ARLINGTON, Texas — Rev. Dwight McKissic was one of the most influential voices in the Southern Baptist Convention. The Black Baptist pastor, who founded and still leads Arlington’s Cornerstone Baptist Church, pushed his denomination to officially condemn white supremacy and issue a resolution criticizing the Confederate Flag.

What You Need To Know

  • Rev. Dwight McKissic was one of many of the denomination’s Black leaders to exit the SBC

  • A faction of the denomination is seeing a mass exodus after a group of seminary presidents declared that critical race theory was incompatible with scripture

  • McKissic received a racist email from author John V. Rutledge that called Black Baptists "savages," among other insults

  • Critical race theory came up in a controversial resolution that passed at the SBC’s 2019 annual meeting. The resolution clarified the theory could be employed, but only “subordinate to Scripture”

Last week, McKissic pulled his church out of one of the state’s SBC-affiliated conventions after the SBC’s seminary presidents declared that critical race theory — which refers to an approach to racism as systematic and embedded in society — was “incompatible” with the denomination’s statement of faith. The joint statement emphasized the need to turn to Christian teachings alone, not secular ideas, to confront racism.

McKissic was one of many of the denomination’s Black leaders to exit the SBC. Monday, a concerned friend of McKissic’s posted a letter to the Arlington pastor from noted Southern Baptist author John V. Rutledge. The contents of the letter have been decried by many Southern Baptist leaders as “horribly racist.”

In the letter, Rutledge opines on how lucky and grateful Black Americans should feel after everything white people have done for them. “Yet they remain savages,” Rutledge writes. “They defile and diminish every arena in which they parade: academic, political, corporate, judicial, military, athletic. Seeking another white bastion to badger and beleaguer, they invaded the church.

“Like two-year-olds, they know only how to whine and throw tantrums,” Rutledge concludes. “The SBC should bid them goodbye and good riddance!”

The letter comes during a time when issues of race have fractured the Convention. Critical race theory came up in a controversial resolution that passed at the SBC’s 2019 annual meeting. The resolution clarified the theory could be employed, but only “subordinate to Scripture.”

Since then, conservative groups have been more vocal about what they see as an embrace of critical race theory and secular thinking by seminaries and denominational leaders, with the newly formed Conservative Baptist Network being among the most vocal opponents.

Some worry that a systemic view of racism, where a person is considered privileged or disadvantaged in society because of their race, conflicts with Christian beliefs about forgiveness or people holding equal value before God. As one Conservative Baptist Network member said, they “must constantly repent” but “can never actually be forgiven.”

The group of Southern Baptist pastors who released a statement Friday were voicing their opposition to “any movement in the SBC that seeks to distract from racial reconciliation through the gospel and that denies the reality of systemic injustices.”

The statement—posted on the anniversary of the 13th Amendment abolishing slavery—called for collective repentance and criticized those who would downplay SBC’s racial history or label others as “critical race theorists” for acknowledging systemic injustices.