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."
He probably believes in ‘White Privilege’ too - I’m looking forward to the day when we judge people on the content of their character and not the color of their skin.
Some Americans in 1968 understood what the leftists intended and did what they could to head them off. The leftists have largely succeeded and now we are living in the worsening wreckage of our society that they sought to create. Jim Crow was not really the issue then and it certainly isn’t the issue now.
And people like him are stirring the pot and keeping racism alive and well.
Trying to end Christianity by slapping the ‘racist’ tag on it.
IIRC there were more riots in the northern states than the southern states. Disappointed he would take this stance not based on history.
Why would any freeper give a rats ass what a wannabe Will Campbell has to say?
He slandered my grandmother. Wife of a deacon in a southern baptist church in the 60’s. Also very pro civil rights.
So much for not bearing false witness.
Wonder what other commandments he publically and unrepentantly breaks these days
He fails to draw the line between true believers who did not buy into the Klan message and false believers who used religion as a veil. It’s as dishonest as saying that the Nazis were Christian.
Moore is trying to earn some cred with the peddlars of revolution. He’ll wish he had not.
When it no longer matters, everyone is Rosa Parks.
Usually the same kind of people who wanted to keep her in the back of the bus in 1958. They have just moved on to supporting some other moral outrage.
Liberal, leftwing A-holes like “Ruuthell” Moore is why I am no longer a Baptist. I have great sympathy for my Catholic brethren who are suffering under the anti-pope.
Try Reformed Baptist. It is decidedly different.
Please explain the pic.
Moore is doing two things
He’s virtue signaling at the expense of his mississippi gulf coast ancestry
And he’s poaching for black congregants of the National Baptist Convention
Like a whore in hot pants soliciting with no subtlety
I loved Will Campbell. He told good stories. He knew how to touch the hearts even of Klansmen. He loved Southerners and Christians of all colors. He didn’t buy racism, black or white.
Moore is a PC social liberal white guilt traitor and a modern democrat
He has no business in high position at the Southern Baptist Convention
freaking hilarious!
“We as Christians have to remember how horrible, horrible, horrible we ALL were 50 years ago before most of us were born.
I don’t want to build bridges or communities, I want to tell everyone how AWFUL RACIST THE bible belt was so we never heal.”
What a db.
What is truly ironic is that many folks that said that 30+ years ago, are the ones today pushing white hatred and privilege.
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