On Wednesday Night, April 22^nd , we will discuss Race Relations. One would think that in the 50 years since the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and since we currently have an African America President, that we would nolonger need to talk about Race Relations. But when a police shooting in Ferguson, MO causes race riots all around the USA, there must still be a problem. Rarely is this subject discussed in church – I don’t think it is because people are nolonger thinking about Race – it’s probably because people are nolonger allowed to talk. In our current culture of diversity training and political correctness, even the church has learned that you are better off keeping your opinions to yourself.

What is the state of Race Relations in the Southern Baptist Convention? In the huge (900 page) and influential book by Baptist Historian Leon McBeth (from Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary), he writes “slavery was the final and most decisive factor which led Southern Baptist to form their own convention (in May 1845).”  From this beginning, the Southern Baptist Convention did not have a great track record in Race Relations. Sure, there is evidence from written resolutions and plans to evangelize African Americans and to help them start churches, but it was on a separated /segregated basis. Even after the emancipation of slaves in 1863, the loss in the “War between the States”, and “reconstruction” of the South the races remained segregated.

Billy Graham caused quite a stir in the 1950s when he began quoting Martin Luther King that the “11 o’clock hour on Sunday Morning was the most segregated hour in America” and made the decision to stop holding segregated Gospel Crusades. After the Civil Rights Act of 1964 it became illegal to “segregate” in public places – but still it took many years for churches to “integrate.”

In 1995, on the 150^th Anniversary of the formation of the Southern Baptist Convention, the SBC apologized for it’s past racism and made a commitment to  “unwaveringly denounce racism, in all its forms, as deplorable sin.”

But then on December 2, 2002, a Southern Baptist Layman, Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott, from Mississippi was at the 100th birthday party of Sen. Strom Thurmond of South Carolina. Thurmond had run for President of the United States in 1948 on the Dixiecrat ticket that planned to preserve racial segregation. Lott said: “When Strom Thurmond ran for president, we voted for him. We’re proud of it. And if the rest of the country had followed our lead, we wouldn’t have had all these problems over the years, either.” Trent Lott was pressured to resign his leadership position 2 weeks later.

And then in 2011, Pastor Fred Luter from New Orleans became the 1^st African American elected as first Vice President of the SBC and in 2012, he became the 1^st African American President of the SBC.  It appeared that the SBC had made alot of progress in Race Relations.

The Question for the evening is – Where are we Now?

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