When is a Prominent Memorial not as Major as Advertised?
The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary is considered the "flagship" seminary of the Southern Baptist Convention, the nation's largest Protestant denomination. Located in the Crescent Hill district of Louisville, Kentucky, its southern colonial style architecture fits in well with the wooded campus and surrounding neighborhood. Buildings on the campus are named for the school's founders, as well as other prominent Baptist leaders of the same era, most of whom believed in slavery, including the belief in white supremacy and the inferiority of black people, and who also owned slaves themselves. Some of those slaves were used in building and developing the campus and its upkeep.
That's not a surprising part of the denomination's history. It was founded when the Triennial Baptist Convention in Philadelphia declared that slave owners could not be sent as missionaries, a statement which underlined the abolitionist attitudes of Baptists in the northern states and made the political and theological statement that slavery was wrong and sinful. Baptist churches in the south sent delegates to a meeting in Augusta, Georgia in 1845 and separated from the Triennial Convention, setting up their own denominational structure which became known as the Southern Baptist Convention.
The denomination has affiliated churches in all 50 states, and because of its mission enterprise, all around the world. But the largest groups of affiliated churches are found in the 11 states of the old Confederacy, along with Kentucky, Missouri and Oklahoma. And the Southern Baptist convention, as a denomination, is very much a leftover institution from the days of the Confederacy, a cultural institution which is the place where much of the antebellum southern culture still survives, and thrives.
Calls to Rename Campus Buildings Which Were Named After Slaveowners
Dr. Dwight McKissic, pastor of Cornerstone Baptist Church in Arlington, Texas, who is a recognized leader among African Americans affiliated with the Southern Baptist Convention, and who has served as a member of the board of trustees of Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in Ft. Worth, has been one of the most active voices calling for the Louisville school to rename the campus buildings currently named after slaveowners. I don't mean to sound condescending, or patronizing, but come on, this is the 21st century and Southern Baptists, while taking their very sweet time doing so, have finally repented of their anti-Christian, anti-Biblical beliefs in the inferiority of African-Americans and their very sinful treatment of them as slaves. The fact that the men who founded the seminary held these beliefs disqualifies them from having the honor of buildings named after them, because it was not honorable what they did and what they believed.
On a recent trip to Louisville, Dr McKissic was invited by seminary president Dr. Al Mohler to visit the campus and see a plaque which had been, according to Mohler, "prominently displayed" on campus, memorializing the work of the slaves, nameless, who had worked to help build and take care of the seminary grounds. The plaque is placed in the Broaddus Chapel, used for weddings and for preaching classes, and named after one of the slave-owning founders of the seminary, John A. Broaddus.
That's a little more than ironic, to me. There's a deliberate message in placing a commemorative plaque honoring African American slaves and their contributions to building the seminary in a building named after one of the men who owned some of those slaves. Dr. McKissic was very gracious in his comments, though he was unable to come to the campus and see the commemorative plaque.
"To focus on whether it is a major marker, or in a prominent location, misses the larger point. The fact that slaves are officially acknowledged as making a significant contribution is, to me, far more important than the fact that the plaque is located in a building named after a slave owner," he said.
"It definitely does not accomplish that goal [of removing the names of the slaveowners from the buildings entirely] but it does acknowledge that African Americans played a significant financial and functional role in the development of the initial buildings of in the original Southern Seminary Louisville location," he added.
Those comments are a tribute to the kind of spirit that Dr. McKissic has brought to the Southern Baptist Convention, and to his willingness to be engaged in helping the denomination build relationships that include fellow Christians who happen to be African American in leadership and as full partners in the mission and ministry of the denomination. It's a pity that the rest of the denomination fails to respond to that kind of willingness to do what it takes to make it work.
When asked why he thought the seminary's leaders have not removed the names of the original founders who were slave owners, he said "I understand that the descendants of the slave masters do not have that inner drive to act in the ultimate realm of spirituality by removing the names of slave masters from the building. I recognize they just can't do it. It requires a level of spiritual maturity and social reckoning to do so."
"If the founders were abortion advocates," he said, "they would have no hesitancy in removing their names. Most Southern Baptists do not equate the evil of slavery with the evil of abortion. But they are wrong," he ended.
Seminary Leadership is Tone Deaf
The plaque, which is nothing more than a token acknowledgement of the contribution made to the seminary by African American slaves, and along with it, acknowledgement of its past history with the sin of slavery, is not prominently displayed, nor was its placement acknowledged in such a way as to create awareness of its location and existence. From all appearances, this looks like an afterthought, some kind of propaganda piece that will silence the critics and let the fact that the seminary continues to do nothing about the names of its buildings get swept under the rug.
Dr. McKissic, and other African Americans in the Southern Baptist Convention, including students who attend Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, are correct to evaluate the school administration's lack of action as a lack of spiritual maturity and social reckoning. But then, how does a theological seminary, teaching the Christian gospel to prospective ministers and missionaries, still have credibility without spiritual maturity?
Denominational leadership, at least openly on the surface, has given itself pats on the back for the progress it has made in welcoming African Americans into the full fellowship. It has made progress, including the selection of African Americans to serve on committees and boards, as Dr. McKissic did at Southwestern, though not as comfortably and amicably as the seminary administration made it sound. The convention messengers twice elected an African American as President, Dr. Fred Luter, pastor of Franklin Avenue Baptist Church in New Orleans.
It would be very easy to make the change, pass a resolution, rededicate the buildings in a campus chapel service with all students present and Dr. McKissic as guest speaker, and be done with it. That would only improve the image of both the seminary and the denomination and it's action which speaks louder than words. But the approach they've taken opens up legitimate questions about the sincerity of their faith in the gospel of Jesus Christ and whose ideology it is that they really follow and respect.
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