Southern Baptist Convention formally condemns the Alt-Right Movement

The ruling, which was announced the previous week as being “absolutely off the table” by Convention organizers, was overwhelmingly approved by the congregation on Wednesday. Move to do so, however, it was not one that was swiftly accepted by the group and nearly threw the Convention into chaos.

What began as a meeting to call for the defunding of Planned Parenthood has evolved into one of the largest religious calls against the alt-right movement since it appeared in mainstream media during the 2016 elections.

The proposal was planned weeks ahead by prominent black pastor Dwight McKissic of Texas, and posted on popular Southern Baptist blog SBC Voices. “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 “growing 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.”

On Tuesday night, when McKissic formerly introduced the bill to his fellow members of the congregation, the resolution was not met upon, however, because of what the committee claimed was “improper wording”. This upset many members, as the majority attending were a mix of people of color as well as millennials, two demographics unexpected at this convention due to the deep racial tensions that lie in the past of The Southern Baptist Convention. It wasn’t until self-proclaimed alt-right founder Richard Spencer’s retweet of Sarah Posner had began to circulate that people in the congregation realized what they had rejected.

So apparently the Southern Baptists Convention *didn’t* denounce the Alt-Right after all. Interesting development! https://t.co/07RUvoUOTc

— Richard Spencer (@RichardBSpencer) June 14, 2017

By the time members realized the situation, they frantically called for reconvening at around 9 pm Tuesday night- marking twelve hours of meeting and voting. Seeing how angered the members were, the committee moved to formally vote on Wednesday afternoon. McKissic would later comment that he felt disheartened that it wasn’t until white Southern Baptist members protested that the vote was given a chance, but he felt hopeful that this would be the first step to justice and equality. As of 5 pm Wednesday, the congregation of 5,000 members unanimously voted to condemn the alt-right and white supremacy, as well as to cleanse it from their congregation. However, the committee also revised the proposal to have a major reconciliatory impact on the congregation, specifically those of the African American community.

The revised proposal includes the removal of the reference to the “curse of Ham”, which was a long used justification for slavery in the Bible. “The resolution states clearly our opposition to racism,” Barrett Duke, chairman of the SBC’s resolutions committee said. “To us, that is a repudiation of the teaching of the Ham doctrine … It was redundant.” McKissic said he thinks “it’s a fine document” and he “supports it 100 percent.”

“I wish it had specified the ‘curse of Ham’ … that the Southern Baptist Convention for a long time in her history taught and endorsed.”, he would go on to say. But the omission wouldn’t stop him from voting for the resolution, he said. “I can live with that.”