![]() First, he cited Bible teacher Beth Moore, who left in March in part due to many SBC leaders’ continued alignment with then-presidential candidate Donald Trump even after the release of “Access Hollywood” tapes in which he bragged about his abusive treatment of women. He then shifted to departures of prominent Southern Baptists. “You want to leave because two SBC-affiliated pastors called Vice President Kamala Harris a Jezebel,” he said. “Some of you say that or maybe you heard that the Black church ought to not belong to a largely white organization or convention.”īut Ausberry pointed out that, statistically, the offenders represented a tiny share of the SBC. “Some of you feel that maybe the SBC-ers are a bunch of racists and no self-respecting Black church would be part of this racist organization,” he said. Image courtesy of Īusberry said he has heard many arguments for departing the SBC, which is estimated to be 6% to 8% Black, and has himself “been close to the door in tears” at times. Marshal Ausberry Sr., president of the National African American Fellowship of the Southern Baptist Convention. “Don’t worry about what the seminary presidents pontificate,” Ausberry recommended. The presidents’ December statement set off protests, meetings and a possible new resolution that Baptists attending the SBC annual meeting this week will be asked to address. ![]() ![]() Two years ago, the SBC passed a resolution that sought to settle controversy over CRT by calling its ideas “analytical tools subordinate to Scripture.” Several prominent Black pastors have left the denomination since December, when the SBC’s Council of Seminary Presidents declared that critical race theory, an academic approach to understanding systemic racism, was incompatible with the denomination’s faith statement. RELATED: At least three critical race theory statements proposed for Southern Baptist meeting But God wanted Jonah to go there anyway, “and call out against it, for their evil has come up before me,” he said, quoting the Hebrew Bible. The Virginia pastor, who is concurrently serving as the SBC’s first vice president, compared African American Southern Baptists to the biblical character of Jonah, who did not want to go to Nineveh, a place with much wickedness. ![]() “Before you go through that door,” Ausberry told dozens of NAAF members on the eve of the SBC’s annual meeting, where debates over race, gender and sex abuse are expected to spill onto a convention floor, “I want to encourage you before you do anything, seek the will of God.” Marshal Ausberry Sr., the outgoing president of the National African American Fellowship of the Southern Baptist Convention, argued passionately Monday (June 14) that Black members of the predominantly white denomination should continue their affiliation in the face of recent controversies. ![]()
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