Kicking the Goads

When Christ calls a man, he bids him come and die.
—Deitrich Bonhoeffer, The Cost of Discipleship

I cannot fight what I have come to believe God has called me to do. I won’t trouble you with the details, but it’s not easy being the subject of libel, threats and wishes that harm be done to your children, because you’re willing to stand up to men trying to normalize the horrendous evil of racism within the body of Christ. I admit that I have kicked against the goads. I don’t want this.

But I can’t stop; I am genuinely compelled. In God’s providence, I am someone who has spent the better part of a decade studying the origins of the exact philosophies that these men, determined to do evil, have based their political and social beliefs on. In that time, I have also become immersed in the discipline of Biblical theology, which allows me to refute their attempt to sanction evil by egregiously eisegeting God’s word. I am a former Presbyterian who, by pure happenstance, wound up in a Southern Baptist church after moving to a new state, and the SBC just happens to be the only major “denomination” in America where these men are currently allowed to spread their evil free of consequence.

SBC pastor Jeff Wright disparagingly joking about the lynching of fourteen year old Emmet Till in 1955. Despite being well known as someone who consistently engages in this type of vile behavior (more than anyone else in the SBC), he continues to be allowed a seat at the annual convention each year. Yesterday, G3 Ministries’ Tom Buck, also a SBC pastor, publicly aligned himself with Wright and American Reformer (doing business as The Center for Baptist Leadership) to begin lobbying for American Reformer aligned amendments at this year’s convention.

I’ve tried to walk away more times than I can count, but, eventually, someone with notable influence in my theological tradition pushes something truly evil that I know is esoteric enough that most Christians won’t understand what’s being laundered. Then I feel that tug and the thought, “You have to say something. You have to explain what this is.” I tell myself, “No, I walked away from this. It’s other people’s problem now,” but the tug never stops. I tell the youth whom I mentor that one of the ways you know it’s the Holy Spirit telling you to do something is that a) it comports with Scripture and b) it’s something you don’t want to do. I have to follow my own advice.

Whatever comes, whatever the worldly consequences for my public advocacy for God’s love, peace and kindness to win over hate, so be it. I will go all the way. It’s the least I can do, considering what He did for me.