The non-binding resolution passed yesterday by the Southern Baptist Convention (SBC) calling for discontinuing the use and display of the Confederate battle flag is a long time coming. The SBC is in St. Louis for the annual meeting.
When Rev. Dwight McKissic, an African American pastor in Arlington, Texas first indicated that he was proposing it, he encountered some reluctance and the usual rhetoric about preservation of southern history that accompanies discussions about the flag.
In the end, the SBC embraced the change. Russell Moore, who is over the Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission for the SBC explained the history behind the vote in his blog post yesterday.
“To understand the significance of this, one must note the “Southern” in “Southern Baptist Convention.” This doesn’t speak to geography; there are SBC churches in all fifty states. It speaks to history. The Southern Baptist Convention was formed in 1845, over a controversy about appointing slaveholders as missionaries. The SBC was wrong, and more than wrong. The SBC of 1845, and for many years after, was in open sin against a holy God, and against those who bear his image.”
Moore goes on to acknowledge how the flag has been used in a historical context to terrorize blacks to this day, including last summer in Charleston, S.C., something McKissic also addressed in comments to the Washington Post.
“You can’t take something that is contaminated and make it innocent. I think to honor those nine people in Charleston that were killed, surely you can repudiate what drove Dylann Roof to kill those folks. You say to the black community, we identify with your pain. We share your pain,” McKissic said.
The Southern Baptist Convention is the second largest Christian denomination in the United States. Catholics are the largest. Churches are not required to abide by the resolution, but convention sources say most do.
Moore concluded his post with the following:
“As I’ve said before, the Cross and the Confederate flag cannot co-exist without one setting the other on fire. Today, messengers to the Southern Baptist Convention, including many white Anglo southerners, decided the cross was more important than the flag. They decided our African-American brothers and sisters are more important than family heritage. We decided that we are defined not by a Lost Cause but by amazing grace. Let’s pray for wisdom, work for justice, love our neighbors.”
Let’s hope it happens.
Featured image, Public Domain, CC BY-SA
