- 00:04
- Okay, so this video is about this ridiculous phenomenon that I'm seeing regarding critical race theory and the
- 00:12
- Southern Baptist Convention, and I'm going to use Beth Moore as an example. She's by far not the only one that's doing this exact thing, but she is...
- 00:24
- she's special. But anyway, so the idea here is that nobody really knows what critical race theory is, so why would the seminary presidents come out against critical race theory if all it's going to do is going to shut down conversations on race?
- 00:41
- That's preposterous, obviously, because at this point the Southern Baptist Convention's identity is talking about race.
- 00:48
- I mean, honestly, if you asked me what was the distinctive of the Southern Baptist Convention, it would no longer be the gospel of Jesus Christ.
- 00:57
- It would be race conversations and racial reconciliation and sexual gender minorities and stuff like that.
- 01:04
- That's what the SBC is at this point. I'm sorry to break the news to you, but that's basically what it is. Now, here's what
- 01:10
- Beth Moore has to say, and this is amazing. I really appreciate Beth for her clarity here.
- 01:17
- She says this, I've repeatedly asked this question in good faith and direct messages to various SBC leaders and have yet to receive a clear, concise, consistent answer.
- 01:33
- Please, for those of us seeking to understand defined critical race theory in, say, four sentences, is preaching against racism any version of it?
- 01:45
- It seems to me that any version of it is troublingly subjective.
- 01:51
- Again, I'm asking this in good faith. How on earth will longstanding racism ever be rooted out of the
- 01:58
- SBC when anyone who speaks boldly of our history can be accused and perhaps dismissed for a version of critical race theory?
- 02:08
- And please don't send me a link to another article. I don't want another article. I'm asking sincerely for a definition of from the
- 02:17
- SBC I served for 40 years. I want to understand what critical race theory is and the great danger it poses other than the ones before us with systemic injustice.
- 02:29
- Help me. Now, Beth, I really appreciate your honesty here because if I take you seriously and in good faith, as you've asked me to, then we have to come to terms as a convention, right?
- 02:44
- As a Christian body in the United States, the
- 02:50
- Southern Baptist Convention represents a significant part of the Christian body in the
- 02:55
- United States. We passed a resolution talking about the wonderful helpfulness of critical race theory as an analytical tool.
- 03:08
- We passed it and we don't know what it is. I have to assume,
- 03:14
- Beth, that when you've reached out in good faith in direct messages to various SBC leaders that probably included some of the people on the committee that put this resolution forward or some of the people that voted for it, right?
- 03:30
- I would have to assume that, Beth, because that would be the smart thing to do. And you're very smart.
- 03:37
- And so the reality is that if the people that pushed this, especially that dude, that black guy who said analytical tool, you would think he would know what critical race theory was.
- 03:50
- In fact, he was extremely zealous in defending its use as an analytical tool.
- 03:58
- And so, I mean, I'm sure he would pick up the phone if he saw Beth Moore calling. I mean, that's stands to reason you've served the
- 04:05
- SBC for 40 years. You're a best -selling author. You're a mover. You're a shaker. In fact,
- 04:11
- I believe if I'm not mistaken, you were on a panel discussion the very day that resolution nine was voted for.
- 04:18
- So he would know the name Beth Moore. I'm sure that you would know someone who could get you connected with the dude who said analytical tool.
- 04:30
- And so I'm assuming that happened, Beth, because I think you're a smart lady, and I'm assuming you did reach out to him directly.
- 04:36
- And so am I to understand that none of the people that pushed critical race theory as an analytical tool were able to define critical race theory for you in four sentences or less?
- 04:52
- But I'm a little confused by that, Beth, because you are a very intelligent lady. And so I'm wondering, why is it that you're not, you don't want to read an article?
- 05:01
- And in fact, the articles that you do read, you don't understand what it is.
- 05:07
- I'm just very confused by that because, I mean, this is an arbitrary number of sentences.
- 05:13
- Like, why not define it in eight sentences, two sentences? Why is the answer four?
- 05:18
- And it's like, well, don't send me an article that explains what critical race theory is, because you don't understand it.
- 05:26
- I'm very confused by that. And again, I'm taking you in good faith here. I'm assuming that what you're saying is 100 % accurate, and all of that kind of thing.
- 05:36
- And so it's weird that the Southern Baptist Convention would be so zealous to get in the conversation about race, that they would vote on a resolution that they had no idea what it meant, including the guy who told us how great critical race theory was as an analytical tool.
- 06:00
- Now, Beth and others that are doing this, again, as I said, Beth Moore is not the only one who has claimed to not know what critical race theory is.
- 06:10
- I'll be honest with you. If I'm going to be, if I'm going to speak in good faith on this video,
- 06:15
- I do have to be honest with you, because I know you've asked me to take you in good faith and to assume that this is an honest question from you.
- 06:24
- But from my perspective, I want to speak my truth here. Of course, it doesn't seem like a good faith question.
- 06:32
- It doesn't seem like you're honestly confused about this. In fact, I don't think it would be very charitable of me to assume that the
- 06:40
- Southern Baptist Convention doesn't know what critical race theory is, since they voted on a resolution affirming how great it is as an analytical tool.
- 06:50
- I don't think that's actually very charitable at all. In fact, I think that Curtis Woods, I think that's what his name was,
- 06:56
- I think he knows full well what critical race theory is. In fact, I think, Beth, that you know full well what critical race theory is.
- 07:04
- That's my opinion. I know you've asked me to give you a benefit of the doubt here.
- 07:10
- I mean, I can do that, but it's very difficult for me to believe that. I think you know full well,
- 07:17
- Beth, what critical race theory is. I think every person who has pretended like they don't know what critical race theory is over the last couple weeks, like I saw the other guy that was doing this was
- 07:26
- Cosper. Cosper, yeah. You and Cosper are like two peas in a little pod.
- 07:32
- But yeah, I think he knows full well what critical race theory is, and I think that you're both smart and capable people, so if somebody sent you an article and you read it, you probably would understand what the article said.
- 07:48
- I don't like this pretending to be stupid thing, but if you want to use that as a tactic, which
- 07:54
- I think is what it is, you want to use this as a tactic, then fine, because here's the thing, guys.
- 08:00
- You pretend like, well, there's all this long -standing systemic racism in the church, and so I don't even know what critical race theory is, but we know what racism is, so let's fight racism.
- 08:13
- That's the tactic that you're using, but the reality is, Beth, that when you do that, you're using critical race theory, because oftentimes we ask for evidence that someone was discriminated against because they were
- 08:26
- Black or they were Latino or whatever, and the answers that we get are, well, you know, it's just in the system.
- 08:33
- We're not talking about people being racist. The systems that the people made are racist, and there's the disparities, and there's no
- 08:40
- Black leaders in the seminaries. There's not a single seminary president that's Black, and so therefore, racism.
- 08:47
- It's like, well, Beth, you're pretending not to know what critical race theory is, even if I took you seriously.
- 08:54
- I have to point out that you're using critical race theory in that analysis.
- 09:00
- In other words, you're using critical race theory as an analytical tool to pooh -pooh the idea that we should even be talking about critical race theory, and I got to be honest, again, and this is a good -faith message for you.
- 09:17
- Stop. Stop this. It makes you look dishonest.
- 09:23
- I think it's more than it just makes you look dishonest. It shows that you are, in fact, dishonest.
- 09:29
- You know full well what critical race theory is. You know full well what the presidents of the
- 09:36
- Southern seminaries were saying when they said that any form of critical theory is antithetical to the
- 09:42
- Bible and to church, to the Baptist faith and message and to the church. We all know that, and now
- 09:48
- I've got my own criticisms of that statement, of course, but you know what it meant, Beth, and let's just be honest, my cosper and the rest of you that are doing this tactic, you all also likewise know what it meant.
- 10:03
- And so, you know, this little game that you're playing, I mean, I know it probably makes you feel really good, probably makes you feel good to be a warrior for the cause of blacks in the
- 10:15
- United States and stuff like that, but to be honest, Beth, it's very condescending. It's counterproductive, and I'll speak as someone who has the ancestors who were slaves.
- 10:28
- It's not helpful. I find it disgusting, and I reject your version of help because it's like the government when they try to help.
- 10:37
- It just makes things much, much worse. And so that's the video, and I hope you found it helpful, and Beth, if you ever see it, go home.
- 10:59
- It just occurred to me that there are some people that don't know what critical race theory is, and I don't believe that Beth Moore is one of them, not for one moment, but the problem with what she's asking you to do is defining critical race theory as it's a course of study, and to ask you to define it in four sentences or less is very difficult because on the one side, what it is, it's just a way to examine how race impacts social life, you know, economics, political situations, law, stuff like that, and that's very innocuous because I do that myself, and I'm not a critical theorist, and so forcing the definition to be short is a way to make it sound legitimate because what
- 11:40
- I just said to you, there's nothing wrong with examining how race affects society, obviously.
- 11:46
- Law, politics, economics, geography, real estate, all that kind of stuff.
- 11:52
- There's nothing wrong with that kind of thing, but what it does is when you actually unpack it a little bit more, what it is is it's really just a way to very cynically assume that racism and race plays a factor in everything, in every transaction, even if you cannot show evidence for it, and so how the
- 12:12
- Bible demands that you have one or two witnesses to establish if someone is showing partiality or something like that.
- 12:19
- In critical race theory, it's not like that. In fact, one of Jamar Tisby's favorite things to say is that racism never goes away, it just changes form, and so sometimes it could be imperceptible, but it's still there, so critical race theory, what it is really, and this is my brief description, is a theory that assumes racism is at play in every cultural interaction.
- 12:42
- This is why you get situations where no matter what you do, you're racism, so if you move into the neighborhood, you're gentrifying it.
- 12:48
- If you move out of the neighborhood, that's white flight. You see, so no matter what happens, racism is an integral part of every transaction in the
- 12:57
- United States. That's what critical race theory is. It's ridiculous. It's unbiblical. It's evil, and obviously,
