If there’s anything I’ve learned from 18 years of pastoring, it’s this: What’s said and what’s heard can be two entirely different things.
If you attended the Southern Baptist Convention annual meeting last month, you probably overheard a number of sidebar conversations involving Critical Race Theory, sexual abuse, and Executive Committee transparency, just to name a few. And you may have also heard, as I did, a lot of misunderstanding and misrepresentation of those issues. In other words, a lot of debate over what wasn’t being said.
A good example of hearing what’s not being said is illustrated in the results of a recently released study by the Barna Group entitled, “Beyond Diversity.” In 2019, 65 questions were posed to a diverse group of nearly 3,000 Americans, most of whom were professing Christians (not just SBC). Of particular interest was one of the survey questions, “Do you think our country has a race problem?” Possible answers were “Definitely,” “Somewhat,” and “Not at all.” Among practicing Christians, 46 percent responded definitely, 43 percent responded somewhat, and 11 percent responded not at all.
Those results were based on the survey administered in July-August of 2019. Barna had the opportunity to revisit the question one year later, in July-August of 2020, to see if there had been a shift in perception. There was. The percentage of practicing Christians that responded race is “not at all” a problem jumped from 11 to 19 percent, and was, according to Barna, “led by White Christians.”
Not. At. All. Stunning, but more than that, it exposes a huge inconsistency with the gospel. Everyone would agree that America is falling further away from God; lostness has outpaced our evangelistic efforts. And, as has been correctly stated by many people on many occasions, racism is a sin problem, not a skin problem.
Therefore, for a practicing Christian to say the country either definitely or somewhat has a problem with race one year, and then a year later (or even several years later) declare that the country does “not at all” have a problem with race, means the race problem has been improved or eradicated without revival. It’s the equivalent of saying the gospel is unnecessary for the transformation of society.
Thankfully, I don’t know of a single Southern Baptist pastor who believes that’s true or preaches it. Every SBC pastor I know affirms Section 15 of the Baptist Faith and Message 2000, which states, “Means and methods used for the improvement of society and the establishment of righteousness among men can be truly and permanently helpful only when they are rooted in the regeneration of the individual by the saving grace of God in Jesus Christ.” It’s what we preach and teach, but apparently, it’s not the message being heard in the pew.
Just as some heard Paul say, “Abolish the Law,” when he taught salvation by grace through faith in Christ, I’m persuaded that some Christians have incorrectly heard and concluded that racism is dead as a result of the national and denominational CRT debate. As summarized in Resolution 2 at this year’s convention, we need to emphasize that racism, in all its various manifestations, is a sin that won’t be eliminated in any society without the gospel. To do so is not an endorsement of CRT. Every white person is not a racist, and every problem in society is not a race problem, but that doesn’t mean there aren’t racists or that there are no problems that have race at their core. Both extremes minimize the pervasiveness of sin and the beauty of the gospel.
Let’s do our best to ensure people are not hearing what’s not being said, and that we’re in agreement that society won’t improve unless the lost are won to faith in Christ and discipled. That’s advancing the kingdom, which we all want, and to see it happen we must “Advance Together.”