Featured Ronnie Floyd Details Convention Focus on Repentance for Racism

1) How does one expect to ask for forgiveness to those who are no longer living?

2) How does one admit that the Scriptures are perfectly clear in that slavery is not condemned, yet want to apologize for owning slaves. (NOT the treatment, but the ownership issue.

3) What right does any ancestor have in even thinking they have the authority to ask for forgiveness for something their long dead ancestor did? Is it not certain that the present age is not at all what was lived 200 years ago?

4) Where do apologies stop? The president wants (or did) apologize to Japan, not understanding that the lives of untold many both of Japanese and of the allies were kept alive by the bombing obliged by the Japanese in WWII. Should Egypt apologize to Israel, or the fleas to the canines?

5) Is this the level of character, intelligence, and wisdom of the leadership of the SBC? Battle over shadows has no place, when the real battle should be denouncing and not allowing students to be recommended to schools once owned, operated and/or supported by the SBC and have long fallen into great apostasy. The great idol of fame and fortune has caused the SBC to bow and leave the teaching of God's word and the worship of God through preparation of His servants for service. This is a far greater problem in the SBC and even in the SBC local assemblies who are more concerned about the outward appearance than the inner man.

If the SBC wants to really impact, let them establish great home mission works to the poor, needy, those longing for something better. Not just occasionally, but throw open the doors of the assembly, remove the comfortable pews, exalted media, and entertain strangers with food, clothing, shelter, and sound gospel teaching. Put into practical that which is spoken. Open empty the warehouses to lift every person in the neighborhood and present the gospel that will change their very core perspectives.

That is how racism is confronted. It is confronted by the local assemblies loving their neighbor as themselves.

Peter said, money I don't have, but such as I do have, I will give to you. What does the SBC do? Gathers money, like the grave, always wanting more to spend on itself trying to fill itself, making much of the landscape, but full of dead people.

 

He just blew his credibility.

 

Many of us (I am a Southern Baptist pastor) view this as pandering. It comes off as a desperate attempt to keep the convention relative. The leadership for the past half decade or so seems more determined to wage war on racism than homosexuality and abortion.

Racism is an issue in this country, but it is blown out of proportion. There is a hierarchy of important issues. At the top of that hierarchy has to be those things which are ACTUALLY hurting people, not just hurting people's feelings. Now, people's feelings matter. But not as much as the life of babies being chopped up in their mother's wombs. They don't matter as much as children being adopted by and raised in homosexual "homes." People's feelings do not even matter as much as my 8 year old daughter's safety and sense of security in a public restroom.

Now, some racism does lead to people being ACTUALLY hurt. I think of the many poor white cops who have been assassinated by racist black thugs, for example.
But that kind of racism doesn't seem to be at the top of the list of racist issues that "must" be addressed according to SBC leaders.

The problem I have with this is two-fold.
1. The over emphasis represents misshapen priorities on behalf of the SBC. The preponderance of talk coming from the SBC Mount Olympus is about racism these days, giving the impression that putting a new face on the SBC is top priority.

2. It only seems to condemn two kinds of racism. 1. The kind that hurts feelings, rather than the kind that takes lives and 2. white racism against blacks, rarely vice versa.

It stinks of hypocrisy and idiocy in my nostrils, but I am open to being corrected.

 

These are true facts, but it is also true that the SBC has done more than other denominations to address these issues directly and apologize. I generally don't agree with Dr Paige Patterson on much related to convention issues, but he has been a great leader in promoting repentance convention wide for these actions.

Let's also not forget that many denominations, the PCUSA comes to mind, were grown out of similar backgrounds. The sin of slavery in the southern USA was not confined to the burgeoning Southern Baptist Convention in the mid-1800s, but affected many, many denominations that exist today. We just don't talk about them or their issues.

 

I agree. I am neither for or against this emphasis... I don't consider it my business since I am only nominally a Southern Baptist - my church gives some to the missions program, but that's about it. I don't identify myself that way nor attend the conventions anymore.

However, I do know a number of the figures in the SBC personally, including Ronnie Floyd, so I think I might have a bit of understanding about where he is coming from the this.

I know he has had to deal with many persons in his ministry to are highly prejudiced toward ethnic minorities, so I can imagine him wanting to deal with this on a broad level.