In their recent meeting in St. Louis, Missouri, leaders of the Southern Baptist Convention voted overwhelmingly to reject the display of the Confederate flag.
Russell Moore, president of the Southern Baptist Convention’s Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission wrote a blog on his website in which he explains why the Southern Baptist Convention leaders decided to reject the Confederate flag.
Moore details the history of the Southern Baptist Convention, noting that it was started in 1845 over a disagreement about allowing slaveholders to serve as missionaries.
Since that time, the SBC has often participated in what Moore calls “open sin against a holy God, and against those who bear his image.”
Moore said that the SBC often used the Bible to justify slavery and the oppression of African-Americans, but that in doing so, “Southern religion wove a counter-biblical folk theology that stood on the other side of Jesus.”
The new resolution exhorts Christians to consider not flying the Confederate flag anymore, even if they believe it represents their family history and honor.
James Merritt, himself a descendent of slaveholders, proposed an amendment to the SBC’s resolution that states, “We call our brothers and sisters in Christ to discontinue the display of the Confederate battle flag as a sign of solidarity of the whole Body of Christ, including our African-American brothers and sisters.”
Significantly, the SBC met in St. Louis, just miles outside of Ferguson where race riots and unrest took place.
SBC President Ronnie Floyd remarked that the setting of the meeting was “"[P]rovidential and amazing!" especially since the location was settled on before the Ferguson riots.
Publication date: June 15, 2016
