White American Bible Belt" paid homage to racism while calling it "Jesus Christ"
Posted on 04/06/2018 7:58:21 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
Often in history, the "White American Bible Belt" paid homage to racism while calling it "Jesus Christ," according to prominent evangelical Russell Moore.
Delivering a speech at the MLK 50 Conference in Memphis, Tennessee, on Tuesday, Moore drew a parallel between America's struggle for racial equality and the ancient Israelites being told to choose between serving God or serving Baal.
"Time and time again, when told they could not serve both, the people of God tragically often chose to worship Baal but to rename him God," said Moore, president of the Southern Baptist Convention's Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission.
"And time and time again, in the white American Bible Belt, the people of God had to choose between Jesus Christ and Jim Crow, because you cannot serve both, and tragically, many often chose to serve Jim Crow and to rename him Jesus Christ."
Moore read Matthew 23:29-39 where Jesus denounced the teachers of the law for decorating the tombs of prophets and claiming that they would not have supported murdering the Old Testament prophets if they lived back then.
Moore drew a modern parallel to the wreaths being laid in honor of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., warning against misremembering the slain civil rights leader's struggle for equality and claiming they would support the civil rights leader if they were alive back in the 1960s.
"Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. preached a beloved community, but he was not a beloved preacher in an awful lot of communities," Moore explained.
"It's all too easy for us to think right now that the hatred directed toward Dr. King and his message was limited to that bullet that felled him at the Lorraine Motel."
Moore's remarks came as part of the MLK 50 Conference, whose theme is "Gospel Reflections From the Mountaintop." The conference is being held around the fiftieth anniversary of the assassination of Dr. King, Jr. The day before, April 3, 1968, King gave his final public speech, where he famously spoke of having been to the mountaintop.
"I just want to do God's will. And He's allowed me to go up to the mountain. And I've looked over, and I've seen the Promised Land," stated King.
"I may not get there with you. But I want you to know tonight, that we, as a people, will get to the Promised Land."
Phillip Bethancourt, executive vice president of the ERLC and one of the other speakers at the conference, explained in a video just before the event began that the goal of the two-day conference is to strengthen those involved in racial reconciliation efforts.
"What we want to do is inspire and equip people so that wherever they're starting at here, they leave here better than they came," said Bethancourt.
"We want to see relationships form and connections where people look around the room and say 'I'm not alone in this. There are thousands of people just like me who love Jesus and who care about justice and those don't have to be separate from each other.'"
In addition to Moore and Bethancourt, other scheduled conference speakers include NFL player and author Benjamin Watson, DesiringGod.corg founder and pastor John Piper, best-selling author and Bible study leader Beth Moore, Acts 29 President Matt Chandler, and Liberty University English Professor Karen Swallow Prior, among others.
Tennessee Governor Bill Haslam made a special appearance on the main stage before Moore's speech, stating that government is better at "fixing potholes than fixing hearts."
"We need the Body of Christ to come around us to do those things that we're not so good at," said Gov. Haslam, noting that the church was well equipped for racial reconciliation because Christians "understand grace" and "understand what it means to have all of us created in God's image."
Watch Moore’s entire keynote address here:
https://www.facebook.com/erlcsbc/videos/1908972402446189/
He should advocate for ending Affirmative Action.
Worshipping racism? Sounds like a Democrat thing.
The only racism I’m seeing these days is coming from black society.
Moore is another useful idiot of the Left and their continuing efforts to divide America with “identity politics”.
Where in TF do these people come up with crap like this? Not one of them have prolly stepped foot in a church but can tell us all about Jesus, the Bible and now white racism worship?
Yeah......no. I reject ALL lefty premises. Lies lies lies
Projection.
The Democrat party has been and continues to be the religion that worships racism.
He has a serious weed up his ass and calls it intellectual thought and reason.
Moore once again proves himself to be a leftist mole embedded in the SBC. Playing the racism card of the left is pretty obvious.
He’s one of the reasons I no longer identify as a Southern Baptist.
That can arguably be applied to the KKK and other similar organizations, and to some individuals. But to broadbrush all of the “white American Bible belt” that way is disingenuous. (That means “liar, liar, pants on fire” for you folks in Rio Linda)
Currently, 75% of the black births are born out of wedlock. IMHO, that would that would upset Christ more than any racism that exists today. The failure of ministers to preach about it would also be high on the list of areas Christ would be upset with.
And yet another unhinged, insane, moronic, God-hating lib heard from....
Amazing how many of these mentally-diseased POSs exist.
I don’t really remember if I ever saw the Christian Post before, but after reading a couple articles at the link, it looks like an anti white racist, social justice warrior’s dream come true. I am positive, I won’t look at it again.
Being a Southern Baptist myself, I think that Moore is, and has been for a long time, a wild-assed POS.
That SOB has just slandered an entire group of Christians that he does not know, has not ever met.
Perhaps Mr. Moore could better serve the Southern Baptist Conference if he preached a message that is relevant to today's issues and worked for a better understanding among people in the 21st Century, instead of picking at old scabs and scars, or piling fuel on the ashes of past sins so as to rekindle and reignite the hatred and misunderstanding upon which they were based.
I would like to ask this man why he is so unwilling to "forgive others their trespasses" for things that happened a half-century or more ago. I would like to ask: What is your motivation for continuing to stir a rusty & dilapidated old pot which should have been emptied decades ago? Because it certainly isn't due to any kind Christian love I am familiar with.
Pardon me... ...”Southern Baptist Convention”...
His speech would have been both brave and useful - in 1958. It utterly distorts reality in 2018.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.