A Few Thoughts
This is a Christian blog that covers all sorts of issues: worldview, apologetics, pastoral, counseling, etc. The purpose is to glorify God, edify His people, and save the lost through the sound proclamation of His truth.
Thursday, June 13, 2019
My Response to the SBC's final version of Resolution 9
SBC19 Resolution #9 on Critical Race Theory and Intersectionality
By Stephen Feinstein
At this time yesterday, passions heated up at the Southern Baptist Annual Convention. The resolutions committee presented the messengers with Resolution #9, which ended up in a heated, yet short, debate. Presently, there is a lot of noise on social media over this. Many are speaking on this issue, and necessity lays the same mandate upon me.
Why should my voice be included? Simply put, I am the one who authored the resolution. My name is Stephen Feinstein, a graduate of Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, a pastor of Sovereign Way Christian Church in Hesperia, CA, and a Chaplain (MAJ) in the United States Army Reserves. Like many, I am alarmed at the proliferation of toxic, divisive, and satanic rhetoric designed to divide humanity and facilitate constant opposition in our society. Even worse, it has seeped into Bible colleges and some seminaries. I have had parents come to me for advice when their child came home from a conservative Bible college complaining about white privilege. I was present at the Shepherds Conference when my favorite evangelical leaders appeared to be divided on how to handle this issue.
Therefore, I determined after the Shepherds Conference that I would propose a resolution denouncing critical race theory and intersectionality. Well, on Wednesday morning, June 12, 2019, the messengers were given copies of the resolutions. Although I was stoked that my resolution was accepted, I also immediately noticed the committee severely altered what I had submitted. It is their right to do so. I have been asked to make public the resolution as I submitted it, and so I will do so here. I will not comment on it here, but simply post it. I plan on making a short video sharing my thoughts on the resolution as it now stands. I pray you will be gracious and patient with me. I had to set aside my blog four years ago due to a high workload. I have been wanting to jump back into it, and it seems that this issue is the catalyst. See the original resolution below.
Resolution Author: Stephen Feinstein
Sovereign Way Christian Church
Pastor(s): Stephen Feinstein; Brian
Orr; Joshua Ritchie
Stephen Feinstein
Sovereign Way Christian Church
15660 Juniper Street
Hesperia, CA 92345
760-948-3200
On Critical Race Theory and
Intersectionality
WHEREAS, all Scripture is totally true and trustworthy and reveals the principles
by which God judges us, and therefore is, and will remain to the end of the
world, the true center of Christian union, and the supreme standard by which
all human conduct, creeds, and religious opinions should be tried; and
WHEREAS, critical race theory and intersectionality are
founded upon unbiblical presuppositions descended from Marxist theories and
categories, and therefore are inherently opposed to the Scriptures as the true
center of Christian union; and
WHEREAS, both critical race theory and intersectionality as
ideologies have infiltrated some Southern Baptist churches and
institutions—institutions funded by the Cooperative Program; and
WHEREAS, critical race theory upholds postmodern relativistic
understandings of truth; and
WHEREAS, critical race theory divides humanity into groups of
oppressors and oppressed, and is used to encourage biblical, transcendental
truth claims to be considered suspect when communicated from groups labeled as
oppressors; and
WHEREAS, intersectionality defines human identity by race,
social background, gender, sexual orientation, religion, and a host of other
distinctions, and it does so at the expense of other identities; and
WHEREAS, intersectionality reduces human beings to
distinguishable identities of unequal value and thus reduces human identity
down to differences rather than commonality; and
WHEREAS, intersectionality encourages rage as its driving
energy and conclusion; and
WHEREAS, intersectionality magnifies differences while
deeming as more favorable the individuals who combine the highest number of
oppressed identities; and
WHEREAS, both critical race theory and intersectionality
breed division and deny humanity’s essential commonality; and
WHEREAS, the Scripture provides
God’s narrative on such matters; and
WHEREAS, the book of Genesis grounds
humanity in that which unites us, namely our common identity as the Imago Dei,
which itself is the foundation of every biblical, ethical command to love one’s
neighbor and to seek justice for all; and
WHEREAS, the Bible acknowledges
differences—male and female, slave and free, Jew and Gentile—it does not begin
with human differences, but instead begins with what unites humanity, namely
the Imago Dei; and
WHEREAS, the sameness of humanity
built upon the Imago Dei, justifies the value of all individuals in something
that transcends race, gender, and other identity intersections; and
WHEREAS, the New Covenant further
unites by creating a new humanity that will one day inhabit the new heavens and
the new earth, and that the people of this new humanity, though descended from
every nation, tribe, tongue, and people, are all one in Christ; and
WHEREAS, this new humanity is
comprised of people from every ethnicity and race, of every socio-economic
background and culture, and yet these people enter this new humanity through
belief in the Gospel of Jesus Christ; and
WHEREAS, Christian citizenship is
not based on our differences but instead on our common salvation in Christ; and
WHEREAS, we find our true identity
in Christ; and
WHEREAS, the Scriptures have
categories and principles by which to deal with racism, sexism, injustice,
abuse—principles found in prior Southern Baptist resolutions such as On The
Anti-Gospel of Alt-Right White Supremacy, for example, that are not rooted
in Marxist anti-gospel presuppositions; and
WHEREAS, the rhetoric of critical
race theory and intersectionality found in some Southern Baptist institutions
and leaders is causing unnecessary and unbiblical division among the body of
Christ and is tarnishing the reputation of the Southern Baptist Convention as a
whole, inviting charges of theological liberalism, egalitarianism, and Marxism;
and
WHEREAS, the Southern Baptist
Convention is committed to racial reconciliation built upon biblical
presuppositions, and is committed to seeking biblical justice through biblical
means; now, therefore, be it
RESOLVED, That the messengers to the
Southern Baptist Convention, meeting in Birmingham, Alabama, June 11-12, 2019,
decry every philosophy or theology, including critical race theory and
intersectionality, as antithetical to the Gospel of Jesus Christ, since they
divide the people of Christ by defining fundamental identity as something other
than our identity in Jesus Christ; and be it further
RESOLVED, That we deny any
philosophy or theology that defines individuals primarily by non-transcendental
social constructs rather than by the transcendental reality of all humans existing
as the Imago Dei; and be it further
RESOLVED, That while we denounce
critical race theory and intersectionality, we do not deny that ethnic, gender,
cultural, and racial distinctions do in fact exist and are a gift from God that
will give Him absolute glory when the entire gamut of human diversity worships
Him in perfect unity founded upon our unity in Jesus Christ; and be it further
RESOLVED, That Southern Baptist
Churches will seek to paint this eschatological picture in a proleptic manner
in our churches in the present by focusing on our unity in Christ and our
common humanity as the Imago Dei rather than dividing over the secondary
matters than make us different; and be it further
RESOLVED, That Southern Baptists
Churches and institutions will take a prophetic stand against all forms of
biblically-defined injustice, but we will do so in a manner consistent with the
biblical worldview rather than unbiblical worldviews; and be it further
RESOLVED, That Southern Baptist
institutions need to make progress in rooting out the intentional promulgation
of critical race theory and intersectionality in both our churches and
institutions; and be it further
RESOLVED, That we earnestly pray,
both for those who advocate ideologies meant to divide believers along
intersectional lines and those who are thereby deceived, that they may see
their error through the light of the Gospel, repent of these anti-Gospel
beliefs, 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.
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