ADVERTISEMENT
Faithfully Magazine
  • News
    • All
    • Crime
    • Politics
    • World
    Mass at Sacred Heart Church in Uvalde after a gunman killed 19 children and two teachers at nearby Robb Elementary School.

    Texas Agencies Resist Releasing Public Records on Uvalde School Shooting

    juneteenth on a flag

    Juneteenth Is a Federal Holiday: Here’s What You Need to Know

    Salvador Ramos, identified as the gunman who killed 19 students and teachers Robb Elementary in Uvalde, Texas May 24, 2022

    ‘It’s Time to Die,’ Uvalde Shooter Salvador Ramos Told Schoolchildren Before Opening Fire

    Reverend Mark Hatcher

    Philadelphia Pastor Accused of Child Rape Deemed ‘Danger to the Community’

  • Clippings
    Harry Knoesen

    Pastor Plotted to Kill Thousands of Black People, Overthrow South African Government

    The tabernacle, which is pure 18-karat gold, dates back to the 1890s, according to the Diocese of Brooklyn

    19th-Century Tabernacle Worth $2M Stolen From Church in ‘Brazen Crime of Disrespect and Hate’

    Fermin Rangel-Ramos

    Pastor Kicked Out of Church After 11 Accuse Him of Abuse to Serve At Least One Year in Prison

    rapper M.I.A.

    Rapper M.I.A. Says She’s a Born-Again Christian After Seeing ‘Vision of Jesus Christ’

  • Features
    Mass at Sacred Heart Church in Uvalde after a gunman killed 19 children and two teachers at nearby Robb Elementary School.

    Texas Agencies Resist Releasing Public Records on Uvalde School Shooting

    Celia Lewis ProPublica

    White Anti-CRT Parents Got a Black Educator Fired, Then Chased Her to Her Next Job

    Tops Friendly Markets in Buffalo, New York

    Overtly White Supremacist Ideology Is Being Sanitized and Mainstreamed

    children in a classroom getting education

    On Race and Schools, Here’s What Americans Agree and Disagree On

  • Inspiration
    • All
    • Bible
    • First-Person Essay
    • Poetry
    Everything Everywhere All At Once. (A24 Films)

    ‘Everything Everywhere All At Once’ & the Absurdity of Love as Resistance

    God Speaks Through Wombs: Poems on God's Unexpected Coming

    The Gospels Give Birth to Poetry (‘God Speaks Through Wombs’ Excerpt)

    two women talk

    100 Proverbs That Teach Us How to Speak, Listen, and Respectfully Disagree

    Rapper J Cole and a hanging tree

    J. Cole’s ‘Javari,’ the Cross, and the Lynching Tree

  • Members
  • About Us
    • Staff and Advisors
    • Write for Us
    • Advertise With Us
SUBSCRIBE
No Result
View All Result
  • News
    • All
    • Crime
    • Politics
    • World
    Mass at Sacred Heart Church in Uvalde after a gunman killed 19 children and two teachers at nearby Robb Elementary School.

    Texas Agencies Resist Releasing Public Records on Uvalde School Shooting

    juneteenth on a flag

    Juneteenth Is a Federal Holiday: Here’s What You Need to Know

    Salvador Ramos, identified as the gunman who killed 19 students and teachers Robb Elementary in Uvalde, Texas May 24, 2022

    ‘It’s Time to Die,’ Uvalde Shooter Salvador Ramos Told Schoolchildren Before Opening Fire

    Reverend Mark Hatcher

    Philadelphia Pastor Accused of Child Rape Deemed ‘Danger to the Community’

  • Clippings
    Harry Knoesen

    Pastor Plotted to Kill Thousands of Black People, Overthrow South African Government

    The tabernacle, which is pure 18-karat gold, dates back to the 1890s, according to the Diocese of Brooklyn

    19th-Century Tabernacle Worth $2M Stolen From Church in ‘Brazen Crime of Disrespect and Hate’

    Fermin Rangel-Ramos

    Pastor Kicked Out of Church After 11 Accuse Him of Abuse to Serve At Least One Year in Prison

    rapper M.I.A.

    Rapper M.I.A. Says She’s a Born-Again Christian After Seeing ‘Vision of Jesus Christ’

  • Features
    Mass at Sacred Heart Church in Uvalde after a gunman killed 19 children and two teachers at nearby Robb Elementary School.

    Texas Agencies Resist Releasing Public Records on Uvalde School Shooting

    Celia Lewis ProPublica

    White Anti-CRT Parents Got a Black Educator Fired, Then Chased Her to Her Next Job

    Tops Friendly Markets in Buffalo, New York

    Overtly White Supremacist Ideology Is Being Sanitized and Mainstreamed

    children in a classroom getting education

    On Race and Schools, Here’s What Americans Agree and Disagree On

  • Inspiration
    • All
    • Bible
    • First-Person Essay
    • Poetry
    Everything Everywhere All At Once. (A24 Films)

    ‘Everything Everywhere All At Once’ & the Absurdity of Love as Resistance

    God Speaks Through Wombs: Poems on God's Unexpected Coming

    The Gospels Give Birth to Poetry (‘God Speaks Through Wombs’ Excerpt)

    two women talk

    100 Proverbs That Teach Us How to Speak, Listen, and Respectfully Disagree

    Rapper J Cole and a hanging tree

    J. Cole’s ‘Javari,’ the Cross, and the Lynching Tree

  • Members
  • About Us
    • Staff and Advisors
    • Write for Us
    • Advertise With Us
No Result
View All Result
Faithfully Magazine
No Result
View All Result

Lecrae Rejects Baptist Seminary’s Request for Help Amid Backlash Over Racist Photo

FM Editors by FM Editors
April 27, 2017
in Web Exclusives
Reading Time: 4 mins read
0
Lecrae and Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary
Share on FacebookShare on TwitterShare on RedditShare on LinkedInEmail This
294
SHARES
ShareTweetPin It

Christian School Linked to History of Racism Embroiled in Controversy

Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary asked Christian rapper Lecrae for his help after getting severe backlash for a racist photo of faculty members supposedly dressed as rappers.

“Would you be willing to lead a dialogue on growth for our community?” the @SWBTS Twitter account asked the rapper on Tuesday, at the height of the backlash.

Mosaic Coffee

The request was in response to Lecrae questioning the brief apology by Dean David Allen, who appears in the photo and shared it on Twitter.

RELATED STORIES

The Real ‘Great Replacement’: When Resentful Whites Recruited Foreigners to Undermine Black Progress

Overtly White Supremacist Ideology Is Being Sanitized and Mainstreamed

Instead of accepting the seminary’s request, Lecrae suggested the troubled Southern Baptist Convention-affiliated school seek out “more qualified” individuals for its desired dialogue.

Lecrae had expressed weeks prior his refusal to “use my voice to speak on racial unity” at the behest of Evangelical leaders who “don’t use yours to talk about racism.”

On Wednesday,  Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary president Paige Patterson published a statement on the controversial photo at swbts.edu.

Patterson acknowledged that the photo was racist, stating, “Sometimes, Anglo Americans do not recognize the degree that racism has crept into our lives.”

This is the photo posted online by staff of the Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary on Twitter Tuesday, April 25, 2017
This is the photo posted online by staff of the Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary on Twitter Tuesday, April 25, 2017.

In his lengthy statement, titled “Racism IS a Tragic Sin,” Patterson said of the controversial photo:

“A gracious young Native American preacher on our staff does rap as a hobby. He preached a sermon recently in chapel in which he included a section of rap. I thought that it was great, and the students seemed responsive to it. He has since accepted a pastorate; and, as part of his departure, his fellow professors wanted to awaken memories and in so doing to tease him. That is par for the course around here. The president encourages our people to laugh at each other rather than to risk taking ourselves too seriously. But, as all members of the preaching faculty have acknowledged, this was a mistake, and one for which we deeply apologize. Sometimes, Anglo Americans do not recognize the degree that racism has crept into our lives. Such incidents are tragic but helpful to me in refocusing on the attempt to flush from my own system any remaining nuances of the racist past of our own country. Just as important, my own sensitivity to the corporate and individual hurts of a people group abused by generations of oppressors needs to be constantly challenged.”

As Faithfully Magazine reported within hours of the photo’s emergence on Twitter Tuesday, all of the men who appear in the photo are White. The men wore gold and silver chains, bandannas, hoodies, and crooked baseball caps. One of the faculty members can be seen holding what appears to be a gun or similar weapon against his chest. The phrase “Notorious S.O.P.” (School of Preaching) was scrawled in black ink across the top of the photo.

Faithfully Magazine identified the men as: David L. Allen, dean of the School of Preaching; Kyle Walker, the seminary’s vice president for Student Services and a professor of preaching; Barry McCarty, a preaching professor and Chief Parliamentarian for the Southern Baptist Convention; Deron J Biles, a Dean Emeritus and a professor of Pastoral Ministries and Preaching; and Matthew McKellar, an associate preaching professor.

Several of the preaching professors shared the image on their personal Twitter accounts before deleting them hours later.

President Patterson neglected to mention in his statement on Southwestern’s “moment of bad judgment” that his school has a history of racism, particularly through its affiliation with the Southern Baptist Convention. The denomination, which claims to be the largest U.S. Protestant Christian body, was founded in 1845 by pro-slavery Baptists.

Dr. Yolanda Pierce, director of Princeton Theological Seminary’s Center for Black Church Studies was among the many Christians who had a few words for Southwestern and its faculty on Tuesday.

“Disappointed, dismayed, and deeply offended by the racist display of members of the faculty @swbts. This dishonors the body of Christ,” Pierce tweeted at the school’s Twitter account.

“Racism is a structural evil and it’s present and pervasive in our Christian seminaries and churches, perhaps more so than the larger public,” she added. “If you’ve been called to train generations for service to the Church but continue to foster racist ideology, please stop. And repent.”

This is how I know all that racial reconciliation talk isn't real. You haven't put in the work. And talk is cheap.

— Yolanda Pierce, PhD (@YNPierce) April 26, 2017

See our original report, White Christian Dean and Faculty Pose as Gangsters in Controversial Photo, for more background on this story.

Leave your vote

0 Points
Upvote Downvote

Browse and manage your votes from your Member Profile Page

What's Your Reaction?

  • AngryAngry
    0
    Angry
  • CuteCute
    0
    Cute
  • CryCry
    0
    Cry
  • LOLLOL
    0
    LOL
  • LoveLove
    0
    Love
  • OMGOMG
    0
    OMG

REPRINT REQUESTS | MEMBERSHIPS | GIVE



Share This Post

Share via

Share This Post

  • Digg
  • Tumblr
  • Flipboard
  • SMS
More
  • Report
294
SHARES
ShareTweetPin It
FM Editors

FM Editors

Faithfully Magazine is a fresh, bold and exciting news and culture publication that covers issues, conversations and events impacting Christian communities of color.

Related Posts

A business at 314 Broad Street in Leland, Mississippi, as seen on January 1, 1939

The Real ‘Great Replacement’: When Resentful Whites Recruited Foreigners to Undermine Black Progress

Tops Friendly Markets in Buffalo, New York

Overtly White Supremacist Ideology Is Being Sanitized and Mainstreamed

Unlearning Racism As a Non-Black Person of Color

Christians Called to Face the ‘Whole…Dark Truth’ About Church’s Role in Indian Boarding School System

Upcoming Live Events

There are no upcoming Events at this time.

Recently Published

  • ‘Truth’s Table’ Authors Talk Early Beginnings, Centering Black Women, and Inspiring One Another
  • Texas Agencies Resist Releasing Public Records on Uvalde School Shooting
  • Why We Need Nurturing Fathers
  • White Anti-CRT Parents Got a Black Educator Fired, Then Chased Her to Her Next Job
  • Juneteenth Is a Federal Holiday: Here’s What You Need to Know
Mosaic Coffee
  • Privacy Policy
  • Contact Us
  • Shop
  • Newsletter

© 2022 Faithfully Media LLC, owner and operator. All rights reserved. This site participates in the Amazon Associates program, and other affiliate programs, and may earn a commission from your purchases.

No Result
View All Result
  • News
  • Clippings
  • Features
  • Spotlight
  • Inspiration
  • Log In
    • Your Profile
Share via

Share This Post

  • Twitter
  • Facebook
  • Reddit
  • Email
  • WhatsApp
  • Copy Link
  • Tumblr
  • Digg
  • Flipboard
  • SMS
close

Log In

Sign In

Login with Facebook
Login with Twitter
Forgot password?

Don't have an account? Register

Forgot password?

Enter your account data and we will send you a link to reset your password.

Back to Login

Your password reset link appears to be invalid or expired.

Log in

Privacy Policy

Accept

Add to Collection

  • Public collection title

  • Private collection title

No Collections

Here you'll find all collections you've created before.

This website uses cookies. By continuing to use this website you are giving consent to cookies being used. Visit our Privacy and Cookie Policy.
Send this to a friend