Critical Race Theory and Double-Speak at the 2021 SBC Annual Meeting

By Mark W. Christy, PhD

At the 2019 Annual Meeting of the Southern Baptist Convention, it was overwhelming decided (and framed into a resolution) that critical race theory (CRT) and intersectionality are “analytical tools” that “can aid in evaluating a variety of human experiences.”[i] This kind of language ultimately led to an uproar among many conservative Baptists who understand that these theories (or opinions) have arisen from neo-Marxists who have turned to things such as race, sex, and sexual preference as indicators of one’s place in the power structures that, according to them, undergird society and lead to injustice.

At the 2021 Annual Meeting, many Baptists sought to overturn this 2019 resolution with a statement, authored by Mike Stone, that directly opposed CRT and intersectionality by name. In this statement (that failed to pass), Stone rejects these theories because they classify people in an unbiblical manner (“by their social identity groups”), allocate power based upon these classifications in a biblically unjust manner, assign differing amounts of dignity to people based upon these classifications, fail to focus upon individual responsibility for sin in favor of a contrived corporate guilt, and deprive people of their God-given dignity as His image-bearers.[ii] Instead of supporting Stone’s resoundingly straight-forward, biblical resolution, the committee chose to put a resolution forth that failed to name CRT and intersectionality.

This resolution, “On The Sufficiency Of Scripture For Race And Racial Reconciliation,” simply rejected “any theory or worldview” that accords primacy to group affiliations when determining a person’s identity, fails to posit sin as the foremost problem, and neglects to associate “racism, oppression, and discrimination with sin.”[iii] Given that CRT and intersectionality both fail to meet the test set forward in this resolution, one should pause to consider why they were not directly named, especially since they had been in the 2019 resolution that affirmed their viability as analytical tools.

While it is impossible to correctly assess the mindset of those responsible for this faulty resolution, it should be noted that biblical leaders lead people to correctly discern and critically consider anything that sets itself up against the knowledge of God (cf. 2 Cor 10:5). The need for this sort of leadership at the 2021 meeting was all the more necessary given the failure in 2019 when God’s leaders forewent their due diligence and spoke affirmatively of a theory that was devoid of biblical roots and moreover stands diametrically opposed to core tenets of the gospel. While these tenets were reaffirmed at the 2021 meeting, the unwillingness of those responsible to directly name CRT and intersectionality may have been more of effort to please men instead of ensuring that God is pleased, that His gospel is witnessed to correctly, that the Southern Baptist witness remains unmolested, and that Southern Baptists are provided with clear biblical guidance on a contemporary work of Satan to undermine the gospel of the church. Whereas these presently unnamed leaders chose to take the low road and avoid a clash with worldly forces promoting CRT and intersectionality, they end up being potentially guilty of engaging in the sort of double-speak which God’s leaders should never display (cf. 1 Tim 3:8).

[i]SBC, 2019 Annual Meeting, “On Critical Race Theory And Intersectionality” (June 1, 2019), available at: https://www.sbc.net/resource-library/resolutions/on-critical-race-theory-and-intersectionality.

[ii]“Resolution on the Incompatibility of Critical Race Theory and Intersectionality with The Baptist Faith and Message,” available at: https://southernbaptistsagainstracism.org/?fbclid=IwAR3KieRJUPB6I03-wLUENLqeXNA_5MJ2lo5PTogEIlk7YSMDG6O9puBIg0Y.

[iii]SBC, 2021 Annual Meeting, “On The Sufficiency Of Scripture For Race And Racial Reconciliation,” available at: https://www.sbc.net/resource-library/resolutions/on-the-sufficiency-of-scripture-for-race-and-racial-reconciliation.