He posted it to “I believe the existence of this letter substantiates the concerns of many pastors and churches that qualified godly leaders from nonwhite ethnic backgrounds have never quite received a fair chance to rise to positions of leadership,” Cole told RNS.Luter and Patterson did not immediately respond to requests for comment.Al Mohler, president of Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, Ky., and a candidate for the denomination’s presidency, said the letter was regrettable but not shocking.“Fred Luter made very good appointments and served nobly as president of the Southern Baptist Convention,” Mohler said. Because this letter directly involves one of the pastors in our association, and because, as associational workers and pastors in a majority African-Ame The full service can be viewed here.
It was 30 years ago. Photo courtesy of SWBTS. Dwight McKissic, an African American leader within the predominantly white 14.8-million member group, tweeted that Patterson’s letter was racist and said in an interview that it validates McKissic’s feeling like “the other” within the denomination.“With the kind of mentality that Paige Patterson expressed in that letter and with the SBC over and over rejecting ethnic minorities for leadership — entity head positions — it leaves you feeling like the other,” said McKissic, a Texas minister whose proposed resolution about white supremacy was eventually “When you have to fight so hard to get an alt-right resolution passed, it just gives you that feeling you’re on somebody else’s territory although you belong to this group.”The discovery of the letter comes at a time when the denomination formed in 1845 as a haven for Southern slaveholders has been working to reckon with its past — not always successfully. One of the leaders of the Conservative Resurgence of the Southern Baptist Convention, Patterson has committed his life and work to preaching the inerrant Word of God. A good investigative reporter should study existing evidence to identify and bring to justice those who are guilty, being careful not to accuse one who has been completely cleared of the charges alleged. Mine happened so long ago that you may not remember me. Like the churchman who tells a Sunday visitor to move out of his usual seat in the pew rather than welcoming him as a brother in Christ, we have denied our black brothers and sisters seats at every table, thinking absurdly that somehow we own the tables in God’s house. So the letter didn’t pose any kind of criticism of Fred. So the letter didn’t pose any kind of criticism of Fred. You are in the position to fix the evils of the recent wave of malicious assaults and words against a common father in the faith: Paige Patterson. It was discovered by SBC layman and blogger Benjamin Cole, who is writing a book about evangelicals and public life. According to Dr. Akin as quoted in a Baptist Press article, the term “rape” was not found in the report in her official student file, and there are no details of information being given to me or of my involvement in the matter. The full service can be viewed here. © BCNN1: Black Christian News Network One. God’s Word is not! Southern Seminary last year issued a The same year that the resolution denouncing “alt-right white supremacy” passed after a Jemar Tisby, author of “The Color of Compromise: The Truth about the American Church’s Complicity in Racism,” said Patterson’s letter can’t be dismissed as “one man’s close-minded opinion.” Instead, he said, it represents sentiments held broadly in white evangelicalism in general and among some Southern Baptists in particular.“The assumption of many white evangelicals is that Black people and other people of color do not have the theological acumen of white Christians,” said Tisby. I wish we could share our hearts rather than words with you. “The core of the matter is that people such as Paige Patterson and those who share his views functionally believe that only white Christians can be trusted to interpret the Bible and lead the church.”Mohler acknowledged that adherence to the Bible is not limited to one group of people.“I am firmly convinced that biblical orthodoxy and theological fidelity has no race or color,” he said in an interview Nov. 13. She now (more than a decade later) claims to have been raped. Patterson, a revered figure in the SBC, was In his letter to Draper, Patterson says he wrote Luter after his historic election to tell him that his appointees must uphold biblical inerrancy — the belief that the Bible is without error — and must also be committed to the appointment of others with like beliefs.Though Patterson said he was “glad we elected a black president and specifically Fred,” he sounded a warning: “Under Fred’s leadership it would be possible for us to slide a long way back toward where we once were, and that would be devastating.” This, he said, left him “quaking about it a bit.”The letter is among a trove of papers given to Southwestern by Draper upon his retirement. We quake to think our denomination might forsake its part in evangelizing every nation because we are afraid to place “our” denomination and “our” theology into the hands of those who are not steeped in our cultural traditions.Lastly, we pray thanking God for the privilege of taking part in his work in the world, in deep recognition that it is his work—not ours to direct or control.Inerrancy is an abused process seeking to establish one’s position as an inerrant position as if they have correctly discerned inerrant positions. Dr. Akin did confirm that my vice presidents had handled the matter properly as this was during the transition of my presidency to Southwestern. Dear Brother Paige, We now have something in common.
Response to Released Paige Patterson Letter. “Some of the great giants of the faith past and present and future have been those who certainly did not have white skin.