Southern Baptists Vote to Condemn Alt-Right Racism

Outcry followed rejection of earlier resolution
By Rob Quinn,  Newser Staff
Posted Jun 15, 2017 12:03 AM CDT
Southern Baptist Convention Condemns Alt-Right Racism
Members sing along at the Southern Baptist Convention annual meeting, Wednesday, June 14, 2017, in Phoenix.   (AP Photo/Ross D. Franklin)

The Southern Baptist Convention has voted to condemn "alt-right" racism—along with every other kind of racism. The denomination, which is holding its annual convention in Phoenix, approved a resolution Wednesday to "denounce and repudiate" racism, "including alt-right white supremacy, as antithetical to the Gospel of Jesus Christ," NPR reports. The resolution followed the controversial rejection Tuesday of an earlier version that denounced the "retrograde ideologies, xenophobic biases and racial bigotries of the 'alt-right' that seek to subvert our government," reports the AP. Resolutions committee chief Barrett Duke said the original version contained language that was too broad and inflammatory.

The measure passed almost unanimously among the 5,000 in attendance, reports the Arizona Republic. Duke apologized for the confusion about the earlier resolution. It wasn't "because we don't share your abhorrence of racism and especially the particularly vicious form of racism that has manifested itself in the alt-right movement," he told the crowd. William D. McKissic, the African-American pastor who introduced the resolution, says he is pleased with the outcome, but the episode shows that problems will continue until the church denounces the biblical "Curse of Ham" once used to justify slavery. McKissic says he is encouraged by the outcry from Baptists of all races that followed the committee's rejection of Tuesday's resolution. (More Southern Baptist Convention stories.)

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