Southern Baptists want to change their name, but their oppressive legacy will remain

At the current inflection point of heightened tensions in the United States, mass movements are demanding the nation reckon with its longstanding legacy of racism. As a result, several monuments to slavery and Jim Crow have come down, and now people are calling for real and lasting reforms in policing, the justice system, and all our social institutions. 

Several leaders in the Southern Baptist Convention (SBC), which is composed of approximately 50,000 churches, are attempting to separate from the denomination’s racist roots and legacy by considering renaming their denomination to the “Great Commission Baptists.” The name is taken from Jesus’ commission to his disciples, told in the Biblical book of Matthew, to “make disciples of all nations” — a nod towards Baptist evangelizing.

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“Our Lord Jesus was not a white Southerner but a brown-skinned Middle Eastern refugee,” said SBC President J. D. Greear in 2020, who earlier used the phrase “Black lives matter” in a presidential address when he announced that he would retire the Broadus gavel, a historic gavel named for a Confederate-era enslaver. 

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Trying to emphasize the global reach of the denomination, Greear said, “Every week we gather to worship a savior who died for the whole world, not one part of it. What we call ourselves should make that clear.”

In the 1840s, slavery became a lightning rod among the Baptist General Convention. In May 1845, 310 delegates from the Southern states convened in Augusta, Georgia to organize a separate Southern Baptist Convention on a pro-slavery plank. 

Delegates asserted as one of their religious “values” that God had condoned the institution of slavery, and to be a good Christian, one must support slavery and not work for its abolition. They cited scripture to justify their position, for example:

“Slaves, obey your earthly masters with fear and trembling, in singleness of heart, as you obey Christ; not only while being watched, and in order to please them, but as slaves of Christ, doing the will of God from the heart.” Ephesians 6:5-6.

“Let all who are under the yoke of slavery regard their masters as worthy of all honor, so that the name of God and the teaching may not be blasphemed. Those who have believing masters must not be disrespectful to them on the ground that they are members of the church; rather they must serve them all the more, since those who benefit by their service are believers and beloved.” 1 Timothy 6:1-2.

Well, either by divine “inspiration” or due to political pressure, 150 years later on June 1995, the SBC reversed its position and officially apologized to African Americans for its support of and collusion in the institution of slavery (regarding it now as an “original sin”). Concurrently, the SBC also apologized for backing Jim Crow laws and rejecting civil rights initiatives of the 1950s and ’60s.

At the 2017 annual Southern Baptist Convention held in Phoenix, Arizona, leaders in the Resolutions Committee initially voted against permitting the general body to consider a resolution — submitted by well-known black Texas pastor Dwight McKissic — condemning white nationalism, white supremacy, and the alt-right.  

As written, the proposal in part affirmed that “there has arisen in the United States a growing menace to political order and justice that seeks to reignite social animosities, reverse improvements in race relations, divide our people, and foment hatred, classism, and ethnic cleansing.” 

It identified this “toxic menace” as white nationalism and the alt-right and urged the denomination to oppose its “totalitarian impulses, xenophobic biases, and bigoted ideologies that infect the minds and actions of its violent disciples.” 

The resolution claimed that the development of white supremacy in Christian communities was contained within the theory known as the “curse of Ham,” which directed that “God through Noah ordained descendants of Africa to be subservient to Anglos.” This theory was expanded as a justification for slavery and segregation.

McKissic’s resolution asked the Southern Baptist Convention to condemn nationalism and “reject the retrograde ideologies, xenophobic biases, and racial bigotries of the so-called ‘alt-right’ that seek to subvert our government, destabilize society, and infect our political system.”

The SBC seemed poised to ignore the resolution. But after several SBC members pressured the Resolutions Committee, the general body passed a revised and somewhat watered-down version.

While the Convention’s reluctance to rebuke racism and other forms of oppression is reprehensible at best, it is by no means surprising when placed in a historical context. 

Regarding its stance on women in the Church, at their 1998 session, the SBC declared that a wife should “submit herself graciously” to her husband’s guidance. The denomination has since removed women from top executive posts. 

According to the 1998 resolution: “The husband and wife are of equal worth before God, since both are created in God’s image. The marriage relationship models the way God relates to His people. A husband is to love his wife as Christ loved the church. He has the God-given responsibility to provide for, to protect, and to lead his family. A wife is to submit herself graciously to the servant leadership of her husband even as the church willingly submits to the headship of Christ….[She] has the God-given responsibility to respect her husband and to serve as his helper in managing the household and nurturing the next generation.” 

Later, in 2000, the SBC declared that women should no longer serve as pastors. The SBC reiterated and strengthened this by voting to enforce it this summer at the SBC’s annual meeting in New Orleans.  

Though the church’s statement of beliefs has previously asserted that “the office of pastor/elder/overseer is limited to men as qualified by Scripture,” the Southern Baptist Convention has in the past permitted individual Baptist churches to make their own leadership decisions. As a result, an estimated 1,900 churches have women pastors. But this year, the SBC has already expelled five churches with female pastors. Thus, the sexism and misogyny continue.

Delegates to the annual SBC session in New Orleans in 1996 passed their “Resolution on Jewish Evangelism” committing to put more energy and resources into converting Jews to Christianity. The resolution read, in part: 

“WHEREAS, There has been an organized effort on the part of some either to deny that Jewish people need to come to their Messiah, Jesus, to be saved:…BE IT FINALLY RESOLVED, That we direct our energies and resources toward the proclamation of the gospel 6 [of Jesus] to the Jewish people.” 

The SBC continues to believe, as do some other Christian denominations, that Judaism remains an inadequate or immature religion without Jesus as its central figure.

At their 1997 annual session, SBC delegates overwhelmingly voted to boycott Walt Disney theme parks, movies, and products for extending benefits to partners of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender employees, for the “hosting of homosexual and lesbian theme nights at its parks…” and for producing films and books with lesbian, gay, bisexual, or transgender characters thereby “connecting Disney to the promotion of the homosexual agenda.” 

The resolution continued: “That we encourage Southern Baptists to give serious and prayerful reconsideration to their purchase and support of Disney products and to boycott the Disney theme parks and stores if they continue this anti-Christian and anti-family trend.” 

Then in 2010, the SBC passed its “Resolution on Homosexuality and the United States Military,” which stated in part: 

“RESOLVED, That the messengers to the Southern Baptist Convention… affirm the Bible’s declaration that homosexual behavior is intrinsically disordered and sinful, and we also affirm the Bible’s promise of forgiveness, change, and eternal life to all sinners (including those engaged in homosexual sin) who repent of sin and trust in the saving power of Jesus Christ (1 Corinthians 6:9-11).”

With religious rights come responsibilities, and with actions come reactions. Whenever clergy pronounce and preach their oppressive dogma, they must take responsibility for the bullying, harassment, violence, and suicides of individuals and groups that they degrade and demean.

This critique does not amount to a simple theocratic disagreement. This is not a “disagreement” at all! It speaks to issues of power and control; it goes to who has the power to define “the other” and who has the power and control to define “the self”: the individual and members of social identity groups, or rather, the Church with a capital “C.” 

While one may attempt to put lipstick on a pig, it won’t matter in the least since it will remain a pig. The only difference is now one will have a ridiculous-looking pig.

The Southern Baptist Convention may attempt to change its name, but it won’t matter since its oppressive racist, sexist, antisemitic, and heterosexist legacy will remain for eternity.