the only minorities that need to be seen and heard. I can only speak from my own experience and from the experience of those like me p.32.”
“As I attach the hashtag to tweets and photographs, I am thankful for BLACK GIRL MAGIC. I’m thankful for the black women who have lived it in front of me…We are knit together in this skin and we’ve been set apart for good works…Head scarf, coconut oil and all p.32.”
Black Lives vs. Blue Lives: You Don’t Have To Choose by Krystal Wilson
“It happens all too often. I turn on the evening news and cringe at another shooting involving a white officer and black male victim…As the daughter of a retired police officer, a former officer myself and a black woman, I have a unique perspective on these events…Hundreds of people die each year from officer-involved shootings. The majority of those shootings aren’t black, but unarmed blacks are killed at a higher rate than other races p.34.”
“It is time we consider the imbedded systemic racism existing covertly in our society. First, consider the historical framework. In our not-so-distant past, officers were hosting black protestors in the streets, and blacks who were seen as a threat were murdered in alleys or bludgeoned beyond recognition with batons…Of course history alone doesn’t explain the shootings; it merely helps us understand that these issues aren’t recent developments p.34”.
“The media often portrays blacks, particularly black males as dangerous criminals or predators. Society often buys into these perceptions…In many instances, an officer is dispatched to an area because of a citizen’s phone call. Now who observes a young black child playing in a park and assumes he’s dangerous? Who sees a black man sitting at an elementary school and assumes he’s a predator? Or who sees a black man running down the street and thinks ‘criminal’ p. 34.”
“I also know the very real struggle of being black in America. I am all too familiar with the hateful rhetoric and negative treatment of blacks. I’m mindful of how people can expect the worst of blacks, despite their efforts to ‘be a good person.’ I’ve felt the awkward feeling when something is stolen from a coworker and I’m the first person everyone looks at p.35-36.”
“And to say black lives matter doesn’t negate anything; It simply calls attention to what should be true within our larger society but isn’t. Many black Americans would like for others to acknowledge that they cannot be slain in the streets by those sworn to protect them p.36.”
“Unfair sentencing within courts, biased hiring practices and racial zoning and land use all point to larger, structural issues p.36.”
“We need to pray for our broken world, view law enforcement officers as people in need of the gospel…and believe that silence is not an option p.36.”
“Within our churches, we can also intentionally develop deep, healthy relationships with church members that look nothing like us. Elders can speak with their black congregants and other people groups to get their perspectives. Pastors can create spaces in which the body can come together to dialogue about these tragedies p.37.”
Helping the Poor Without Hurting Them by Christy Britton,
“I couldn’t wait to arrive at the Nairobi slums and get busy…Cultural sensitivity involves acknowledging that cultural differences exist between peoples and that one culture is not necessarily better or worse than another p.38.”
Walk in Justice by Brianna Copeland (The author proposes steps to bring about justice that lump together the evils of buying clothes conventionally and eating unethically sourced chocolate with using pornography and caring for orphans.)
“So how do you love justice?…1. Be a conscious consumer…For example, my husband and I have decided to only buy fair trade coffee and chocolate for our home…p.47.”
EXHIBIT B1 – SEBTS Promotes Marxist and ACTUAL NAZI, Martin Heidegger
Feb 02 2016, Embracing Death: Redeeming Martin Heidegger (The Philosophical Blacklist)
From: Mar 28 2017 Series: Heidegger, Derrida and Levinas:
Redeeming the Philosophical Blacklistby Amber Bowen
“Christians have roundly dismissed Heidegger’s voice. But maybe they have dismissed him too quickly. Perhaps he is not saying something all that different from the writer of Ecclesiastes.”
“Heidegger paints a realistic portrait of human life that has many points of agreement with biblical teaching.”
EXHIBIT C – SEBTS Promotes the “Father of Deconstructionism,” Jacques Derrida
Feb 16 2016, Love the Word: Redeeming Jacques Derrida (The Philosophical Blacklist)
From: Mar 28 2017 Series: Heidegger, Derrida and Levinas:
Redeeming the Philosophical Blacklist by Amber Bowen
“Why is it we intuitively think that hearing God’s voice would somehow be superior to reading his word? I believe the best person to help us answer this question is a contemporary, post-structuralist philosopher named Jacques Derrida.”
“Logocentrism is the idea that all forms of thought or meaning are based in an external, transcendental, point of reference.”
“In other words, listening to Derrida’s critiques of logocentrism from a Christian perspective does not require us to reject our belief in Christ as the one who upholds all things. But it does require us to rethink certain philosophical categories that we have inherited more from culture than the Bible.”
“If we simply resign Derrida to the philosophical blacklist, we rob ourselves of a voice pointing out problematic views that have long gone undetected even among Christians. Derrida calls out our preference for speech over writing as unfounded, and he questions our tendency to privilege the immaterial over the material in general. In so doing, he deconstructs an unnecessary hierarchy that even Christians have been carrying that has kept us from understanding the gift of the written word. Derrida’s claim that there is nothing outside of the text helps us affirm there is nothing surer than the text.”
EXHIBIT D – SEBTS Promotes Philosopher Whose Works is Used to Support Black Lives Matter Racialism
Mar 22 2016, Listening to Black Lives Matter: Redeeming Emmanuel Levinas (The Philosophical Blacklist)
“In order to understand Levinas, we have to understand his approach to philosophy. Levinas believes that ethics is the primary plane of human existence and should be the starting point of philosophical thought.”
“Evangelicals are not immune to ‘sameness.’ We may choose churches based on the way they cater to our seasons of life or stylistic preferences. Or, we may think sheltering our kids from conflicting worldviews or lifestyles will strengthen their beliefs.”
“When there is a ‘rupture’ (or disturbance) in our groups, institutions or families, we automatically consider it a threat to be removed. Sometimes we react through flight: We change our friends, switch churches, disown family members or even move to the other side of the railroad tracks. Other times we react through domination: We make the Other, that foreign invader, look and think just like us before we accept him. According to Levinas, when we do this, we impose ‘sameness’ and, consequently, kill the other. Both of these reactions to the Other are violent and oppressive and should be rejected.”
“In his book Totality and Infinity, Levinas offers another description of what an ethical encounter with the Other looks like. His description is based on the necessity of breaking the egoism of the ‘I’: to no longer be centered on ourselves and our own preferences but to create space for another who is different. In order to do this, we need to begin to see the Other not as a threat to our comfortable, encapsulated worlds but as a gift and means for our own growth.”
“Taking on the posture of a listener opens up the incurvature of myself, my closed, self-centered existence. It allows me to see beyond my own world and question my own impact on others. It makes me the receiver, not the dominator, and I become better for it.”
EXHIBIT E – SEBTS Recommends Critical Race Theory Books Promoting ‘White Guilt’ Ideology
10 Books You Should Read for Black History Month; Salmon, Brittany; Jan 31, 2018; reposted in The 10 Most Read Intersect Articles in 2018, by Intersect Staff
“Growing up in a rural all white community, Black History Month was a great excuse to highlight a few of the black experts in whatever class I was in, but that was about the extent of my exposure to topics like the Civil Rights movement and other black heroes. A few teachers took the time to try to chip away at the racial bias in our society, but my understanding of Black History didn’t really take off until college.”
“And as my university presented opportunities to learn and grow, I took them as God slowly opened my eyes to a layer in our societal framework that I had never seen before. Since then, I have attended conferences on multiculturalism and diversity and have become an avid reader on the topic. I’ve been a part of a church that pursued diversifying its staff and congregation in order to better reflect the community.”
“For some of us, listening to minority voices can be more difficult than others. Some live in all white communities with little proximity to black communities. Others of us can become pretty defensive when it comes to the sins of racism and racial bias. Neither of these two excuses justify our lack of engagement in celebrating Black History Month or becoming knowledgeable in the systems of oppression that still plague black communities.”
“…here are few books and resources that I’ve found helpful:
Books
• The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas
• This piece of fiction tells the story of a police shooting…Be forewarned that this book has some strong language.
• Just Mercy by Bryan Stevenson
• The New Jim Crow by Michelle Alexander and Why Are All The Black Kids Sitting Together in the Cafeteria by Beverly Daniel Tatum
• These books explain so much about our history and what current societal norms contribute to the racial divide.
• Letters to a Birmingham Jail: A Response to the Words and Dreams of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr edited by Bryan Lorrits
• In Their Voices by Rhonda M. Roorda
• I’m Still Here: Black Dignity in a World Made for Whiteness by Austin Channing Brown
Children’s Books
• Little Leaders: Bold Women in Black History by Vashti Harrison
• God’s Very Good Idea by Trillia Newbell
Podcasts and Sermons
• Truth’s Table: A Podcast by Black Women for Black Women?Even though this podcast is not designed for white people, I think there is so much we can learn from listening in on these conversations. These are smart, Jesus-loving women with fire in their bones to see Jesus’s name made great.
• Sermons by Thabiti Anyabwile at Anacostia River Church”
“White brothers and sisters, we must repent of our silence and lack of participation in racial reconciliation and restoration within the body of Christ.”
EXHIBIT F – SEBTS Promotes More ‘White Guilt’ Ideology
Feb 06 2018; 7 Steps to Take Today Toward Racial Reconciliation
By Lannie Anderson
All phrases are direct quotes from the article
1. Confront your own sins of racism, prejudice and bias.
It is so ingrained in our society to “other-ize” people who are different from us. Such sins are oftentimes hidden, even from ourselves.
2. Expand your knowledge of history.
You have likely received a whitewashed view of history from grade school and college. By “whitewashed,” I mean that you mainly learned about the history of white Americans as told through the perspectives of white Americans.
3. Expand your knowledge of your context’s history.
Have you ever questioned why “that’s just the way things are” when it comes to racial disparities in your community? Do “white flight” schools exist? Does the company you work for only have white leadership, yet many people of color are employees? Do children of color sit separately from white children in the cafeteria? Is your city a major city for refugee resettlement? What are the stories of indigenous people where you live?
You can find helpful resources with extensive research to help you understand the history behind “the way things are” when it comes to race. For example, if you wonder why Sunday mornings still seem so segregated, read Divided by Faith by Michael O. Emerson and Christian Smith.
4. Listen and learn from people of different ethnicities.
Think about the authors of the books you read. Evaluate what podcasts, music and media you consume. This is especially necessary for the Christian’s spiritual formation. If we will be seated at heaven’s table with people from the east and west, we should not wait until then to learn from our brothers and sisters around the world.
5. Resist the urge to dismiss racial reconciliation as a “political issue” rather than a gospel issue.
6. Resist the urge to also dismiss systemic problems in favor of poor choices.
If the concept of systemic injustices or institutional racism is new to you, do not dismiss it simply because it creates a tension with your view of freewill determinism.
Watch 13th to learn more about America’s history of mass incarceration. Learn about the creation of race as a social construct. Investigate racial disparities in Hollywood and how that affects your perceptions of other ethnicities.
Sit in the discomfort. Ask God for wisdom, openness and empathy when exposed to new information. God did not create you with a fear for complexities, and He will see you through them.
7. Join or start a conversation about racial reconciliation.
Start the conversation if you have not already. For a biblical approach to racial reconciliation, I highly recommend an organization called Be the Bridge, which offers a biblical conversation guide designed to be an “on-ramp” for racial reconciliation in the Church.
EXHIBIT G – Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders Advocate Urges SEBTS Students to “Transcend Politics”
“Preach Justice as the Good Life”; Anyabwile, Thabiti, February 26, 2018.
Address to Southeastern Seminary as part of Adams Lecture Series; key excerpts edited for clarity and recorded on Intersect Webpage
“When we fail to do that, (justice) inevitably things will boil down to a matter of personal preferences. And the good life becomes little more than a baptized version of the American dream.”
“As Evangelical preachers and Christians, I am afraid that we may have all but lost any categories for actual moral uprightness, integrity, equity, righteousness and justice. Those things are small in our conception of what it means to be a person of faith. And beloved, we don’t have to look any farther than the evangelical attachment to our current President to see it. The willingness of some evangelical Christians to support without qualification, justify in every circumstance, and defend without flinching this man despite his gross and flagrant moral failures, reveals a stunning weakness in our understanding of the moral universe and Christian living. A stunning failure….”
“It reveals a soul destroying and terrifying hypocrisy. It reveals a willingness to abandon principle for political power and pragmatism. And that is a result of our preaching — if we have not preached the requirements of justice and equity so clearly as to shape the minds of our people according to God’s word, to rule out such compromise and hypocrisy.”
“We have to preach in such a way that lifts the moral requirements and the moral imperatives of our Lord high above the political and the worldly considerations of the voter and of our family and of our individual preference until our hearts are drawn up to what the Lord calls us to. If we have not made those categories clear in our preaching, we cannot be surprised if we wind up with a people who do not understand justice.”
EXHIBIT H – SEBTS Teaches that Churches – In General – Are Guilty of White Supremacy
Feb. 28, 2018; E069 – What to the Slave is the Fourth of July
This reading and discussion of Frederick Douglass’ seminal speech “What to the Slave is the Fourth of July?” is closing out our Black History Month Spotlight with Kingdom Diversity staffers Phabienne Anderson and Courtlandt Perkins.
10:21: “It definitely shows that liberty or talks about liberty are hollow when not applied to all men….these fugitive slave laws….set up to keep African Americans enslaved to put them into what becomes, you know, our prison system actually…in this kind of life of fear is waiting on the moment when they make a quote unquote misstep in the eyes of the white man and being hurt because of it, being beaten and at times being killed for petty crimes and I say crimes with air quotes with it.”
18:40 (Courtlandt) “I think that Douglass at the end of this speech is hopeful of America…..he could even foresee the day when slavery…there is progress in that, right? It doesn’t serve us well to ignore our historical narrative or play softball with our sin….19:20 there’s things presently that presently are set up that continue to marginalize and disenfranchise people and the systems that are currently in place and the prejudice ideologies that people have, so there are realities that are more individualize and so….within our sphere of influence continue to be advocates of change within our churches and friend groups but also being advocates of change from a structural and maybe political level as well….injustice is real and people are by it daily and we can’t miss opportunities to continue to put a stake in it and not allow for white supremacy or any type of racial supremacy to reign, especially in the church where Jesus reigns.” 20:22
22:03: Courtland: “I think we have to be honest that….most of our history, white supremacy has reigned supreme not only in our churches but from a societal standpoint….”
23:08: What would Douglass say to the American church today?
(Phabienne poses this question in light, she says, of the fall out of the last divisive election cycle, putting American Evangelicalism in the spotlight today. She mentions groups like Black Lives Matter. Male and female equality is mentioned again.)
24:09: (Courtlandt) “As the church, as God’s people….we have to model for the world what it looks like for white supremacy to have no place and not to feel ever comfortable within our churches. Douglass would say to the church….if anyone is supposed to put on a display, a vision for an equality not only between ethnicities but between genders, the church has the best chance to put that on display for the whole world to see.”
25:15: “There is a long history of the church’s complicity in these issues, in these injustices….”
EXHIBIT I – SEBTS Teaches ‘Black Power’ From Themes of ‘Black Panther’ Movie
April 2, 2018; E071 – Gospel Reflections from Wakanda
Phabienne Anderson discusses the impact and gospel parallels of the movie Black Panther with Courtlandt Perkins.
Courtlandt and Phabienne give rave reviews for the movie. They describe it as“moving, inspiring and…beautiful” and consider it a great “cultural moment.”
14:58: A shift in the podcast discussing how inspiring it is to see men and women as equals in the movie. Phabienne mentions a parallel scene where a male character and female character are fighting at the same time in separate locations. 15:07 “They are just doing the same thing and….neither one has to demean the other in order to show they are capable and strong….”
15:17: “I know in America the history, I mean historically in the world since Adam and Eve, men and women’s relationships have been broken….and in America it has been seen in a patriarchal setup….it’s just good to see what it can look like [she is referring to the fictitious movie Black Panther] where men and women are equally powerful, equally skilled….”
27:00: Discussion revolves around the need for the church to feature more “faith leaders of color that need to be rediscovered” they mention a systematic theologian Charles Octavius Booth and how we need to read him because he is an under represented minority in theology. We need to feature under represented people as faith heroes.
EXHIBIT J – SEBTS Says the Gospel as a Tool for Oppression
June 21, 2018; Kingdom Diversity Philosophy of Education
I recommend reading the Philosophy of Education in its entirety; it is very telling.
“The Kingdom Diversity Initiative has enhanced our institution’s educational philosophy by uncovering voices that have been historically underrepresented, misrepresented and ignored. Theological traditions are shaped as much by what they exclude as by what they include, and faith traditions are no exception…..The KDI sponsors a range of informal and formal events to expose students to a wide range of voices whose influence, whether through absence or presence, has shaped how Christians in general and southern Baptists in particular, understand the gospel and its implications. This approach means we engage voices with whom we do not and should not agree entirely. Just as we can learn fro orthodox Christians with whom we may differ in some particulars, we can also learn from figures outside of orthodoxy, or even outside Christianity altogether, without endorsing or adopting those views we find objectionable.”
“The gospel is the good news of Christ’s death and resurrection on our behalf. But the gospel, in the hands of fallen humans, has been used for bad and good purposes alike. Christians need a nuanced grasp of how their faith has been used paradoxically to justify and abolish slavery, to withhold and champion civil rights, to perpetuate and battle racism, to subjugate and empower women, to colonize and liberate nations, to encourage and challenge the love money.”
EXHIBIT K – Jay Z and Beyonce Used as Exemplars in SEBTS Political Correctness
December 20, 2018, “The Half Education of Jay-Z; Jenay, Yana; June 19, 2018; reposted on: “Intersect, Editor’s choice: My 10 favorite articles of 2018″ By: Yana Conner
“When I first heard Jay-Z’s new album ‘4:44,’ I was like, ‘Yes! Jay-Z is back! Finally!!!’ From the first track until the last, I was captivated by his no-nonsense humor and honest self-reflection.”
“Jay-Z opens his album with a song called, ‘Kill Jay-Z’. It’s like he knows that before he can get into the album, he has to address his infidelity to the incomparable Queen B, Beyonce Giselle Knowles-Carter. So, after a long period of silence, Jay-Z speaks. However, his words aren’t addressed to us or even to Beyonce. Instead, he addresses his own soul and calls himself to die.”
“Kill Jay Z, They’ll never love you? You’ll never be enough, let’s just keep it real, Jay-Z…You had no father, you had the armor…But you gotta daughter, gotta get softer…Die, Jay-Z…You almost went Eric Benet…Let the baddest girl in the world get away…I don’t even know what to say…(Homie), never go Eric Benet…Nah, Jay-Z…Bye, Jay-Z”
“By the end of this song, Jay-Z had me all in my feelings considering my own brokenness and the ways. I, too, need to die to the approval of others, self-preservation and the “ugh” of my soul that causes me to act out and seek comfort in old habits. I love this song. It’s a human song. It’s a song about brokenness.”
“Though Jay-Z models for us how to confess one’s shortcomings, he fails to leave us with a pathway towards change…King David wrote a similar song. After his indiscretions with Bathsheba…”
“…we, like Jay-Z, need to do the heavy lifting of honest self-evaluation.”
“I was critical of Jay-Z. But as I worked on this piece, I discovered that I am Jay-Z.”
EXHIBIT L – SEBTS Teaches Privilege-Shaming
July 23, 2018; If We Want to Love the Poor We Must Be Near Them; Lavi, Annie, Intersect
“I am one of the worst of all sinners when it comes to relating to those populations.”
“While I so badly want to put on a front that I have treated everyone with dignity and respect, the truth is I have not. I have been a hypocrite to the core, and I have begged God for his forgiveness.”
“He heard our stories, listening patiently through the good and the bad, like he did with the woman at the well”
“His example is plain before us, that we are made not just to pray for the poor, sick and broken people of the world, but to physically go to them in our own communities. We are supposed to stand next to them: to listen to the stories, to help heal the broken and to empathize.”
“Jesus absolutely calls us to care for the poor, but for my entire existence, I have been taught to live my life almost completely separate from that group of people. I was taught to desire to live in a different part of the city, thereby attending different churches and shopping at different stores than the people who are on the lowest economic rung. I can live an entire life in a community without truly interacting with what is going on with the bottom 10% of the population, and it has been killing my compassion for them. I’m learning that we cannot care about the people that Jesus wants us to care about when we live our lives separately from them. In order to listen, heal and empathize, we need to humble ourselves and go, physically putting ourselves in their worlds, just as Jesus did in ours. If we want to love the poor, we must be near them.”
EXHIBIT M – SEBTS Defends Pro-LGBTQ ‘Revoice’ Conference
“My Hope for Spiritual Friendship and Revoice; Burrus, Gene, August 22, 2018; Intersect
“This summer, a conference for same-sex attracted (SSA) and gender dysphoric Christians stirred up quite a bit of controversy in the Evangelical World.”
“Let’s begin by considering the pain and suffering of its participants.
Few of Revoice’s critics have acknowledged the painful experiences recounted during the conference. During the conference, I noticed disparaging comments on Twitter; one individual mocked Revoice’s attendants as “limp-wristed.” I have also yet to see a critique of Revoice that acknowledged two painful experiences Nate Collins, one of Revoice’s founders, had in seminary. Having experienced similar episodes, many involved with Revoice feel stigmatized and rejected by conservative evangelicals.”
“Eventually, GCN (Gay Christian Network) started an annual conference. Most GCN participants (Side A) affirmed same-sex marriage and the permissibility of same-sex intercourse. A smaller minority (Side B), argued against the permissibility of same-sex marriage of same-sex intercourse. The two sides were united in their distrust of Exodus’s psychological theories and in owning the reality that they were still same-sex attracted. Following secular culture, they used terms like “gay” to communicate their experience.”
“Ron Belgau, another former Southern Baptist, was one of the side B proponents; he later founded the blog Spiritual Friendship. Spiritual Friendship emerged as an alternative voice to the Side A-dominant GCN, and Revoice emerged this year as an alternative to GCN Conference (now Q Christian Fellowship) for Side B adherents. To many on the evangelical scene, I’m sure it seems as if Revoice represents a progressive shift. However, in the context of its GCN origins, Revoice was a shift toward a conservative sexual ethic.”
“…we should be encouraged when participants like Kyle Keating welcome feedback on their weaknesses saying, ‘the conference desperately needs good-faith critics who can offer valuable pushback in places where it has gone too far affirming either the spirit of the age or a spirit of self-righteousness.’”
“When SSA people like Ed Shaw live out our conservative beliefs about sexuality, our sexual ethics become living arguments.”
“Adding the modifier ‘celibate’ eases the difficulty but excludes the same-sex attracted who are married.”
“Overall, I hope Revoice will help the same-sex attracted flourish in their churches, not just in a sexual ethic.”
“Notice that Revoice’s mission statement reveals that many same-sex attracted Christians often feel unsupported, discouraged and weakened in their journey to the kingdom of God.”
“The marginalization these Christians feel and experience should cause us all to think about how we can make our churches safer for confessions of sin and weakness.”
“It’s important conservative evangelicals support, encourage and empower the same-sex attracted to follow Christ.”
“To this day, no SBC denomination office exists solely to equip churches in their ministry to the same-sex attracted or gender dysphoric.”
“I hope Christians will learn to disciple and care for their own with greater
“I hope the stakeholders in Revoice will one day find churches so full of love and truth that they see no compelling reason to keep offering this conference. Until then, denominations, churches and para-church ministries have a significant and rewarding work ahead of them.”
EXHIBIT N – SEBTS Promotes Critical Race Theory, Says “Color Blindness is the Problem”
October 2018, 6 Part Series; Is Critical Race Theory Un-Christian?
By Dr. Matt Mullins (Assistant Professor of English and History of Ideas/Associate Dean for Academic Advising)
“The difference between CRT and these other epithets is that most Christians, like most people in general, have probably never heard of it at all, much less know anything about it.”
“CRT is a complex system of beliefs.”
“Many Americans believed that the solution to the persistence of racism moving forward was to adopt a colorblind theory of race. In other words, many believed that the best way to right the wrongs of oppression and discrimination was to pretend not to see color at all. But one does not fix a four-hundred-year-old problem by closing one’s eyes and pretending it is no longer relevant.”
“New and more insidious forms of racism (mass incarceration, “broken-windows” policing, tearing down social safety nets) were taking the place of the blatant forms that had become socially unsavory. These subtler forms of racism were often the result of legislative and judicial action carried out under the banner of colorblindness, but which disproportionately affected people of color. CRT emerged in the worlds of political activism and academic legal studies in response to this idea of colorblindness to offer an alternative theory of race.”
“At its core, CRT holds that race and racism are woven into the very fabric of our society. Racism is not merely how one person feels about another. It is built into the foundations of culture, including in our laws, our customs, and our arts/entertainment. CRT seeks to expose and challenge this racism.”
“Racism is construct” – “To understand race is not to understand anything about the biological reality of skin color, but to understand how specific values, characteristics, and narratives have become associated with different colors in different contexts over time. Race is nurture, not nature.”
“Racism is structural” – “Remember, since race is a social construct for CRT, whiteness is not primarily about the color of one’s skin. Whiteness is a system of values, characteristics, and narratives that have been assigned to lighter skin.”
“Colorblindness is a Problem, not a Solution” – “Interest Convergence, not Pure Progress-But Bell claimed that the ruling did not simply represent progress. Instead, he insisted that this
landmark decision was reached because ending segregation was in the best interest of the
dominant culture, not because it was truly just, fair, or best for minorities.”
“Whiteness is Normative”- “Benjamin Franklin maintained that the Germans were too “swarthy” to be white! And yet, over time these folks have become white, not because their skin color has
changed, but because they have assimilated into the values associated with whiteness.
This is where skin color is important. Such assimilation was impossible for people of African
descent no matter how completely they adopted the values associated with whiteness because
they were easily recognizable based on the color of their skin.”
“Intersectionality” – “Proponents of CRT who study intersectionality typically believe that people living at the intersection of multiple oppressed identity categories face unique forms of discrimination that require equally unique forms of defense.”
“Expand History”- “Proponents of CRT are committed to telling a more complete story of United States history than many of us learned in school.”
“Critique Colorblindness”- People in a wide range of professions whose work is informed by CRT focus on revealing how stories, laws, customs, and decisions that seem to be neutral, or colorblind, are actually built on assumptions about race.”
“Make the Legal System Fairer”- “Proponents of CRT working in the legal profession or committing time to activism often focus on exposing disparities in policing, sentencing, and incarceration that disproportionately affect people of color.”
“Advocate for Voting Rights” – “Whether it be through trying to restore voting rights for those convicted of crimes, fighting laws that make voting more difficult, or battling the gerrymandering of voting districts, Critical Race theorists are committed to fighting the disenfranchisement of minorities.”
“Change Speech Norms-Ranging from hate speech to microaggressions,” “CRT sees speech as a vital part of both perpetuating and battling racism. Hate speech is a category of speech that serves no other purpose than to demean and harm.”
“CRT is obviously not committed to the basic doctrines of sin and salvation briefly outlined above, and for that reason it is not strictly Christian. But neither is a strong belief in the free market or a passion for environmentalism, and these are systems of belief that many Christians hold alongside their Christianity. The question is whether or not Christians can hold to the core doctrines of Christianity and to any/all of the principles of CRT.”
“My own view is that CRT provides Christians with helpful lenses through which to view the problem of racism. I cannot see racism as a merely individual problem.”
“Unlike Marxism, which sees such disparities in terms of class, CRT views the wealth gap as a structural legacy and present reality of racism.”
“We have a long history of ‘plundering the Egyptians’ in this way, as Augustine famously said.”
EXHIBIT O – SEBTS Compares Calls Black People in Predominately White Churches “Oreos”
Oct. 2nd, 2018 Can Minority Christians Thrive in White Evangelical Spaces:
In this video Walter Strickland speaks with Dr. Carl Ellis at Southeastern. (All quotes are from Ellis.)
5:00: It’s interesting my first pastorate. All the black members had come to consciousness in a white environment. . . So they thought I was some kind of moderate, not realizing I was just as liberal as they were but I was shooting with a laser beam and not a shotgun.
5:45 “An African American cannot thrive in a white evangelical space if that space is entrenched in white evangelical culture . . . The only way I could survive in a situation like that is to be totally assimilational to white culture… in doing that I can say that I’m surviving but I can’t say I’m thriving . . . someone is sill going to call me the N-word somewhere along the line.”
7:22 “In some of my circles people talk about the regulative principle for worship, that our worship be governed by scripture. Ok I agree with that but then how they define that, that it’s gotta be quiet and this and that and the other, and I say ok fine, what do you do when, if you’re going to let the scripture regulate worship, what do you do when the scripture tells you to shout, to dance or whatever? So what happens is that the regulative principle is more governed by culture than it is by scripture.”
9:13: Ellis talks about “visionaries” and “reactionaries.” Visionaries have to “root out” reactionaries or concert them. Suggests reactionaries are possibly not saved. Visionaries need to create a “safe space.”
14:00 – 15:30 “People who live in the dominant group. . . The systems function better for them then they do in the sub dominant group. . . They had a distribution system in the early church. The system broke down when it came to the sub dominant group- the Greek widows. . . [the apostles] knew they didn’t have the know how because they were part of the dominant group so they appointed seven Greek deacons. . . You don’t hear the Jewish widows complaining about reverse discrimination.”
19:54: “If you’re going to have any value to the institution (white spaces/churches) in the first place you’ve got to be conversing with your own culture. You cannot be totally cut off from your own culture and just be like an Oreo. (Compares reactionaries to those who are “ever learning and never able to come to a knowledge of the true truth.”)
22:20: “There are people in the oppressed community”.
EXHIBIT P – SEBTS Promotes Liberation Theology
Oct. 5, 2018; Liberation and Reconciliation: A Black Theology, A Critical Review
– “White believers benefit from liberation theology as participants in the diverse Kingdom of God. Learning from a black theologian, who offers a diverse perspective, helps white believers critique their cultural perspective which has been seen as normative.”
– “Since white American culture is rooted in racism, liberation theology helps eradicate that which is culturally sinful and creates division in the body of Christ.”
EXHIBIT Q – SEBTS Promotes Heretic, James Cone
Oct. 15, 2018; E075 – Remembering James Cone; Part II
Courtlandt Perkins follows up the previous discussion, focusing on the thought of James Cone and his value for Evangelicalism with Dr. Walter Strickland.
(All quotes from Strickland)
17:03: “For the evangelical let’s do, see or have an understanding of the temporary implications of the faith, but it can’t be dislodged from the eternal significance for the salvation of our souls. And also for what we’re going to see in the kingdom, so I think the evangelical would do well to hear the voice of Dr. Cone in drawing us toward the reality that the gospel, the resurrection of Christ has implications for the hear and nowbut make sure we don’t lose the eternal realities of the gospel as we begin to balance and have a wise appropriation of temporal a the sort of eternal.”
18:07: “Trying to understand that Dr. Cone was one who wanted to see social vitality of the gospeland that’s well and good but that also needs to be balanced with the spiritual vitality of the gospel. I think that evangelicals do well to have a spiritual vitality. Evangelicals are people who do devotional readings, scripture memory and bible study ,and I say they, but I mean we do those things very well. We fast and we pray and that’s fantastic but that person needs to hear the voice of Dr. Cone beckoning us to the fact that, that person is the one who is best suited to do the work of the social implications, the social outworkings of the gospel and understands the brokenness of creation from scripture and go about fixing it under the Kingdom that’s to come.”
kingdomdiversity.sebts.edu/index.php/2018/10/15/remembering-james-cone-part-ii/
EXHIBIT R – SEBTS Discourages Interracial Adoption
October 15, 2018; Episode 83. Interracial Adoption
Dr. Matthew Mullins has a conversation investigating God’s heart for adoption, the motives for adopting interracially, and shares a personal adoption story with Courtlandt Perkins.
19:23 “We were raised as white kids in America and grew up in white relatively middle-class households, not in a big city in the South, in an evangelical church that was predominantly white and essentially that’s another way to say we were raised as white kids. And so we (him and his wife) only know how to raise kids as white kids. And so (laughing) our kids (their adopted kids) are not white. And so we had this moment of reflecting and looking at each other like oh, are we raising our black kids like they were white kids?”
20:50 “And we had this moment like wow. Our kids are the only black kids in every room they walk in. Sometimes there’s an exception but we are just by, not anything bad we’ve done or evil intent or anything, but out of naivety, and then the kind of privilege of not having to think about things that comes with being from a dominant culture wherever you’re from, we realized like oh, we’re raising them just the same way our parents raised us, not that we wanted to change those values, and so it wasn’t that we wanted to do something less than what our parents had done but we realized that oh we need to do something a little bit more because our parents had biological kids and raised them like biological kids , and we have adopted kids and we need to raise them like adopted kids.”
22:00 “We looked around and realized we were raising black kids like they were white kids.” He says this because according to him they were around many white people. His solution was to take his family from what he called a very biblically solid church to a church that had more black people.
33:00- “I mean think reflect Do you live in a place, this is a tough one. Do you live in a place in which there is not a significant minority community? There are places in the United states that are overwhelmingly black. There are places in the US that are overwhelmingly Latino. There are places in the US that are just overwhelmingly white. If you live in the middle of a place that is just overwhelmingly white and there’s hardly any people of color where you live at all in your town; This sounds like a harsh thing to say, but you probably should not adopt a non-white kid. And this goes back to that form that everyone’s going to have to fill out if you want to adopt. And we’ve talked to other couples about this given our experience, and if you’re gonna move to the middle of some place where it’s all white folks and you’re filling out this adoption checklist and it says, what races are you open to? I think white folks struggle with guilt. They feel guilty you know, If they say I’m only going to check the box that’s says I’m open to adopting a white child, but it would be much better for your kids if you are going to only be able to, because of where you live, because of who your friends are, because of what you can and can’t change in your life. If you’re going to raise these kids like white kids, that’s not bad, that’s not wrong and that’s not evil at all, but you should adopt white kids! (he laughs) and I say that because someone is probably in the middle of a town somewhere really thinking about adoption and wanting to bless a child , be blessed themselves, do God’s will and care for the orphan and the widow and you’re thinking, man, I gotta check this box that I’m open (to adopting) to any race or I’m a racist. Nooo it might be much worse for a young black child if you were to bring them in the middle of a context in which they’re never going to have any interaction with any other black folks because that means something in the United States, so I would encourage you, really take inventory of your life and if you’re’ willing to make big changes in your life then this could be something that you could prayerfully consider and pursue but if you’re not willing and that’s ok, not willing to make these huge changes or maybe you’re not in a position to do so then you should be very hesitant um and circumspect about adopting across those racial lines.”
EXHIBIT R – SEBTS Promotes Heretic, James Cone
Oct. 28, 2018; E074 – Remembering James Cone; Part I
Courtlandt Perkins discusses the life of James Cone
and his value for evangelicalism with Dr. Strickland.
2:07- “James Cone is hands down the most influential African American theologian in history And there is really no comparison. There have been other voices that were important but he is the leading figure and it’s almost like if you’re an African American, if you are doing black theology, either way it’s almost as if you have to interact with James Cone even if you depart with the way in which he did his theology. He basically was the architect who built the theological scaffolding for black theology and was the precedent for everyone who does academic theology from African American perspective or an African American context so he really is that person that if you’re an African American Theologian proper, that you need to be able to spar with you know for better or for worse however you end up doing that in order to be someone to enter into the conversation.”
5:30 “He was a precedent for many African American scholars as a black face in a white space so to speak, so even for myself who is at a predominantly white institution who looks to diversify our own cultures and experiences we are looking to develop on campus he’s someone I can look to as a precedent.”
7:07- (Responding to a question. Why should evangelicals care about Dr. Cone?) Strickland – “So despite having some theological departures with Dr Cone including his understanding of the atonement the authority of scripture and some of the ethical implications of the Christian faith there is still much to be learned from his legacy. And so often times we have to understand that we listen to others not that we agree with them 100% but there’s something that we can learn about the conditions in their life that might help us to be better ministers and to minister to them meaningfully in their environment and so as you read Dr Cone. If you agree with him theologically or not what you can do is understand more about the people who are in the places of where he is coming from. That his talking about the context where he is theologizing from, you can actually hear the cries of those people in his theology, and again, if you agree with his constructive conclusions and where we should go or his ethical implications or not you can still hear the cries of the people that are in need of being ministered too. And so um that’s why evangelicals should care about Dr Cone … care about his theological work because there is that clarion call in his writing and tone it is loud and clear. He leaves no buts about it. He says this is where I’m coming from this is the pain that people are feeling so there is much oppression that I think we can all agree about and then there’s some need for liberation here. He (Cone) can then help us identify what that is. He says we need to listen to those voices then minister to them.”
9:30 –“What has Dr. Cone meant to me? One, as I was mentioning a moment ago he’s a precedent as a systematic theologian we really hadn’t seen someone who waves that banner that vocational banner in African American you know trappings so he is a precedent for me personally because he’s the first one to sort of break through that barrier to be able to go into that environment where he was a minority and then still not lose the uniqueness of his cultural background. … 10:39 Secondly, he really allowed me to be a whole person and undertake the task of theology, so this is more of an inward reality, so there’s sorrows, there’s joys, there is pain, there is struggle that is unique to being black in America because we live in a racialized environment where blackness endures unique difficulty. So prior to the work of James Cone, putting this into theological categories there wasn’t really much precedent in theological, I mean there was this precedent, you know talking about the black preaching tradition, there was this precedent talking about the negro spiritual , to have that sort of prophetic lament reality but it had never been put into theological categories, and Dr. Cone did this in a profound way so he allowed me to say you know what? The standard cares that people came to the theological task with are not just the ones God cares about. He cares about the pains and the excitement and the struggles and the joys about all of our experiences because he’s that big of a Lord over all….
12:24: He allowed me to see , you know, there are questions that arise from your experiences that you then bring to the biblical text, you then grapple with the text to see how it answers the questions brought to it and then you take those answers out and you try to embody them, live out Christ in that environment which raises the questions. And so this sort of process, this sort of circle. Now granted Dr Cone and I would have a lively conversation about where the authority is in that. You know, me looking primarily to scripture to shape that cyclical pattern but you know he would, he freed me up to say I can bring the situations that are outside of what dominate culture theologians would write about to the scripture. And that’s actually a valid reality even though Dr Cone and I, we would split, part ways at certain points.”
14:05 “Dr Cone opened my eyes to the idea that Christ is trying to restore brokenness, you know, and he really had a focus on that brokenness manifesting as oppression racially speaking. He showed me that you know God is after redeeming the brokenness in society through the work of Christ. So as Dr. Cone almost sees the implications of the gospel as the totality of the gospel it would seem; at times I sort of am looking at you know this big umbrella of God’s redemption and seeing it both as individual and social because Christ said it himself to his disciples, that a summary of the gospel is not to bifurcate (split) loving God and loving neighbor but it is to love God and neighbor… Dr Cone allowed me to see a new vista, a new space, a new avenue to allow the gospel to be made manifest. So I sort of look at what the gospel is doing as a more broad reality now. Not that I’ve switched the spiritual for the physical or the social but both.”
15:25- “As a professor Dr Cone really saw his role as a discipler. He was prophetic, he was prolific in his writings.”
18:40 “For me I can follow James Cone into this new theological space but still there’s room enough In that space to do it with my own theological convictions my own theological presuppositions and then there’s lots of diversity in that mix.”
EXHIBIT S – SEBTS Denounces “Individualistic Christianity,” Promotes Liberation Theology
Nov. 28, 2018; Theological Language & Ethnocentrism: A Commentary on Acts 10
– ” Failing to apply a more holistic approach to the term justice ignores biblically supported and theologically rooted justice for minorities and immigrants at best and denies it at worst.”
– ” While belief requires movement in the heart and mind, white ethnocentric repentance has allowed it to stop there.”
– ” A weak theology of repentance supports a individualistic Christianity because it remains focused on individual transgressions not systemic or societal transgressions. Doing works in keeping with repentance is not emphasized much beyond personal spiritual disciplines. Applying the word repentance to American society at large shifts this act from individual to societal and jumpstarts expanding the Christian’s view on the scope that actions can demonstrate repentance. A correct application will also actively tear down the structures of ethnocentricity in Christianity as the church seeks to repair the damage done from the sinful construct of race.”
– ” The multiethnic church in America can expose the white ethnocentric terms that have supported white supremacy over the decades.”
EXHIBIT T – SEBTS Promotes Socialism in the Name of Social Justice
December 20, 2018; “Reclaiming Gospel Justice”; Copeland, Brianna; reposted on: “Intersect, Editor’s choice: My 10 favorite articles of 2018”,
“If Christians who are engaged in active social justice (like me) are not trying to push a socialist politic, or shame white men or drop evangelism, then what is this really all about?”
“The social justice movement is a reclaiming of the gospel-justice that has always been a part of the very nature of God and of his people. It is a gospel justice that we are after, and it is in the very acts of doing justice that we find opportunities for to preach the gospel to some of the most broken and vulnerable.”
“This is exactly what Jesus did for us. Jesus entered into the world, the time and the skin of a people that was completely unlike him so that he could love us well and share his good news of justice.”
“Justice can never be divorced from the gospel because the gospel is the supreme act of justice.”
“The tension between sharing the gospel and seeking justice is really no tension at all—the connection between the gospel and justice are inextricably tied together, and in fact, cannot be separated. The gospel is the greatest act of justice for all time because it is in the gospel we find Jesus justifying all things.”
“Jesus lived justly, obedient to the Father to the point of death on a cross so that the sins of the world would be made right…This is the gospel, and this is ultimate justice. We cannot share the gospel without speaking of justice…”
“…since we have been justified we desire to see all things made right by the power of Christ. It is by this same power that we are enabled by the Spirit to walk in justice and to share the justice and hope of the gospel.”
“In creation, we see that God intended a world where there was no injustice.”
“God…lived out justice in Jesus—and he promises that it will win in the end.”
“Justice is who God is. Since we are a people who profess his gospel, it should be who we are as well.”
“Justice has been misunderstood since the time of the Israelites (Ex. 23:6) and also the Pharisees (Matt. 23:23). We will be tempted to misunderstand justice too since we live in a deceptive, fallen world…”
“We continue to push back against the destruction of sin on our land and on our bodies…”
“The gospel is not just an idea to agree with, but a New Life that must holistically affect every part of who we are. This all-expansive, touching-everything, making-all-things-new gospel is the Great, Glorious, Good News…”
EXHIBIT U – SEBTS Has Black Nationalist, Ron Burns (Thabiti Anyabwile) Attack “Single Issue” (Anti-Abortion) Voters
“Speak up for the Vulnerable”; Anyabwile, Thabiti, February 6, 2019. Southeastern Seminary Chapel address for pro-life week.
Key excerpts edited for clarity and published on Intersect webpage.
“It seems to me that when God thinks about being pro-life, he has in view life from the womb to the tomb. God is not just pro-birth. He is that…But God is also pro-justice, and he expects the lives of those outside the womb to righteously treated and guarded as well. God is pro-life from womb to tomb.
“God is not a single-issue voter. His ethics are not single-issue ethics. And if we are speaking forth in a way that models God’s heart and what God is like, our ethics should not be single-issue ethics either.”
“But God spare us from having our hearts constricted and shrunken to that one issue when we’re called here to advocate for all who are destitute. It’s only when we do that, we advocate for all who are destitute, our pro-life vision is for all from womb to tomb, that we really do join God in what he’s doing in the world.”
“Christian advocacy is not about the Christian and what the Christian wants, but about the destitute and what they need.”
EXHIBIT V – SEBTS Teaches that “Color Blindness” Supports White Supremacy
March 11, 2019 E094 – Multiethnic Churches:
Challenges & Joys (From the Lectern Podcast)
Jason Cook, pastor of Fellowship Memphis, discusses the challenges and joys of pastoral ministry In a multiethnic church and shares if pursuing multiethnic ministry is worth it with Courtlandt Perkins [Kingdom Diversity Content Strategist ].
11:45 – “you have people who have enjoyed, knowingly or unknowingly, power and privilege in the modern church setting, that anything that threatens that power is seen outside the bounds of orthodoxy…when whiteness is decentered…”
20:06- “color blind theology and not making racial categories reinforces whiteness and white supremacy.”
27:11- “a lot of white men, especially seminarians, need to die to the idea of pastoring a multi-ethnic church.” (He tells a story of telling a seminarian he couldn’t pastor a multi-ethnic church and he began to weep because, as a white guy, he had never been told that there was anything in the U.S. that he couldn’t do).
EXHIBIT W – SEBTS Blames Trump for “Black Exodus” from Churches
March 18, 2019, Episode 095, Before the Black Exodus Part 1
Professor William (Duce) Branch takes a look back before the recent conversation surrounding the “Black Exodus” of believers from white churches to assess how we got here and the influences of Christian Hip-hop in this narrative with Courtlandt Perkins.
0:45- “Ever since the 2016 election there has been an uptick pointing to a clear change in the climate…. in regards to the way the church was beginning to reckon with our situation when it comes to how unified are we has been the underlying question whether it be the narrative about white evangelicals overwhelmingly voting for our current president”
4:02- “Michael Emerson says ….that the election itself was the single most harmful event to the whole movement of reconciliation in at least the past 30 years. And he says it’s about to completely break apart.”
8:37- (Professor Branch discussing his history of being in white spaces) “So when I came back my father said I want you to be recommitted to Christ which for me was the very thing I wanted to do. So I went to an evangelical institution, and it happened to be predominately white. So I went, but I was so hungry for the core I didn’t mind enduring the white. And that’s how I got back into those spaces.
10:03- “So the “whites” they specialized in a certain academic presentation of evangelical doctrine and history, the blacks specialized in my social cultural narrative, story and experience. …and hip hop specialized in my sub cultural affections.
19:58- “The black church being sociologically shaped by segregation and then again moved and advanced based on different passions, different needs to take the same doctrine and tilt to different concerns than let’s say a white person.”
20:23- The black church as it triumphed through the civil rights era… celebration, activism, social political activism in particular dominated more so than haggling over how do you parse over this Greek word… dominated more than take me down memory lane and tell me about the Council of Nicea and how we formulated our Christolgy.. their like forget that… I just know that my God is always on time. But a white person who has broken free and grown America and lived in a place of privilege and dominance now they have time to write books not again about democracy and how to break free from a tyrannical rule they can now talk about Nicea, they can now write books about our faith.”
EXHIBIT X – SEBTS Teaches that Privilege Must Be Given Up for Racial Reconciliation
March 25, 2019, Episode 096, Before the Black Exodus Part II
Professor William (Duce) Branch takes a look back before the recent conversation surrounding the “Black Exodus” of believers from white churches to assess how we got here and the influences of Christian Hip-hop in this narrative with Courtlandt Perkins.
19:05- “I’ve heard some say that we are in a post racial reconciliation reality right now….. so many movements… promise keepers, the MLK conference that was last year…so many different things that have continued to happen that are trying to take steps but seem to continue to miss the mark that what you are trying to tell us as far as unity as being something that is not easily achieved.”
21:00- “The person with privilege, the person who has the most, often can be like Christ and laying that down, and not just laying it down for a moment but laying it down to enter in. So what I think hinders is the lack of entering into one another’s space. You talk about the frustration of blacks, that’s because blacks have always had to…. I heard pastor Thabiti Anyabwile… one time he said…brothers let me commend you (he’s talking to white brothers)….. the migration doesn’t always need to be in one direction, us coming to your spaces. Come to our spaces.”
22:40- “The Christian of all people should have spiritual lenses that have earthly good, so that they can see this is why we have this… again… we are not the most incarcerated country by accident or because we are so bad, we’re just worse than everybody else. There’s a connection.”
23:08- When you’re a black person dominated by the majority culture you have to learn the majority culture for your own survival. They don’t have to learn the minority culture because it’s not a matter of survival. Well with out you learning the minority culture you won’t have reconciliation either.
EXHIBIT Y – SEBTS Seeks to Dismantle Western Civilization for the Sake of Globalism
April 8th, 2019, Episode 098, “Lecture on Global Theology”
What is global theology? A Q&A with Dr. Strickland and Phabienne Anderson.
Synopsis: The majority of theological books are published from Western Civilization. The majority of Christians do not live in Western countries. The trend is for the Christian population to become less Western. Why then should there be so many books from Western countries. We should work to have a better representation so we can have a more balanced contribution. We need to hear from all our brothers across the globe.
3:32- Scripture speaks more directly to non-Western contexts for several factors which is why ….non Western contexts are actually more literal biblical interpreters because suffice it to say non-Western countries identify more closely with the social and economic realities portrayed in the pages of scripture…in addition the political environments including poverty and debt and famine and urban crisis, racial struggle, persecution, brutality, or distrust of the social order are all ways in which those in the non-Western world can read the bible and identify with the people in the pages more literally than Western readers.
6:20- Every theology is a contextual theology in so far as it arises from a specific community and also is designed to address the needs of that community.
6:48- What we are saying is that the Christian faith is contextualizable.
10:44- To be honest with you, I think many Christians who are well intended in their desire to uphold the authority of the text slip into a desire of protecting the text from misinterpretation… which they are trying then to read the bible so objectively that they, because they cannot escape their own cultural trappings, assume their own cultural realities into this reality of inerrancy and then we come up with this very simplistic reading of the text.
11:18- This simplistic reading, this sort of Scottish common sense realism that goes back to Francis Bacon which is really popular in the 19th century in America which held the idea that if you just walk up to the text you have a very simple reading of it… just go and read it and out pops your answer, interpretation is very much scientific, which Charles Hodge sort of later began to systematize as seeing the reading of scripture as a reality… its very scientific where you just go and look at the data and churn out your theology, your doctrine. So this idea of interpretation is really just one of a common sense reality.
12:08- I think many Western readers of the Bible are a little hesitant to consider the voices of our global brothers and sisters because we have this fear of relativism, a fear of placing the authority away from the text and into the communities in which the theology is being done.
17:00- I think the publisher needs to have a missiological disposition to go in and find these voices that are drastically under represented ideologically.
18:07- How can we move past the fear to see someone on another part of the globe as a contributor because they are made in the image of God and they see God from their location….To encourage the Westerner, how can we move past the fear to consider other theologies in a constructive way?
19:10- I think what we have done is we have elevated our own interpretations to protect the text itself.
EXHIBIT Z – SETBS Lecturer Says, “We Hate White People,” and “Christians Responsible for Lynchings”
April 12, 2019; “The Lingering Effects of Lynching”: A Reflection
9:07 Dr. Mathews cites the book by Angela Sims The Power of Memory in a Culture of Terror. He cites Sims’ correlation: “the number of lynchings in a geographic area, counties and states, is significantly related to 1.the number of homicides 2.practice of the death penalty 3.church burnings in the 1990s 4.levels of incarceration between 1972 and 2000….Lynching still hovers over our culture.”
20:17 “My interest is in the white Christian response. Lynching is a crime done by Christians against other Christians in America. It is I think America’s original sin. There is a sad sense in which America needed lynching, lynching is terrorism—public—if you look at the states including NC where capital punishment is still practiced…there is an uncanny, exact correlation between the rate of capital punishment in NC and the rate of lynching in NC. 21:31 So to me, lynching is not only a psychological trauma, it is a theological issue, it is a call for preaching. Therefore, James Cone’s book The Cross and the Lynching Tree…one would think that as Christians we say the God who comes to us as Jesus Christ was a victim of torture death by the government…..we ought to have a special word to offer in this regard…As a white, aging preacher, the thing that interests me, where do preachers get the divine authorization to speak up….to confess our complicity and our sin and then to push our people to the point of saying: let’s see if Jesus Christ is the Son of God, the Savior of the World or not. Can he save people who live in a land so deeply embedded in lynching?
24:00 Dr. Mathews “Whites have always felt threatened by blacks. The whites have created the threat….there was a challenge simply by being Christian and black to the white who were Christians and kept them in slavery. So we not only have to talk about lynching, we have to go back to slavery….”
25:21 Dr. Mathews addresses the concern some people tell him that their ancestors were not involved in lynching or slavery….”my people never owned slaves, my people didn’t lynch….[chuckles] why can’t we begin our understanding….with the prayer of confession not the accusation of others who challenge us?”
31:00 “We got a president who cannot rule this country without vilifying brown people at the border. With these caravans, these hordes, all these are code words related to lynching previously. I have an explanation for why a weak politicians would talk like that. . . It concerns me that fellow Christians would allow this kind of language to go on.”. – Dr. Donald Mathews
40:13 I have an African American student that told me the other day, “I’m getting tired of meeting white people who say ‘by the way, I didn’t vote for Trump, I’m one of the nice white people'”
42:21 “people can say about me, yeah his views are little left to the democratic party, thats the best he can do without being specifically Christian, and I love those moments when church pushes us”
42:35 I know a preacher of a very affluent congregation in Florida, who after a week of vilifying and saying terrible things about the immigrants at the boarder….after that week he just stood up and read from Deuteronomy, you shall not persecute the sojourner…….2 families left his church and said “we are sick of these attacks on our president” he said, I didn’t mention….
44:21…moderator asks the black professor, “how does the Gospel give hope?…the professor goes on to reveal discussions in his class…”we don’t trust white people…we hate white people”
He elaborates through 47:01
49:18 there’s a crusade…to rewrite American history…..I still think that for the future we have to explain how the future is affected by the past, and to focus on lynching but you have to focus on things that come after the lynching because of the lynching….I’m not very optimistic quite frankly
EXHIBIT A2 – SEBTS Promotes Reparations
April 15, 2019, Repentance & Reconciliation: Practical Steps
In this two part discussion we explore the meaning and role that repentance plays in conversations about ethnic reconciliation and what practical steps can be taken to move the conversation forward with Phabienne Anderson and Courtlandt Perkins.
(Synopsis) The first 8 minutes the Host and Hostess site bible verses to define what biblical repentance is. As the host and hostess site various text to identify what biblical repentance is they begin to emphasize that repentance is connected to works and fruit that prove your repentance and that are worthy of repentance. This sets up the following discussion that allows for the idea of reparations and certain social justice policies that would prove one has biblical repentance. In the same way that Christians are told that repentance is not just a one time thing but rather a continual thing that plays out in our live, the host is alluding to a parallel within racial reconciliation. An idea that would argue that society needs to have a perpetual response that may never end to prove white individuals are truly repentant (aka reparations, social policy).
21:10- “I feel like some people are like ‘woe woe woe, what does that history have to do with me right now, I was not there in that history, I did not commit those atrocities, my family was not involved that, what do I have to repent for something that they did over there back then?’ …. I think fundamentally the question is incorrect. I think that question incorrectly… has an incorrect interpretation of repentance. I think when you ask the question, ‘Why do I need to repent for something they did,’ means that you are looking at repentance in a way that centers you and your individual current story rather than centering Christ and his work.”
22:49- “A man centered view of repentance is one that seems obsessed with not being responsible with the wrong being committed against a neighbor.”
EXHIBIT B2 – SEBTS Promotes Heretic, James Cone
April 30, 2019; The Real Ideas in Play: Foundational Convictions,
Black Theology and My Journey with James Cone
by Strickland, Walter
“James Cone is known as the ‘Father of Black Theology’. I learned about him when I was a seminary student, and was helped by his work specifically regarding systemic sin and championing unity and cultural diversity.”
“I first encountered James Cone midway through my Masters of Divinity program, and quickly realized that he was a paradigm-shifting figure in African American theology…I read several of Cone’s books…In the final semester of my MDiv, I took a church history course where Cone was mentioned as one of the most influential theological figures in the 20th century. My professor agreed to meet with me outside of class, and in our interaction, he made a statement akin to ‘It is impossible to understand African American theology without engaging James Cone…After the conversation with my church history professor, I applied to the Master of Theology program at Southeastern to study with him.”
“Now, as a teacher, I desire to offer my students the same opportunity to engage voices outside our theological tradition…”
“My PhD dissertation was a historical analysis of theological method in Black Theology…”
“Despite my substantive theological differences, being introduced to systemic sin in his (Cone’s) work was an important theological insight…”
“…I referenced (in a Nov. 15, 2018 NYT interview with Molly Worthen) using Cone’s ideas without mentioning him in order to walk around linguistic land mines. My point (in a recent NYT interview) was not that I hide unorthodox ideas in my teaching, rather, that I don’t mention his name in order to eliminate stumbling blocks.”
“While his questions and critiques are at times helpful, Scripture is a sufficient guide to answering Cone’s concerns.”
