Southern Baptist Convention Votes to Denounce ‘Alt-Right White Supremacy’

Members of the Southern Baptist Convention (SBC) voted to condemn “alt-right white supremacy” in a nearly unanimous vote Wednesday in Phoenix.

Controversy over the resolution on “the anti-gospel of alt-right white supremacy” preceded the vote, reports Baptist Press, which defined “alt-right” as “a movement that advocates white nationalism” and has “gained increasing attention in the last 18 months.”

The report continues the approved resolution stands to:

• [D]ecry every form of racism, including alt-right white supremacy, as antithetical to the Gospel of Jesus Christ;
• [D]enounce and repudiate white supremacy and every form of racial and ethnic hatred as a scheme of the devil intended to bring suffering and division to our society;
• [A]cknowledge that we still must make progress in rooting out any remaining forms of intentional or unintentional racism in our midst;
• [E]arnestly pray, both for those who advocate racist ideologies and those who are thereby deceived, that they may see their error through the light of the Gospel, repent of these hatreds, and come to know the peace and love of Christ through redeemed fellowship in the Kingdom of God, which is established from every nation, tribe, people, and language.

“Southern Baptists were right to speak clearly and definitely that ‘alt-right’ white nationalism is not just a sociological movement but a work of the devil,” said Russell Moore, president of the Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission, in support of the resolution. “Racism and white supremacy are not merely social issues. Racism and white supremacy attack the Gospel itself and the person of our Lord Jesus Christ.”

The original resolution was submitted by African-American pastor Dwight McKissic, pastor of Cornerstone Baptist Church in Arlington, Texas, who said he was “very pleased” with the outcome of the vote, though disturbed that it took some 24 hours to pass the resolution.

“I’m grateful that things have ended up like they have, I think, for the kingdom of God’s sake,” McKissic said following the vote. “I think we’re back to a good place after a 24-hour roller coaster ride.”

“I think that today’s vote will help to mitigate some of the hurt and some of the pain,” he said, “because it’s painful to watch people who tout biblical inerrancy and who tout the centrality of the Gospel have to deliberate over denouncing white supremacy.”