I agree with what you are saying. I actually cannot argue with what Mr. Moore says here. I am a believer in Christ the Messiah. My problem is with Russell Moore.
If you read about the man and his history, you may begin to see that he has an agenda, and that is to politically liberalize Southern Baptists. He is an adherent of a social justice type gospel which is used in modern Christian circles to dilute the message of the Gospel. He has a history that is out there and the SBC, in response to some white guilt, placed him as a public voice in order to increase their membership. That is my opinion.
Here is a link to an interview he did with the Washington Post:
http://articles.washingtonpost.com/2013-07-18/local/40643396_1_trayvon-martin-religious-liberty-chaplains
You may be right on that. I’ll have to look at the link you provided. I’m totally ignorant of SBC or any Baptist leaders, since I’m an Anglican myself. Although, that being said, I’m extremely choosey about which Anglican/Episcopal churches I attend, since our denomination has become utterly apostate in so many ways. I’ll read that link you sent. What you said about him sounds very interesting to me so far. Thanks for sharing!
Well, after reading that article you sent, I can’t say I agree with you about his goal being to liberalize the SBC - at least not from this one article. There does exist social injustice in the world, and it is right for the church to take a stance on it from a moral and ethical point. The churches should really be the ones to be reaching out to the community to give aid where it is needed, which is how hospitals got started, as well as the nursing profession. If the churches would take this stuff on, there would be less demand for the government to do so - at least to some degree. And the racial divide in America is certainly an issue the church should be concerned with. I disagree with what is being touted as “truth” that all whites are all equally guilty. History has been terribly distorted to the point that no one talks about the white slaves that also existed at that time and still do exist in the world - and have existed for centuries. No one talks about how it was Muslims and black Africans who sold their own fellow black Africans into slavery - and are still doing so today. And my family wasn’t even here in the U.S. back when blacks were slaves in the U.S. We were still Europeans then. And on top of that, no one mentions that there were black U.S. citizens who owned black slaves back in that time of our history. Also, not all slaves were poorly treated at all. And another issues is that it was a very, very small percentage of people who owned slaves. Many whites helped slaves to escape, too. No one talks much about that. So, I’m “hip” into the lies that are taught as truth in our history these days. But that doesn’t absolve this nation of its history of slavery and the oppression and holding down of the black community that has continued in this nation. The lies that the Democratic party have been their rescuers, when it was actually the Republican party that advocated and fought hard for slaves’ rights is also not taught and should be. But as a nation, we still do hold some guilt regarding the whole racial divide that has totally gone ballistic in our day. As a church, I believe it is the right thing for white Christians to step up and take a hard look at where we have failed our black brothers and sisters. I’m currently down here in the South where, myself a Southerner, I still see racism alive and well and out in the open. It’s totally understandable to me how blacks can feel that not much has changed. What I see is that Mr. Moore is advocating that we be honest with ourselves, and take the hard look at the failings of the church overall, in our culture. Certainly, blacks have their own share of blame and guilt - and this isn’t being looked at or talked about or considered. And we’re considered racist if we suggest that we each have blame. But we can’t just sit back and point the finger all the time, telling the other side that they need to quit pointing the finger at us. We each need to take a hard look inside. If some won’t do it, I think God will expects us to do our part. Social justice issues, just because they are paraded by the Left doesn’t mean that they are only an issue for the Left’s platform. They need to be our issue to. We just need to address them from a Christ-centered approach as a church, not necessarily through politics. If the church would address these issues seriously, and if we’d pray and get on our faces before God and ask Him to deal with us ourselves - and if we’d be willing to let Him show us what He actually sees wrong in us, and if we’d humble ourselves and “man-up” and follow His leading, so much of this social justice stuff - at least inside the church - would be dealt with. Maybe things wouldn’t improve in racial relations for the world at large, but at least in the church, we’d be united in brotherly love and be able to witness to the world as one body of Christ - showing that God can heal racial relations and bring together those formerly at odds with one another. This is what I think Mr. Moore is trying to convey. And that is my opinion. I’d have to do more research on this guy to see if there’s anything like what you’re saying about him. But just from this article, I see a person who’s admitting that social justice is a responsibility of the church. And I agree with him on that, at least. We have to stop seeing this stuff as only a Left issue. It isn’t. The Left just has the wrong answers and the wrong approaches to these problems. And the Left is actually making those issues worse. I also believe the Left is doing it on purpose, all while trying to convince their own voters that they really care. We know better. So, we should be taking these issues up because with Christ, we really do have the solution. It should be our business. We need our non-white brothers and sisters. And they need us. God wants us all to be one in Him. I’m sure you get what I’m trying to say. I could be wrong, but this is what I think Mr. Moore is trying to say in this article. I’ll have to do more research on him to see if that’s been true of him up till this point.