A popular contributor to Social Justice institutions like The Gospel Coalition and 9 Marks, Ron Burns (who now goes by the name Thabiti Anyabwile) wrote articles defending Marxism and radical anti-American and anti-Semitic terrorists. Anyabwile is a leading figure in the new Evangelical Left. And yet, the sin of racism seems to stain his past as much as it does his present.
To familiarize yourself with Anyabwile, he has used his social media platforms to lobby for the restriction of Americans’ Second Amendment freedoms, refers to his leftist positions as “pro-life” issues and yet endorses pro-choice candidates like Bernie Sanders and Hillary Clinton, and recently suggested that foreign governments hack our elections to prevent Trump’s reelection in 2020.
Anyabwile claims that all white evangelicals are guilty of racism, chose to defend the militant Black Panthers after five police officers were shot by a Black Lives Matters activist, and defended his brother after he was arrested for assaulting a police officer.
Anyabwile’s backstory is that he chose the name ‘Thabiti Anyabwile’ to identify with the “Black Nationalist Movement,” a move he made prior to converting from Christianity to Islam. Afterward, Anyabwile claimed to have been reconverted to Christianity but chose to keep his Black Nationalist name. After his supposed conversion, Anyabwile was picked up by Mark Dever and leaders in the Evangelical Intelligentsia, who heavily promoted him as a bridge between primarily white evangelicals and the black community (his pastoral salary is still funded by Mark Dever’s Capitol Hill Baptist Church).
However, beginning in 2016, Anyabwile began to change his message from Reformed Evangelicalism to political activism. Phil Johnson accused him of “mission drift” and he was swiftly attacked, as Anyabwile implied Johnson was racist. From that time forward, Anyabwile has been spearheading an evangelical movement promoting Critical Race Theory, Egalitarianism (which they call “Soft Complementarianism”) and has surrounded himself with the most radical leftists in American Christianity.
Anyabwile, a proponent of Critical Race Theory (CRT) promotes the concept of ‘White Privilege’ and ‘White Guilt,’ the belief that all white people are guilty of racism. In fact, Anyabwile went so far as to say all white people are guilty of assassinating Dr. Martin Luther King.
Anyabwile’s views on race don’t differ much at all from what they were prior to his alleged conversion. However, it does appear that Anyabwile – back when he was going by his Christian name, Ron Burns, was slightly more explicit in his racism and radical militancy.
In a column in the North Carolina Technician newspaper from 1990, Burns advocated for “black pride slogans” and claimed that “European-Americans are suffering from paranoia and guilt.”
While Anyabwile’s defenders will argue this was from before he was converted, we would ask, what has changed? Thabiti Anyabwile is now espousing the White Guilt radicalism that Ron Burns espoused before his supposed conversion.
Anyabwile uses the language of Critical Race Theory, which was then developing in America’s universities, speaking in terms of “oppressed” and “oppressor,” the tell-tale signs of a whiff of Marxism.
“Some whites claim they are tired of African-Americans “bitching” about racism. Some say that African-Americans are racist also. There are racists of every society, class and color. But, to say you are tired of hearing oppressed people protest against their oppressor is an ignorant and narrow-minded position. And to call that protest a racist and separatist tactic is absurd.”
We ask, does this sound different than the Thabiti Anyabwile of 2019? It’s almost identical.
Anyabwile continued employing Critical Race Theory, going on to use the “racism = bigotry + power” frameworks and arguing that black people cannot be racist, saying, “There is no such thing as reverse racism; that concept is the product of a guilty conscience.”
Another column, however, is absolutely jaw-dropping and reveals Anyabwile’s hardcore racism and hatred of Western Culture, Jewish people, and the United States.
In this 1990 column, Burns lauded Nelson Mandela while attacking black presidential candidate, Alan Keyes, for opposing the “Marxist/Communist doctrines of the African National Congress.”
Anyabwile writes…
Besides this, what is wrong with Marxism or Communism? Most Americans don’t have a working knowledge of either philosophy. The use of such “catch-words” to excite readers is reminiscent of McCarthyism.
Then, he went on to defend Anti-Semitic and Anti-American terrorists. Anyabwile continued…
“Before any U.S. citizen denounces violence, she/he should view the U.S. involvement in worldwide violence,” and then later added, “calling Castro, Arafat, and Quadaffi “some of the world’s worst tyrants is not only an insult but proves Zagotta’s lack of knowledge concerning these men and their struggles.”
Zagotta was random citizen who had written negative opinions of these murderous terrorists in the paper, with whom Anyabwile took exception.
Anyabwile added…
“Therefore, South Africans should not renounce leaders like Arafat, Castro, or Quadaffi to please conservative republican nationalists, the likes of which created the apartheid regime.”
For those who are unaware, Arafat was chairman of the Palestine Liberation Organization who pledged to kill every Jew in the Middle East. Gadaffi Libyan Arab Republic who, like Arafat, plotted terrorist attacks against both Israel and the United States. Castro was the tyrant who ran Cuba from the Communist revolution in 1958 to 2008.
HE NEVER CHANGED HIS NAME. WAKE UP.
After embracing the name, Thabiti Anyabwile, Ron Burns claimed to have had a dramatic life change through the Gospel. However, after embedding himself into a place of prominence within evangelicalism, Anyabwile shot Marxist and CRT ideology out like a canon beginning suddenly in 2016.
The question for evangelicals should not be if Thabiti Anyabwile is a Marxist change agent who faked a conversion as a part of his service to Communism and Black Nationalism, but why we didn’t all figure this out sooner.
Although Pulpit & Pen has been warning you that Anyabwile’s language, political philosophy, and ideology was Marxist since at least 2016, many have refused to go so far, while admitting his leftward drift.
However, these writings from Anyabwile – along with his refusal to change back to his Christian name – should confirm to us that Anyabwile is truly a Trojan Horse in the church. He has successfully infiltrated the nation’s most prominent evangelical institutions in the name of Karl Marx, who is his Lord and Master.
Warn people.
