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White Calvinist pastors in the Southern Baptist Convention are attempting to cancel a Black Southern Baptist pastor because they don’t like what he said about Charlie Kirk.
Tom Buck, a Southern Baptist gadfly who is pastor of First Baptist Church in Lindale, Texas, raised the charges against James T. Roberson III, pastor of Bridge Church in New York City. He wrote an open letter to leaders of the SBC North American Mission Board asking them to withdraw mission funding for Roberson and his church.
William Wolfe
That message got retweeted by William Wolfe through his Center for Baptist Leadership. He wrote: “Southern Baptists, this is very disturbing. James T. Roberson III, a Send Network planter & conference speaker attacked and slandered Charlie Kirk from his pulpit this Sunday. This must not be tolerated — NAMB needs to act & at the least cancel his upcoming speaking invitation.”
Wolfe’s comment drew a rebuttal from another SBC gadfly, Dwight McKissic, pastor of Cornerstone Baptist Church in Arlington, Texas. McKissic is Black and Wolfe is white. They have clashed in the past over SBC issues, especially around race and politics and women in ministry.
“There was no slander involved here. It’s Pastor James Roberson that’s being slandered by Tom Buck and William Wolfe,” McKissic said.
To which Wolfe replied: “No one cares what you think you race baiting Sanballat.”
Sanballat, as described in Hebrew Scriptures, is a Moabite figure who opposed Nehemiah’s efforts to rebuild Jerusalem.
What Roberson said
From his pulpit last Sunday, Roberson read 2 Corinthians 10:3-5 and told his congregation they are fighting spiritual battles, not physical battles, battles to be fought with spiritual weapons, not carnal ones.
Then he said: “Charlie Kirk and other political activists, particularly some on the evangelical right, often see ideas and policies that claim to be Christian, but they’re fought with in a carnal posture. They’re fighting for Jesus with anger and harshness and rage. And the danger of that is when you when you fight spiritual battles in a carnal way, the world responds with that same carnality. It’s as if the world says we know how to do worldly better than you.
“We should weep with those who weep, and we should be praying for their families. But I also grieve for our country that elevates people into hero status and martyr status so quickly.”
“So, let me be clear. I denounce his assassination vehemently, and we all should. That shouldn’t be hard. It’s wicked. That’s obvious. It is also wicked to celebrate his death. It is carnal to celebrate his death. To lack empathy for someone who doesn’t have empathy for you is to live in carnality.
“At the same time, while he fought for ideals that he believed were Christian, I also denounced the way he carried himself and especially the way he talked about Black people. So, here’s what I want us to remember as a church, what I need all of us to know. People are not defined by their ideology. They are defined by the image of God.
“Genesis 1 says “God created them in his own image.” So here’s what we’ve got to understand. Charlie Kirk, at his core, is not a Republican or a conservative. He is a child of God made in the image of God who has right-wing positions. And as a believer, we’re called to see people not politically but spiritually. … So, let’s be clear. We should be grieving with his wife, his kids who have woken up this morning without a father. We should weep with those who weep, and we should be praying for their families. But I also grieve for our country that elevates people into hero status and martyr status so quickly.”
What Buck said
For that, Buck told NAMB leaders Roberton ought to be cut off as a national speaker and ought not receive any more church-planting money from the SBC.
Tom Buck
Roberson, he charged, “made reprehensible statements regarding the assassination of Charlie Kirk.”
Buck saw the reference to “carnal” battles as “just another way of saying that Charlie got what was coming to him.”
Buck lauded Kirk as “a fellow brother in Christ who left behind a beautiful wife and two precious children” and said he was assassinated “because of his faithful proclamation of a biblical worldview about gender.”
Roberson reportedly is scheduled to speak at a NAMB conference Oct. 5. Buck asked: “Is this who you want training our church planters? … Southern Baptists are tired of their financial resources being used in ways that are contrary to a biblical worldview.”
Buck wants NAMB leaders to “publicly denounce James Roberson’s reprehensible words about Charlie Kirk” and apologize to the Kirk family and remove Roberson from working with NAMB.