by DAVE MILLER
At last year’s SBC in Orlando, Dwight McKissic made a motion to add racism to homosexuality as sins that eliminated one from being in cooperation with the SBC. The motion was referred (as is standard practice) and the convention voted down a follow-up motion to undo the referral and vote on it. Many people (myself among them) were disappointed that the vote was not taken but we were hopeful that the Executive Committee would bring back a favorable report on the motion. That did not happen. They decided not to recommend the bylaws change. Dwight McKissic’s motion died.
I have, for some time, been considering bringing a motion to the convention to reconsider last year’s motion and to try again to get the convention to vote. I have decided not to do that, and I would like to explain my thinking here.
My Reasoning
After thinking through all this for quite a bit, I decided that it was best to trust the goodwill of people who clearly represented to me and publicly that they cared about this issue and that they intended to make real changes.
And I am seeing some hopeful signs that this is actually taking place. I believe that we are seeing progress in a hopeful direction. Here are some things I have seen.
So, I am encouraged that things are going to change for the better; perhaps too slowly with a few bumps along the way. If the effort gets derailed, we can always intervene to try to force the process. But I think there is momentum right now for this issue. Our leaders are not fighting against this, though perhaps they did not favor Dwight McKissic’s bylaws change approach. But that option is always available to us in the future if things don’t happen as they should.
I will state my conviction one more time. It is our job – the white folks – to deal with it and correct it. Ethnic Baptists should not have to come hat in hand begging for equality and justice. It is not the fault of African Americans that they were enslaved, oppressed, segregated, excluded and ignored. It was done to them. I do not believe that I have personally oppressed black people. But I am the inheritor of the system that did and it is our job to take responsibility and do what it takes to convince people of every skin color that they are not just tolerated, but welcomed and celebrated in today’s SBC.
I am hopeful that the powers that be in the SBC agree with this desire even if they are seeking a different approach.
This article was first posted at http://sbcvoices.com on June 14, 2011.
Tags:Ask the Hard Questions, BF&M, Bryant Wright, diversity, Dwight McKissic, Executive Committee, racism, Southern Baptist Convention
This entry was posted on Monday, June 20th, 2011 at 11:00 am
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