On December 12, 2018 our nation received an unexpected gift, a “Report On Slavery And Racism In The History Of The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary”. It was commissioned and published by the Seminary itself, not a result of someone else’s investigation. It seems honest, thorough and unblinking as it describes what was done, by whom and why.
CLICK HERE to read the full report
CLICK HERE to read or hear Dr Martin Luther King’s 1961 address to the Seminary students and faculty
For those who have studied slavery and racism, there are few surprises but those who have been taught the “Lost Cause” mythology of the Confederacy and white supremacy will find a shocking explanation of how American culture, business, politics and religion interacted to produce slavery, civil war, Jim Crow laws and our present day racial relations.
In both the South and the North, a great many evangelical Christians wanted to ban slavery. Abolitionist Baptists argued that they “…could not hold communion with slaveholding Christians…” In the South, wealthy Christians who supported slavery refused contributions to abolitionist organizations; and in 1845 they created the Southern Baptist Convention as a pro-slavery church.
Their seminary taught that “God established slavery as the permanent condition of Africans after the flood. Noah’s prophecy condemning Canaan to perpetual slavery was observably fulfilled by the African race.” That doctrine was taught in churches of many denominations across the slave states. A member of the Seminary faculty drafted the Southern Baptist Convention’s resolution supporting the Confederacy. It described secession and the war as just and necessary for the defense of slavery.
After the war seminary faculty wrote that, “…any solution to the racial tensions in southern states must include the restoration of southern white political control…” The Seminary Board Chairman said, “We at the South do not recognize social equality of the negro… we cannot entrust to him the management of the interests of our country for this simple reason: God and man know he is not competent to control them.” They taught that God created blacks as an intellectually and morally inferior race therefore the white race should be in charge of government.
Joseph Brown, a Seminary Board Chairman, its largest financial contributor and a Governor of Georgia made most of the money that he donated in a convict lease system. After men (almost all of them black) were arrested, he leased their labor from the state for use in his coal mines and foundries. The brutal conditions were described as worse than slavery. The practice became common in the South.
Seminary faculty adopted the “lost cause” mythology that, in the words of the report, “re-shaped Christianity itself into a civil religion.” The lost cause interpretation of history justified racial segregation and the disenfranchisement and oppression of blacks based on the doctrine of white superiority and the belief that blacks “lacked capacity for learning, literature and self-governance.”
The Seminary supported segregation and opposed voting rights through the first half of the 20th century. By 1961, some faculty realized the need for change. Dr Martin Luther King Jr, himself a Baptist minister, accepted an invitation to address and converse with students and faculty. 250 students subsequently petitioned the Mayor of Louisville, KY (home of the seminary) to desegregate its restaurants. Several large churches promptly cut off financial support and complained about Dr King being invited, referring to him as a “racist agitator.” The Seminary President and Board officers apologized to the churches and the money began to flow again.
Southern Baptists and others demanded that legislators put their doctrines into law. They prohibited interracial marriage and created a segregated society through Jim Crow laws. They aligned God with slavery and white supremacy by poring over scriptures to find a verse or two that seemed to support a conclusion that they had already reached. The practice of aligning God with our own prejudices and then turning the prejudices into laws continues today. It is visible, for example, in battles over marriage equality, ordination of women and voter suppression.
Current seminary President Albert Mohler, Jr closed the report with these words, “Diversity is not an accident or a problem – it’s a sign of God’s providence and promise. If the church gets this wrong, it’s not just getting race and ethnic difference wrong. It’s getting the gospel wrong.”
The gift of Christmas is a gift of new light for our world. There is a glimmer of that light in the Seminary’s Report. I hope you’ll take a look.