The Southern Baptist Convention has developed an alarming and off-putting reputation for malicious debate and rancorous name-calling while attempting to stand against Critical Race Theory and other forms of humanistic liberalism, Willy Rice preached during the SBC annual meeting June 16.
“This past season has been marked by unusual strife, name-calling and even slander. You can be right and still be wrong,” said Rice, senior pastor of Calvary Church in Clearwater, Fla. He was chosen last year to bring the convention sermon at this year’s meeting held in Nashville, Tenn.
Liberal constructs such as Marxism, socialism and Critical Race Theory, which holds that racism is perpetuated in part through laws and social institutions, are legitimate “things” to oppose, he said. “But being a jerk is a thing, too.”
Being a jerk has become an all-too-common thing of late, especially in the weeks and months leading up to the denomination’s annual meeting this week, he declared.
That period was marked by contentious media and social media posturing around Critical Race Theory and the SBC’s adherence to the doctrine of complementarianism, which ignited with Bible teacher and author Beth Moore’s high-profile split from the denomination and its Lifeway publishing arm in March.
Then, just days before the Nashville gathering that drew 15,000 messengers, the convention’s Executive Committee came under fire for its handling of sexual abuse claims, with accusations of cover-ups and some calling for investigations into the committee’s actions.
The issue became super-heated in the national media with the recent leak of letters written by Russell Moore claiming he had been pressured to back off his calls for transparency on matters of sex abuse and racism within the denomination.
But it wasn’t the external coverage that disturbed Rice, who preached from 1 Corinthians as a framework from which to compare the divisions in the early church to those consuming Southern Baptists today.
Then as now, he said, Christians have separated into warring camps based on high-profile personalities and big egos that place fame and pet causes ahead of the patience and love Paul demands in the Scripture.
“Pride and inflated self-importance are part of the reason for some of our divisions” as are celebrity ministers “photobombing Jesus,” he said.
“Pride and inflated self-importance are part of the reason for some of our divisions” as are celebrity ministers “photobombing Jesus,” he said. “What does it say about us when we have more green rooms than prayer rooms?”
The SBC needs fewer “preachers in designer tennis shoes obsessed with building social media platforms” and more Baptists dedicated to “becoming the hands and feet of Christ in a world that is lost and broken,” Rice said.
The denomination must heed the Apostle Paul’s call to keep the focus on what matters and to be civil in disagreements, he continued. “Hell does not quake when the Southern Baptist Convention passes a resolution. Remember, the real work of Southern Baptists is out there, not in here.”
But that seems to have been lost in “the unusually rancorous debate” over Critical Race Theory, Rice added, with far too many voices “speaking about something they have little understanding of.”
Two motions related to the academic theory were ruled out of order at the convention June 16, including one to rescind a 2019 resolution declaring Critical Race Theory permissible as long as it is subordinate to the Bible.
However, Rice said the convention is steadfast in its opposition to the academic and legal approach to racism.
Critical Race Theory “at its core offers a flawed diagnosis and a powerless prescription rooted in materialistic humanism and cannot cure the deepest ills of the human heart,” he said. It “cannot produce what only the gospel can produce: a changed heart and a renewed humanity.”
Rice said many people of color in the convention are less interested in Critical Race Theory than they are in knowing the SBC stands with them as they face racism and injustice.
But the viciousness with which opponents of the theory attacked people of color and others seeking a fuller discussion of it was just as flawed, he said. “Something is wrong when we spend more time tearing down than we spend building up and attacking others who profess the name of Jesus Christ.”
Rice also issued a warning to “bullies behind keyboards” and others producing dissent: “This will not go unchallenged.”
In wielding untrue accusations, speaking harshly and turning fellow Christians into adversaries, “are we not acting, in Paul’s words, like mere men?”
Rice also issued a warning to “bullies behind keyboards” and others producing dissent: “This will not go unchallenged.”
He added that outsiders would have a hard time concluding the convention is a place where disagreements are handled with love and grace. Instead, the institution may appear more like the hypocrites in the Gospel passage who wanted to stone the woman caught in adultery.
“I don’t want to compromise the truth, but neither do I want to be known as the church of angry old men with rocks in their hands,” he said.
Related articles:
Outgoing SBC president affirms conservative values while decrying legalism
‘Southern Baptist whistleblower’ offers audio clips to back Russell Moore’s claims
Mike Stone and Ronnie Floyd should step down | Opinion by Maina Mwaura and David Phillips