RACE BAITING?: Southern Baptist ethicist Richard Land. (Photo: Baptist Press News)
Just when the Southern Baptist Convention is making strides in its efforts to make black folks feel more at home in the denomination, along comes Richard Land, president of its Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission, to throw an obstacle onto the road to racial harmony by accusing President Obama of the worst kind of race baiting.
On his March 31 radio show, Land said the president is “aiding and abetting” “race hustlers” like the Revs. Al Sharpton, Louis Farrakhan, and Jesse Jackson in fomenting violence in response to the Trayvon Martin shooting.
“This situation is getting out of hand and there’s going to be violence. And, when there is violence, it’s going to be Jesse Jackson’s fault, and it’s going to be Al Sharpton’s fault, it’s going to be Louis Farrakhan’s fault, and to a certain degree it’s going to be President Obama’s fault,” said Land. “It was Mr. Obama who turned this tragedy into a national issue. He should have learned from the Cambridge, Massachusetts, police incident to stay out of these issues until the facts are clear, but he urged Americans to engage in soul searching, and then he said, ‘If I had a son, he would look like Trayvon Martin.’ The president’s aides claim he was showing compassion for the victim’s family. In reality, he poured gasoline on the racialist fires under pressure from the Congressional Black Caucus.”
In an interview with The Tennessean, the Rev. Maxie Miller, “a Florida Baptist Convention expert in African-American church planting,” said he had never before been embarrassed to be a Southern Baptist or a black Southern Baptist. “I’m embarrassed because of the words that man has stated,” said Miller, who reportedly lives 90 minutes away from Sanford, Florida, where Martin was shot.
“I think the convention is doing a great job with diversity … but Land’s comments definitely will make my work harder — encouraging African-Americans to be a part of Southern Baptist Convention life,” Miller said.
Land’s critique wasn’t only directed at President Obama. He said it will be U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder’s fault if violence breaks out in response to $10,000 “Wanted: Dead or Alive” bounty flyers for alleged shooter George Zimmerman’s “capture.”
“Until Mr. Holder and the justice department do something about this, they’re going to continue to do it and when they end up killing somebody, it’s going to be Mr. Holder’s fault,” said Land.
He identified the group who distributed the flyers as “The Black Panthers,” but Mediaite reported that a group calling itself the New Black Panther Party is responsible. “The New Black Panthers are not affiliated with the original Black Panther Party in any way. In fact, leaders of the original Panthers have denounced the NBPP, even suing them for use of the name, and stating that the New Black Panthers operate on ‘hatred of white people.’ The NBPP has been designated a ‘hate group; by the Southern Poverty Law Center, and the Anti-Defamation League.”
Land also said a “failure of leadership on the part of African American leadership in this country” is to blame for inflaming the situation and said “the media” has “shamelessly exploited” it.
What do you think?
Should Christian ethicisit Richard Land take a hard look in the ‘race baiting’ mirror or is there some validity in his critique?
I believe there is some truth to what he is saying. I’m just not sure he’s the one to say it. When this case first came to my attention, I had the same immediate reaction that most other African-Americans had. I thought it was another incident of “WWB” or “DWB”. Mr. Zimmerman was made to look like an over-zealous cop wanna-be who was suspicious of black males. The police department was made to look like they didn’t care that another black male was killed. But I made the comment to a coworker that I hope the local authorities can handle this quickly because if they don’t it will be a national story and it will become out of control. Soon after, my worst fears were realized.
This is no longer about Mr. Zimmerman and Trayvon Martin. It’s now a national referendum on police departments and how our communities feel about justice in this nation. More details about what happened are coming out and it appears that some of our assumptions may need to be altered if George Zimmerman and the police report are to be believed. The real problem is that it may be too late to alter our assumptions. The national furor over this case is too far gone. What if the Florida authorities tell us that the evidence points to Mr. Zimmerman’s account of what happened? Will we accept this? I don’t think so. This is probably what Mr. Land is pointing to. I wish that Rev. Sharpton and Rev. Jackson had backed away once Florida decided to reopen this case. But instead, they have whipped people up into a bigger frenzy with their marches, demonstrations, and speeches. The parents of Trayvon Martin should be doing all the talking. The parents of George Zimmerman have every right to speak out as well.
As far as Mr. Land is concerned, he represents the Southern Baptist Convention. Considering their history, he’s probably the last person that should be speaking. He sounds like he has an axe to grind against Rev. Sharpton and Rev. Jackson. He has only added to the fire in my opinion.
Thanks for weighing in Edward.
When I first heard of the Reverend Dr. Land’s commentary I didn’t know whether to laugh or cry. Maybe I overreacted with my usual annoyance at comments and commentators like this. But how can I not considering the serious of the charges he claimed? If he is right in his accusations just about every credible leader that African-Americans have selected for themselves is suspect. That is my real problem with what he said. Is he basically saying that African-Americans are the only social group in America that does not have the right of self determination? Black Americans, including Black Christians, have consistently and overwhelmingly supported the congressmen who comprise the Congressional Black Caucus and almost every Black American who voted, including regular church goers, voted for President Obama. Many of us have been somewhat critical of the Reverends Jessie Jackson and Al Sharpton for their usual media sideshow and lack of relevance to the contemporary situation. Still most of us vehemently insist that the work that civil rights leaders do is absolutely necessary for the survival and flourishing of the Black community. This does not mean that there are not inherent problems with Black Christians so overwhelmingly supporting the “liberal” agenda. There many things that liberals advocate that clearly violate the scriptures and explicit Christian teaching. But the same could be said for the so called “conservative” agenda which Dr. Land is known to endorse. According to many sources, the Southern Baptist Convention will elect its first African-American president this summer. Honestly, I do not know whether to rejoice, take a let’s wait and see attitude, or remain suspicious of their motives in handpicking a leader for Black Christians. While I do not see any inherent problem for Black Christians to choose to associate themselves with historically white denominations, there are some specific cultural, historical, socio-political and theological reasons why most of have not done so and never will. The historic Black denominations for all of their serious problems in need of reformation have always been and may always be the only safe place where unmasked Black Christians can wrestle with being created in the image of God and all that it entails without the interference of cultural and theological traditions that do not reflect our concerns. Without the historic black church, leaders such as Richard Allen, Frederick Douglass, Daniel Payne, Benjamin E Mays and Martin Luther King Jr would have never arisen to provide the spiritual and social leadership that our community needed. It is no different now. To answer the question, yes there is some truth in what Dr. Land said but that is not actually saying that much. All distortions contain some truth; in fact the truth so contained is what makes them dangerous. That Dr. Land, who is a card carrying member of the Christian Right and was an influential member of former president George W. Bush’s administration, is the top policy expert for the Southern Baptist Convention and was listed as one of the top 25 influential evangelical leaders by Time magazine is revealing. It says a lot about the pulse of the SBC and perhaps of the mainstream Evangelical movement. Like the previous commentator intimated, a leader of the Southern Baptist Convention is the last person qualified to make a public judgment of the motives of our elected president in this matter. Like all southern evangelical institutions formed in the antebellum era, the Southern Baptists consciously came into existence in defense of slavery. Unlike the rest, the Southern Baptists never reunited with their parent body. As a result of this fact, the leadership structure of the SBC has never been confronted with a contrarian response to the racial inertia embedded into the very structure of their convention. It cannot be denied that Southern Baptists defended slavery, supported the Jim Crow policies of the solidly white Democratic south, explicitly taught Black inferiority and corresponding natural servitude in their bible classes, discouraged and sometimes prohibited black members in their local churches, fought the end of the infamous and unconstitutional anti-miscegenation laws and otherwise defended white superiority over other races, especially the black one. Yes it is true that they offered an apology for this but it was in reality offered to the blacks who have joined their convention in recent years and not to the historically Black Baptist conventions that almost every Black Baptist belongs to, conventions which, despite their many faults, most accurately reflect the actual concerns of Black Baptists. With this historic context in mind, I wonder out loud what are their motives for evangelizing Black people. Most Black people, already converted or otherwise, simply will not voluntarily join an institution with the SBC’s ugly racial legacy. If biblical repentance involves restitution where possible, the Southern Baptist Convention’s apology to its relatively new black constituency and promise to aggressively evangelize black communities cannot be sufficiently called repentance. The Black Baptist conventions have not been asked to accept the apology of course and they would probably not if it means they will have to accept “direction” from the the Southern Baptists rather than be considered Christian traditions of equal weight. I agree with the Southern Baptists that Black America’s greatest problem is spiritual and that the only legitimate solution is the Lord Jesus Christ. I respectfully disagree with insistence that our communities continued efforts to gain full equality and justice from their beloved country is somehow anti-Christian and unpatriotic. If we are equally human and equals in the faith, what else are we supposed to do?
Please sign this petition for MSNBC to fire Al Sharpton. Please pass it on.
http://www.change.org/petitions/msnbc-fire-al-sharpton
Herrell stated:
“Most Black people, already converted or otherwise, simply will not voluntarily join an institution with the SBC’s ugly racial legacy.”
But most blacks will associate and identify with Africa whose legacy of brutality and selling their own people into slavery is ignored? LOL.
Your problem, Mr. Herrell, is that of a racial narcissist. You practice Race Based-Special Interest Theology to the injury of your soul. It is one thing to speak sociologically about race it is another to speak in the context as a Christian and then make certain racial emphasis preferred ones. You err greatly.
Mr. Land is either right or wrong. If he is wrong save the ad hominem. If he is right, spare us the ad hominem as to why, though he is right, we should not listen to him. As a Christian your primary identification is with Christ. You speak as if your blackness takes priority over your identification with Christ.
Yes, Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton are not teaching anything “Christian” if that is their intent in this matter. They are teach everything non-Christian and they are wrong and the President, who claims to be a Christian, is complicit in his silence. This tragedy is an opportunity to example something but these men it appears only an opportunity to further divide and conquer. What a shame.
But since you introduced history we can go there. Need we do the history of violence by blacks against non-blacks over the last 30 years? No let’s ignore this glaring reality. Blacks in America are building up a devastating history of violence toward non-blacks on a scale unprecedented and particularly toward whites while the crime statistics of the majority population and other non-blacks against blacks is paltry. You want history, deal with this and then we can ask why you are so eager to associate with a group whose legacy of brutality and violence continues right here in America.
Mr. Land is right. The facts were stated correctly and the response from within the SBC on any side will tell the tale. Just in the opening statement of this post we have a clue as to why blacks still feel the way they do toward whites. The statement was, “Just when the Southern Baptist Convention is making strides in its efforts to make black folks feel more at home in the denomination…” No No No. The message of repentance and forgiveness has not gotten across. One side makes the stride of repentance and the other has to make a stride of forgiveness. Then we promote the truth together; black and white. Christians have no option when it comes to repentance and forgiveness. Take our statements out of the public arena and discuss it within the doors of the church.
The SBC is pimping Black Churches for their membership numbers and financial support. They do this by providing what I call watermellons to Black Pastors, i.e. insurance, impotent titles, and trips but no benefit accures to the overall Black Community. They are stealing the best Black talent, but have no interest in the Black underclass.