The Gospel of Racial Reconciliation

Conversations That Matter

Subscribe

Download

Share

00

00:11

Welcome to the Conversations That Matter podcast. My name is John Harris. We're gonna talk about an article from July 25th, 2017.

00:20

July 25th, 2017. I wanna show you this because some people have asked me where I got the idea that the social justice movement functions like a religion.

00:35

And some of you saw the chart in my book, Christianity and Social Justice, Religions and Conflict.

00:42

And some thought, hey, this is awesome. Where did you get this? And then people are sending me articles from other people who have noticed this.

00:48

And it's true, like other people have seen this. In fact, if you go back to pre -critical race theory iterations of social justice, you have philosophers,

00:59

I talk about some of them in my book, saying the same thing, that this is a secular religion. So this isn't a new observation, but I did come at this observation independently.

01:10

So there wasn't anything that I was reading specifically that made this case. And then

01:16

I copied what they said, or I took their ideas. Actually, this is actually something

01:21

I just, I thought of. If anything, there was a friend of mine who I talked through some of these things with back in 2017.

01:31

But I had been thinking these things since probably 2014. The seeds were planted in my mind.

01:39

And where they got planted actually was at Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary. I was attending seminary and going to chapel.

01:47

And at the time, it wasn't really woke in the sense that it became woke in 2017 and 18, especially really right after Donald Trump was elected.

01:58

But it definitely had that flavor starting a little bit. And it didn't bother me a lot, a lot, but it did bother me.

02:07

It wasn't, like it didn't characterize the whole campus. Certainly it seemed to be, from my experience initially, it was in chapel that I would hear some of these things and it made no sense.

02:17

And my roommates thought the same thing. And then I came back years later. And I, so for those who don't know my story, like I took a break,

02:25

I went in 2014. I actually took a break from seminary and I came back in 2017.

02:34

And it was like, everything had changed. And so I got to see the change, like right when it was happening.

02:40

And I, people who had been there the entire time, actually, I think it was 2015, maybe 2015.

02:46

And then I came back 2017. Anyway, people who had been there the entire time, like they had, some of them had changed.

02:52

People that I knew before who weren't on the social justice train, who were conservative politically, all of a sudden weren't.

02:58

And I was like, what happened here? And there were little things, little events that happened.

03:04

I remember Danny Akin did a video for Openly Secular. And I'm like, why is he doing a video for an atheist organization?

03:11

And there were little things like that people would send me or I would just see. And I thought, what's going on at Southeastern?

03:17

But it wasn't like a big floodgate open until, in my mind, 2017, that fall semester, especially.

03:25

So I wrote this before that fall of 2017. And I'm just showing you that this is something that I think anyone just with the

03:35

Bible and a basic understanding perhaps of the politics and how subversive Marxists are, and just,

03:40

I knew some of that from my secular education, but you don't have to know a lot. You can figure this kind of stuff out.

03:47

And I was thinking about it today, this article from 2017 that I wrote before I had any kind of a platform.

03:53

I just kind of blogged. I got my thoughts out. This, it rings true.

03:58

It's just, it's true back then, and it's just as true today.

04:06

And so I wanted to kind of take a trip down memory lane and just read through it with you.

04:11

It's pretty short, but this is John Harris, 2017, talking about racial reconciliation, salvation of a different color.

04:19

That's what I titled it. The current situation and why it's important. And I'm just gonna read it here.

04:25

It's trending in our social networks. We hear it on our podcasts. We see during chapel at our, we see it,

04:30

I think I meant to say, during chapel at our Christian colleges, racial reconciliation. Two words heavy enough to hang the head of any white male seminary student.

04:38

Being taught, being myself of the targeted demographic, the two words used to create confusion for me.

04:44

Do I want to see reconciliation between the races? More questions would follow, but is there even such a thing as race?

04:51

Isn't that an evolutionary idea? Okay, fine. Don't I want to at least see ethnic reconciliation, but what responsibility do

04:59

I have for the wrongs of the past? Am I somehow at odds with people of other ethnic backgrounds because of the background

05:05

I was born into? What about ethnic groups that have wronged my ancestors? So these are questions like I had before anyone had identified to my knowledge that there was a social justice movement, except perhaps maybe like J .D.

05:18

Hall at Pulpit and Pen or I don't know. Like there were people saying things like Marxianity, but there wasn't like a, the current iteration, the critical race, that really hadn't been called out.

05:32

People didn't, at that point, at least publicly, talk about what was going on or starting to go on.

05:39

So this is what I'm, these are the questions I'm having. And these, I would submit to you are the questions seminary students often have when, especially before 2020, when they were introduced to these ideas.

05:50

Like, wait a minute, what? Wait, I have a problem with someone else? I didn't know I had a problem with them. Oh, they have a problem with me?

05:55

What did I do? Right, so this is the confusion it created in me. The seminary I was attending, I continue reading here, and denomination

06:02

I was part of at the time put a lot of emphasis on what that administration termed to be racial reconciliation. The initiative was expressed in various ways, from over -representing minority speakers during chapel, whether they could speak or not.

06:15

I say that because I remember some chapel speakers that honestly, man, I wanted to take a nap and it had nothing to do with the

06:21

Bible. It was like all about the black experience sometimes. And not that that's not interesting, it is, but the speakers just, they couldn't speak sometimes and they were boring.

06:30

I just, to put it mildly, and they weren't even Southern Baptist sometimes. And I was like, why are these people here? My roommates,

06:35

I remember asking about it too. We were all talking about it. Like, I don't get it. Like, why this emphasis? Anyway, to the formation of an affirmative action initiative in the admissions department.

06:47

So that was the Kingdom Diversity Initiative. That's what I was referring to. And I don't, I think they probably had that and called it that, but I don't know.

06:56

It was very new at that time. Martin Luther King Jr. Day was celebrated with a lecture series on African -American experience while prominent historical figures who are actually significant to the denomination itself were passed over without even honorable mentions at any point during the academic year.

07:12

I remember this kind of like confused me, especially coming from a history background. I was like, wait a minute. Like, why aren't we talking about the founders of the

07:18

SBC? Why don't we talk about prominent Southern Baptists? Even the conservative resurgence guys, like some of them still are alive.

07:26

Like, why don't we talk about them ever? We just never hear about them, but we constantly hear about MLK. So it was confusing.

07:34

I was like, he wasn't Southern Baptist, not saying we shouldn't hear about him or learn from him, but like, it just, why the emphasis?

07:40

The Black Lives Matter movement even made, and I'm sure it is still making inroads into the seminary, panel discussions on police shootings, whether they were justified or not, that point was irrelevant.

07:49

And the importance of taking down the Confederate flag were deemed as worthy of chapel time, even while other issues of greater significance to the ministries of the gathering student body were barely covered.

07:59

I still remember this. And now as we've come since 2015,

08:04

I've made this point many times, but there's two issues that have changed significantly. And they both start with an M, marriage and monuments.

08:11

In 2015 or 16, SCBTS, the seminary I was at, I wasn't there at the time, but they hosted this whole chapel.

08:20

Listen, this is chapel, right? Chapel. And the whole entire discussion was on taking down the

08:25

Confederate flag. And I remember thinking like, why? Like, yeah,

08:31

I do kind of disagree with what happened because I knew that was the seed that was going to be used once the plant came to be fully grown to take down everything.

08:40

I knew it when the monument in South Carolina, they had a flag over this monument and they took it down.

08:48

And I knew if they could characterize that as racist, and in the context, it's over a veteran's monument.

08:54

If they could characterize anyone who fought in that struggle even if it was just to protect their homes, if they could just say that that's all racist, then that would give them the blank check they need to take down everything.

09:06

I could see that at the time, and there was a few of us who could, but most conservatives didn't wanna admit that.

09:12

It's the same thing with marriage at the time. In 2015, now the SCBTS didn't have like a panel on this, but what

09:19

I noticed was there weren't the rah, rah, rah, let's defend marriage kinds of lectures or events or rallies anymore.

09:28

And I remember them. I was a little younger. I wasn't in seminary yet, but I remember even in New York, a very progressive state, that was something that was, you'd see it actually quite often.

09:39

Even Democrats in our assembly would fight to defend marriage. And then it was like someone flipped a switch in 2015 when the

09:47

Supreme Court, and New York, I think, came before that a little bit, but the Supreme Court, when they, in the

09:53

Obergefell decision, rendered a verdict, that was it. It was like conservatives kind of like, well, we're not defending that anymore,

10:00

I guess. And now someone just sent me, I haven't watched it yet. Andrew Clavin at the Daily Wire has a whole episode now on reconciling

10:06

Christianity and homosexuality. And this is the conservative side. It's conservative side that we're talking about here.

10:15

So it's amazing how fast things move, lightning fast.

10:21

And now we're talking about trans athletes. That's the controversy now. Well, if we would have further upstream really said, you know what, you can render this verdict, but we're gonna, oh, who was it?

10:31

Kim Davis, right? Was like the lone county clerk in Kentucky. If we would have stood up right then, and I think the same thing with the monument issue, we stood up right then and said, no, the logic you're using to take these down isn't right.

10:44

Doesn't mean that we're totally for displaying that flag in our backyards. Some of you might be from the

10:50

North. Doesn't mean, all it means is we don't want to interpret the past with the ideals and the really eisegetical way of looking at them from a present vantage point.

11:05

We're not gonna do that. We're not gonna also look at marriage and then interpret it according to, again, the experience of people who we deem to be oppressed in some way because, well, they can't participate in it because they don't have feelings towards women if they're men.

11:25

And if they're women, they don't have feelings towards men. And they have feelings towards the same gender. Therefore, we need to completely deconstruct our whole entire foundation of our society because of their feelings, because of how they feel about this.

11:40

Like, we're not gonna accept that. We're not gonna accept the logic that says that symbol offends us.

11:45

Therefore, the people who actually fought under it, we're going to tar and feather them now because in the present, we feel a certain way.

11:54

That should have been squashed. Conservatives from no matter what part of the country, even if they weren't evangelical

12:02

Christians, should have come together and said, we know where this is going, stop. But it didn't happen. And anyway,

12:09

I'm going on such a tangent here. I'll get to the rest of the article, but that's where we were.

12:15

I just remember in 2015, 2016, 2017, that window kind of closed and we gave up the issues.

12:22

And I say we as in the neocons, or the religious right conservative movement, they just gave them up.

12:29

And now we're trying to defend things. We don't have a foundation to defend anymore. You can't really defend the founding that well anymore.

12:37

Conservatives are trying to come up with this kind of like, they're gonna latch on to this talking point of this, really, which was a leftist talking point up until pretty recently, in my opinion, that, well, the ideals of the founders, the ideals that they didn't live up to is how we justify them.

12:54

That's not gonna work for that long. It might work with conservatives trying to, who have an emotional attachment to these things in the past, an identity that they draw from the founders.

13:07

They'll use that logic because they'll use anything to defend it, but it won't work. The logic won't work long -term.

13:13

And neither will the logic we're using to try to say, well, boys are boys and girls are girls, but you can have same -sex marriage.

13:20

It won't, pick one, right? There, you're gonna be straining so long. The logic doesn't work.

13:25

So we're in this transition period, and I think we could have avoided it if we would have just hung tough, but we didn't.

13:32

And unfortunately, Southeastern was somewhat involved in much of this. The Hegelian dialectic was moving, meaning the thesis, antithesis, synthesis, they were right on that synthesis.

13:46

And they still are, in my opinion. They're still trying to maintain some kind of a conservative orthodoxy in their minds.

13:53

And also, well, we're new, gentler, kinder kind of complementarians, and we're nicer when it comes to race relations.

14:01

And we are, as there was a email

14:06

I just was sent from a student recently, from Ryan Hutchinson, who's in the admin, I think he might be the

14:12

VP there, kind of almost mocking people who wouldn't get the vaccine. I mean, this went out to the whole campus.

14:18

I mean, they're just, it's like on everything, they have to kind of like, they have to give the left some points and kind of go with them to a certain extent.

14:26

So they were doing it back then. That's where I saw it start. And I said,

14:32

I remember my roommate telling me that he would barely pay attention sometimes in chapel during escapades into the social justice of racial reconciliation.

14:39

He wanted to know the Bible and how it applied to his ministry. Most of these discussions didn't qualify for the reason he was paying to study at seminary in the first place.

14:47

I can only surmise that there were more who felt the same way, but who don't know what to do except ignore it.

14:55

Was it really worth our time to complain about something that would only incorrectly portray us as racist to the administration if we did?

15:04

It was difficult to even articulate why we were either disinterested or disagreeable to the efforts to win us to racial reconciliation through the endless barrage of white guilt for the hate crimes of our cultural and theological ancestors, apparently carried out.

15:18

Now that it's been a few years, and as recent events in the denomination have transpired, it becomes apparent to me that the emphasis upon social justice and racial reconciliation have become even more prevalent.

15:29

I believe now more than ever, it is imperative upon me to stop ignoring and start speaking out.

15:35

So this is me in 2017, okay? That's how I felt. I couldn't ignore it anymore. I had been,

15:40

I had just been asking questions like many of you, and I said no more. This is a gospel issue.

15:47

This is what I said. I said that word. I said, this is a gospel issue. I strongly believe that this new obsession in certain circles with racial reconciliation is in direct contradiction to biblical reconciliation.

15:58

The two cannot coexist. One will dominate the other, and for a denomination that has escaped the entangling clutches of rationalistic liberalism to only have been shipwrecked by the postmodern concept of racial reconciliation and social justice is a travesty worthy of someone sounding the alarm about.

16:15

It is my belief that most of those who are now buying into this false gospel still believe in a true gospel and just have not quite seen where the two contradict.

16:23

Hopefully this analysis lays out the problems so people can wake up and free themselves from this modern day heresy.

16:29

So I was calling this a heresy. I was saying that this is a refutation of the gospel back in 2017, the summer of 2017.

16:38

Biblical gospel versus gospel of racial reconciliation. This is what I say. The biblical gospel focuses on eradicating internal heart sins.

16:45

The gospel of racial reconciliation focuses on eradicating external behavior sins. In Matthew 15, 11 and 19,

16:53

Jesus said, it is not what enters into the mouth that defiles the man, but what proceeds out of the mouth that defiles the man.

17:00

For out of the heart comes evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, slanders.

17:05

In other words, the source of evil is inside of every individual waiting to be expressed in external actions.

17:12

The gospel changes a man internally so that he or she will possess new affections and desire different things.

17:19

God orders our desires in such a way that external actions change as a result. Not so according to the gospel of racial reconciliation, which

17:26

I call GRR. Evil is something, I should have just called it CRT, right?

17:32

But I called it GRR. Evil is something quite external. Now I'm sure that at this point, some would object.

17:38

They may say, but it is the evil within man's heart that causes the outward action of discrimination.

17:44

We recognize this. I have no doubt that some do recognize this. The problem is practically speaking, this is not what's usually communicated.

17:52

The academic and media push towards white guilt and reparations completely externalizes evil behavior onto civic institutions, the police, political groups, cultures, ethnic groups, socioeconomic conditions, and even inanimate objects.

18:07

So this is systemic racism. I didn't have a term for it at the time because I hadn't read, I wasn't reading critical race theorists.

18:14

I just was noticing what they were doing. And this is from my time at a seminary before they went fully woke,

18:20

I was already seeing this. The Christian version of this racial reconciliation simply parrots the media's presuppositions.

18:27

Dealing with the sin of pride, the root of all true racism on an individual level is rarely ever discussed.

18:33

Finding our identity primarily in Christ instead of an ethnicity is not highlighted. What is talked about is removing flags, understanding the black experience and creating more opportunities for minorities.

18:43

These can potentially be good things in theory. I don't believe they are in the modern way they are being applied, but they do nothing to bring about racial reconciliation if the heart of the matter is left out.

18:52

To give an example, if I go with my life, the same way I always have, spending time with diverse friends, regardless of their ethnicity, supporting a

19:02

Haitian child financially and giving my time to various ministries, including inner city evangelism,

19:07

I have not racially reconciled because I have a little Confederate flag on the back of my pickup in honor of my non -slave holding ancestors who fought nobly to defend themselves.

19:16

So this was in 2017. At the time, the truck that I was driving, and by the way, at the time too, at Southeastern when

19:23

I had been there, there was a, I still remember this. There was a maintenance truck on campus with a Confederate flag on the back.

19:28

It was pretty, it was not all that uncommon at that time. And things switched from 2015 to 2018.

19:36

There, people got very afraid to display that and you saw less and less of it. And also a lot of people from the

19:42

North moved down. But at the time, that wasn't like an unusual thing. And so I said, look, like here's my life.

19:49

Like I got friends who are Hispanic and black and we're good friends. I support a

19:55

Haitian child financially through Compassion International. I do inner city evangelism, but it's like,

20:03

I'm still, I'm guilty. I'm wrong because I honor my ancestors in this way.

20:08

And at the time, that was a hot button issue in North Carolina. So I put this, I said, let's say

20:13

I take it off. Now I still have not racially reconciled, perhaps because I have not done enough to truly understand the plight of cultural minorities.

20:21

The main thing I'm getting at here is the fact that I'm still white and that will always leave me lacking in this department.

20:29

I am part of an external group, white people, that inhibits my efforts to reconcile. Regardless of the state of my heart, thank

20:36

God that the true gospel tells me that once my heart is cleansed, I am clean. John 15 three, you are already clean because of the word which

20:43

I have spoken to you. The GRR leaves me dead in my sin of racism. So I'm actually kind of, as I'm reading this again,

20:52

I'm like, wow, this was before the big controversies erupted. And this is so true.

20:59

It's the same thing. Nothing's really changed. It's just gotten worse. Because now it's not about a

21:04

Confederate flag. It's about like, do you support the police? Is your skin tone white? Have you done enough to support the

21:13

BLM movement? Did you post a black square? Like they've come up with about like 100 other things now that hoops that you have to jump through to prove your anti -racist credentials.

21:24

So here's what I put. Again, I said the biblical gospel sees men as individuals needing personal salvation.

21:30

The gospel of racial reconciliation sees men as associations that need to undergo group conversions.

21:37

I should, it should go without saying that the New Testament plainly focuses on man, singular as a sinner before God in need of Jesus Christ to atone for his or her sins on an individual level.

21:46

Salvation is contingent upon a man or woman's repentance and faith. This is not the case with GRR. Within the heresy of GRR is the idea that groups of people must repent as a group in order for there to be any real cleansing.

21:59

The name itself, racial reconciliation, suggests this. How can a race be reconciled to another race?

22:04

This assumes that every member of one particular ethnic group is responsible for the harm committed against another ethnic group.

22:10

This is problematic on so many levels. First, not every member of an ethnic group has committed harm on another ethnic group.

22:16

Secondly, when referring to sins of the past, mainly, there are no members of any current ethnic group that have committed harm against another ethnic group.

22:24

Thirdly, what about reversed racism? Are there those of persecuted minority that have also committed harm against the dominant majority?

22:32

You better believe it. So are these criminals then let off the hook because there was more wrong done in the past against their great -great -grandparents than there was being committed against the great -great -grandparents of their persecutors?

22:44

And this is actually, this is a good point because someone contacted me, I remember, a seminary student who said, look,

22:50

I saw past this stuff immediately because I grew up, as a kid, I was a minority. I was white in a black area.

22:58

And it wasn't like all black people did this, but there were some guys who beat me up because I was white. And he's like, you can't tell me that sin is unique.

23:06

This sin of racism, if you want to call it that, but really, let's just use the biblical term. The sin of partiality is unique to black or white people.

23:16

You can't tell me that because I've experienced it from the other end. And so this whole critical race theory narrative,

23:22

I call it the GRR narrative, but at the time, it just gets, someone is off the hook.

23:28

Someone's a victim, even if they commit a crime because of what happened supposedly to their great -great -great -grandfather.

23:34

And that's just not right. That's anti -biblical. So I said, keep going.

23:39

I said, if some of you think this is sounding slightly inane or confusing, you're getting the point. Thank God that the true gospel allows us to be forgiven regardless of what the group we were born into thinks, feels, or has done in the past.

23:50

John 3, 16, for God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son that whoever believes in him shall not perish, but have eternal life.

23:58

That was given to a Pharisee, someone who would have been part of a group that was oppressing others.

24:05

The biblical gospel focuses on sins committed by those capable of repentance. The gospel of racial reconciliation focuses on sins committed by previous generations.

24:14

Almost every time an act or supposed act of racism occurs against a minority or group of minorities, the media loves to drum on about our country's racist past as being one of the primary reasons such a crime occurred.

24:24

Unfortunately, the GRR accepts the same premise. Oftentimes, it is the past sins of slavery or opposition to civil rights that are targeted as problems that must be atoned for in this day and age.

24:35

Granted, there is a certain logic to this. Stolen property doesn't become un -stolen just because one generation has died off.

24:41

I suppose if I wanted, I could claim that General Sherman, so here's, I get a little sarcastic here. And again, this is because of the context of what was happening in North Carolina at this time.

24:50

I said, I could claim that General Sherman and the United States government owes my family a great deal of compensation for destroying farms, burning churches, and stealing property.

24:58

Native Americans have gained many advantages by utilizing this logic. For the record, I don't believe it is in my best interest or the best interest of this country to look for this kind of compensation, but that's for a separate discussion.

25:10

Where this concept pertains to this discussion is in this way. Do past wrongs incur a fundamental guilt upon those whose ancestors committed them?

25:18

In other words, are General Sherman's descendants responsible for his sin against my ancestors? The Bible gives us a very simple answer, no.

25:26

Ezekiel 18 .20 states plainly the person whose sins will die, the son will not bear the punishment for the father's iniquity, nor will the father bear the punishment for the son's iniquity.

25:35

The righteousness of the righteous will be upon himself and the wickedness of the wicked will be upon himself. Legal compensation and federal headship as theological issues are good discussions to have, but the fact remains that each man is personally responsible for only his or her sin and not the sins of anyone else.

25:54

The gospel of Jesus Christ washes me clean of my sin, not my father's. The GRR says

25:59

I must be washed clean of my father's sin as well. That is why it is a heresy. I also said this, the biblical gospel is by grace through faith and not of works.

26:08

The gospel of racial reconciliation is only through works. Ephesians 2 .8 states, for by grace you have been saved through faith and that not of yourselves.

26:17

It is the gift of God, not as a result of works so that no one may boast. A repentant sinner comes to Christ with empty pockets, knowing that he or she has no good works that they are capable of giving

26:26

Christ. As they cast themselves upon the mercies of Christ and alien righteousness, not their own is afforded them.

26:33

In GRR, this is not the case. In order to receive grace, the penitent must take down their allegedly offensive symbols, throw their political support behind certain causes of the left and apologize in some way.

26:45

A certain prominent denomination has started making a habit of all three, especially the last requirement.

26:51

The resolutions and subsequent declarations at most denominational meetings seem endless. The interesting thing is that they're never enough for some.

27:01

Rechristians must keep doing more. It is an endless process of works, righteousness to obtain racial reconciliation.

27:07

Some may object and counter, but doesn't the gospel change the life of the sinner? Should the sinner give up symbols of his sin and start giving to the church, et cetera, et cetera?

27:16

The answer to this question is yes, of course. The difference, however, is this. In the case of the biblical gospel, the sinner is saved before he or she has given up all their symbols of evil and started giving to their church.

27:28

In GRR, the blessing of being enlightened and ethnically aware only come after making such changes.

27:35

And by the way, this is before I ever heard the term woke. I don't even know if it was around yet. So I call it ethnically aware.

27:42

You can see all this stuff predates 2020. This stuff was all there.

27:48

It even predates critical race theory, much of it in some ways. It was there in the new left and critical theory circles and it was just developed.

27:56

So we have terms for some of these things now. Anyway, of course, these changes must constantly be redone to prove continually that one must truly repent of their inner racism.

28:06

Thank God that his requirement for the sinner is faith and not works that would be impossible for any of us to do.

28:13

The biblical gospel presents reconciliation as one moment that covers the rest of life.

28:19

The gospel of racial reconciliation advocates an everlasting process. Hebrews 10, 11 could have been written about GRR.

28:26

Every priest stands daily ministering and offering time after time, the same sacrifices which can never take away sins.

28:34

The author of Hebrews was of course, referring here to the Jewish ritualism that deny the sacrifice of the Messiah as being sufficient.

28:40

In verse 14, a contrast is made with the biblical gospel. For by one offering,

28:46

Jesus has perfected for all time those who are sanctified. The constant barrage of denouncing political groups, vilifying symbols, admitting guilt over and over looks more and more like a creepy pagan ritual than it does a

28:58

Christian organization trying to live out the true gospel. Reconciliation between God and man takes place when

29:05

God receives the sacrifice of Christ as payment for the sins of repentant man. The GRR, in GRR, all we have is constant payment without any reconciliation.

29:15

I would challenge any seminary student to ask their president, dean, professor, et cetera, who advocates for GRR, when the process actually ends.

29:23

When is reconciliation between the races achieved? There is no stated goal. There is no timeframe in which reconciliation is hoped to be achieved.

29:33

Furthermore, in a biblical reconciliation, both parties are required to make the relationship right. Who is the valid spokesperson for the ethnic minorities who will finally proclaim us white folks free from the curse of racism?

29:44

There is no such person. All there is is endless sacrifice. We will tell ourselves that we did a good thing.

29:52

We made a big step in amending race relations, but the stairs never seem to reach the second story.

29:57

All we are left with is guilt that we could not have done more. We failed, again, and we will always, so long as we pursue racial instead of biblical reconciliation.

30:10

And I ended it this way, a better way. Hopefully, you can see the issues inherit with the heresy of GRR.

30:16

We play right into the hands of godless culture that would love to point out the hypocrisies of Christians and hold us accountable for them until the end of time.

30:23

My suggestion to Christian denominations and organizations is to confess and move on. The IFCA International had denied the entry of a black seminary student and seminary, several black churches, in the 1930s.

30:36

You know what they did today? They let them in. They said that the organization was wrong to do what it did in the 30s, and now they are going to do the right thing.

30:43

That was it, no endless campaign about how evil they were for their racism, a sentiment none of their new members were even around for.

30:50

Just as simple, we were wrong, come on in. This is my prayer for our other modern denominations and seminaries.

30:56

Focusing on sin, especially sin that isn't yours, only hurts those who focus on it. Instead, focus on Christ.

31:03

Focus on a God who breaks down the barriers of Jew and Greek, slave and free. Focus on having an identity in Christ that comes primarily to an identity in any ethnic group.

31:12

Focus on showing love today, here and now. Stop rolling around in the regret of things you wish your grandparents would have done.

31:19

They're gone now. Do better than them in this area and try to honor them for the areas in which they shined.

31:24

Every generation has their sins and blind spots, and most of all, preach and live in the true, personal, once for all, gospel of grace.

31:33

Now, this was written, like I said, in 2017. I had, I guess it was what, five points here.

31:40

Biblical gospel presents reconciliation as one moment that covers the rest of life. The gospel of racial reconciliation advocates an everlasting process.

31:47

Biblical gospel is by grace. Through faith and not of works, the gospel of racial reconciliation is only through works.

31:53

The biblical gospel focuses on sins committed by those capable of repentance. The gospel of racial reconciliation focuses on sins committed by previous generations.

32:02

Biblical gospel sees men as individuals needing personal salvation. The gospel of racial reconciliation sees men as associations that need to undergo group conversions.

32:11

And the biblical gospel focuses on eradicating internal heart sins, and the gospel of racial reconciliation focuses on eradicating external behavior sins.

32:20

So this was an early post by me.

32:25

Before I had the podcast, before really anyone knew who I was publicly, it was just my observations from attending these seminary chapels and hearing things that have happened since I had left the seminary.

32:38

And then when I returned, which was that coming semester, it was like someone had flipped a switch and it was all about racial reconciliation.

32:46

And not only that, it was other social justice stuff as well. So this is something

32:53

I just wanted to share with you all, because I thought it was helpful and it was kind of some old gold, I guess. It's just stuff that I had forgotten

33:00

I wrote, but I did in July 25th, 2017. And this is when

33:06

I first noticed, or this is at least when I first put it in writing, that I believe that the critical race theory stuff was a religion.

33:13

Didn't know what CRT was yet. Hadn't heard all the terms yet, but this is what I was noticing at that time.

33:19

So I hope that was helpful for you in some way. I don't think things have changed. If anything, they've gotten a lot worse. But I would encourage you, do what

33:27

I said in 2017 at the end. I'm encouraging myself to focus on the true gospel. I love the people where you're at, the real tangible people in your communities, in your churches, and just reject this.

33:40

This is caustic stuff. And if time has shown anything, it's that this only leads to more division.

33:46

That's what we have in this country is more division. That's what we have in the church, more division. And the battle lines are becoming more and more every day obvious.

33:55

So God bless and hope that was helpful. One quick announcement. I like to try to remember to say something that's important at the end.

34:04

And I wanted to just reiterate to everyone who wants to avoid the gospel of racial reconciliation, which is what

34:11

I called it then, but the critical race theory infused social justice gospel. Go to discerningchristians .com.

34:16

We are working on it. It is still in beta mode. It's been in that way for a while, but it is usable. Make sure when you go that your location services are turned on.

34:25

So normally they are turned on, but you want to make sure you're not in private browsing. You want to make sure that you have the ads, that your ad blockers turned off.

34:35

And you'll be able to see a map of the individuals and churches in your area that disagree with what

34:40

I just read to you. The critical race theory infused gospel. They're against it. You'll be able to network with others.

34:47

Put yourself on the map as well. You can add organizations on your profile. You can even put, if you're looking to be hired from a church, you can put that you're a candidate.

34:56

Churches can go on and post job open positions. So all of these things are there.

35:03

They're getting better. We're improving it. In fact, today I even texted someone that may be able to help really put some money behind this and make it a great network that's easier to use.

35:13

But it is usable even now. So just wanted to plug that. And so far it's been on a volunteer basis.

35:19

It's myself and then a friend who's doing the programming. And then another friend who's now putting social media stuff up to advertise it.

35:26

So discerningchristians .com, and you can donate while you're there if you like the work that's being done and we can make it better based on those donations as well.