{"id":2452,"date":"2025-09-19T20:04:22","date_gmt":"2025-09-20T01:04:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thelight.com\/?p=2452"},"modified":"2025-09-21T20:14:16","modified_gmt":"2025-09-22T01:14:16","slug":"fighting-within-the-sbc","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/thelight.com\/index.php\/2025\/09\/19\/fighting-within-the-sbc\/","title":{"rendered":"Fighting within the SBC over the Charlie Kirk school shooting"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

What do you all think of this article?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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James Roberson (Video screencap)<\/div><\/div><\/div>
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White Calvinist pastors in the Southern Baptist Convention<\/strong> are attempting to cancel a Black Southern Baptist pastor because they don\u2019t like what he said about Charlie Kirk.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

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William Wolfe<\/p><\/div>\n

That message got retweeted by William Wolfe<\/a> through his Center for Baptist Leadership. He wrote: \u201cSouthern 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 \u2014 NAMB needs to act & at the least cancel his upcoming speaking invitation.\u201d<\/p>\n

Wolfe\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere was no slander involved here. It\u2019s Pastor James Roberson that\u2019s being slandered by Tom Buck and William Wolfe,\u201d McKissic said.<\/p>\n

To which Wolfe replied: \u201cNo one cares what you think you race baiting Sanballat.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sanballat, as described in Hebrew Scriptures, is a Moabite figure who opposed Nehemiah\u2019s efforts to rebuild Jerusalem.<\/p>\n

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What Roberson said<\/strong><\/h4>\n

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.<\/p>\n

Then he said: \u201cCharlie Kirk and other political activists, particularly some on the evangelical right, often see ideas and policies that claim to be Christian, but they\u2019re fought with in a carnal posture. They\u2019re 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\u2019s as if the world says we know how to do worldly better than you.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe 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.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\u201cSo, let me be clear. I denounce his assassination vehemently, and we all should. That shouldn\u2019t be hard. It\u2019s wicked. That\u2019s obvious. It is also wicked to celebrate his death. It is carnal to celebrate his death. To lack empathy for someone who doesn\u2019t have empathy for you is to live in carnality.<\/p>\n

\u201cAt 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\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n

\u201cGenesis 1 says \u201cGod created them in his own image.\u201d So here\u2019s what we\u2019ve 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\u2019re called to see people not politically but spiritually. \u2026 So, let\u2019s 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.\u201d<\/p>\n

What Buck said<\/strong><\/h4>\n

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.<\/p>\n

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Tom Buck<\/p><\/div>\n

Roberson, he charged, \u201cmade reprehensible statements regarding the assassination of Charlie Kirk.\u201d<\/p>\n

Buck saw the reference to \u201ccarnal\u201d battles as \u201cjust another way of saying that Charlie got what was coming to him.\u201d<\/p>\n

Buck lauded Kirk as \u201ca fellow brother in Christ who left behind a beautiful wife and two precious children\u201d and said he was assassinated \u201cbecause of his faithful proclamation of a biblical worldview about gender.\u201d<\/p>\n

Roberson reportedly is scheduled to speak at a NAMB conference Oct. 5. Buck asked: \u201cIs this who you want training our church planters? \u2026 Southern Baptists are tired of their financial resources being used in ways that are contrary to a biblical worldview.\u201d<\/p>\n

Buck wants NAMB leaders to \u201cpublicly denounce James Roberson\u2019s reprehensible words about Charlie Kirk\u201d and apologize to the Kirk family and remove Roberson from working with NAMB.<\/p>\n

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