Kyle J. Howard, the theological misanthrope, who has never met a white person who didn’t cause him some degree of trauma and who didn’t harbour a dark underbelly of white supremacist thinking, all the while being promoted and retweeted by SBC royalty, had some unusually racist marital advice.
Asked whether or not a “biblical divorce” was in the cards if one person was a white supremacist, Howard explained that it wasn’t for two white people, but it was if one of the spouses was BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, or People of Color)
Of course, Howard views almost everyone as a white supremacist. In fact, one of his quick barometer tests is asking whether or not someone voted for Donald Trump. If you did, you’re a super racist, committed to white supremacy and the enslavement and subjugation of black people, and he does not feel safe around you.
If you have black or brown skin and you want to divorce your spouse for being a white supremacist as defined by Kyle J. Howard, then you have his blessing and the scriptures release you, with no sin being present.
If however, you have white skin and you want to divorce your spouse for being a white supremacist as defined by Kyle J. Howard, then that is still sinful, and a violation of the biblical texts, and you are not released.
You all knew this was coming, based on his trajectory. Consequently, we await in anticipation to know what other sins are only applicable to white folk and not black ones. Given his predilections, he will tell us soon enough.
Jemar Tisby, founder of the Witness Black Christian Collective (previously called Reformed African American Network or RAAN) which is an allegedly Christian organization created to “fight injustice” all the while promoting an openly pro-choice, pro LGBT radical to the role of VP, delivered a gospel presentation at Wheaton College back in late 2019.
Tibsy, perhaps best known for writing the theologically compromised book The Color of Compromise, gives us a primer on how woke teachers influence by Critical Race Theory can quickly twist scripture and insert unbiblical ideas even into a two-minute gospel presentation, so the point that if you’re not paying attention, you’ll blink and you’ll miss it.
Earlier when I was defining the prophetic voice I mentioned a kind of prophecy called a ‘prophecy of deliverance.’ I talked about Genesis 3:15, the offspring of the woman crushing satan under his heel, and I said ‘test the spirits’ and the way to test a forthtelling spirit is to see if it came true, well brothers and sisters that prophecy of deliverance prophesied all the way back in Genesis 3:15 came true.
It came true when Jesus Christ, the Son of God, took on flesh and became a person and entered into our experience so that he could identify with us and express solidarity with us!
Jesus Christ announced his public ministry by describing his role as a prophetic forthteller. He said that he was anointed by God the Father to proclaim good news to the poor, liberty to the captives, the recovery of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed, and to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.
That prophecy came true, and because it came true, you now who believe in Jesus enter into that prophetic role of forthtelling the truth, even the truth about racism and white supremacy.
And on the cross, Jesus Christ tells those who have been bent low because of oppression: you can stand up straight. And he tells those who have bought into the myth of whiteness and superiority that you, too, are in need of a savior. If you have repented and believed this morning, then despise not the prophetic voice of the black experience. Amen and amen.”
That’s all it takes. A quick flick of the wrist. A couple of words added in to change the meaning.
Saddleback Pastor Rick Warren, acting like he didn’t give us the monstrosity of the purpose-driven life, did an interview with Steven Strang of Relevant Magazine where he discussed issues of social justice and discernment.
Speaking candidly, he unloaded on Christians for not caring about black people after they are born, suggested they’re engaging in subtle racism, and decried many of them as not having discernment or a biblical worldview when it came to who they voted for.
In this segment of the interview, he doubles down on his criticisms by employing some very Critical Race Theory language, making one wonder to what extent this ideology has been sopped up by the megachurch.
Q. We’re in an unprecedented era of political division; what’s that been like for you? Obviously, many Christians are and have always been concerned about pro-life issues.
What I see is a lot of people only care about Black people if they’re in the womb. They don’t care about Black people once they’re born. I’m going, ‘No, no, no, no. You’ve got to care about that little girl after she’s born.’ That’s a subtle racism and you just need to own up to it.
Christians today lack biblical discernment. They’re making decisions based on political values rather than biblical values. This is a real problem. The whole election, regardless who you voted for, revealed that most Christians don’t have a biblical worldview. They don’t vote from a biblical worldview. They vote from a political worldview. Their identity comes primarily from politics. It’s partisan.
Warren laments that the topic of “poverty” is an under-taught doctrine, despite there being thousands of verses about it. He describes how he went through “Christian college, two Christian seminaries, and got an earned doctorate” without ever hearing anything about the poor, and that likewise the word “justice” is frequently used in scriptures, but Christians have an aversion to it.
Q: The Church has struggled intensely with this year’s reckoning of racial injustice in America. Looking at our response, it hasn’t been pretty. How can Christians improve our response?
Of our 20 Saddleback campuses, most of those pastors aren’t white guys. They’re Hispanic, Asian, Black. They are Middle Eastern. But when I saw this happening, and the brutalization and racism coming back to the forefront, I thought, “OK, it’s not enough to simply be a multicultural church. We’ve been a multicultural church for 20 years. We have to be an anti-racist church.”
We have to be a pro-reconciliation, pro-justice church. I invited my Black staff to spend time with me. We did a Zoom call and I said, “Guys, I need you to just level with me. I don’t want to hear about when you experienced prejudice and rejection as a kid. I want to hear about how you’ve heard and felt it at Saddleback.”
It was a two-and-a-half hour meeting. It was brutal. It was painful. It was beautiful. It was healing. We all cried together. We did seven staff meetings, over two hours each. They shared their stories, and then I let the staff respond. There was weeping, and there was repentance.
I had a call with all the Black members of Saddleback. People said, “Rick, I love my church, I love you. But many times, I just feel like my church doesn’t understand. I’m the only Black woman in a small group of white women. Not one person has asked me: ‘How do you feel about these shootings?’ I have a son who’s about Ahmaud Aubrey’s age and it scares me.”
I’ve been pulled over like everybody else has. It always raises your fear level. But I’ve never been afraid somebody was going to throw me on the ground. I’ve never been afraid that somebody’s going to pull a gun on me me driving while white.
People should not be afraid in their own country.
Look, 1619: the first slaves arrive. That’s two years before the pilgrims got here.
Slaves have been here longer than pilgrims. It’s their country too. People say, “Go home.” Well, they’ve been here longer than you.
In a recently unearthed sermon clip from 2018, SBC Pastor and former International Mission Board President David Platt described how because he has white skin, he has blind spots when teaching the scriptures.
Platt was last seen telling congregation members if they were upset and contemplating breaking fellowship with other congregants who were promoting, working for, or voting for the pro-baby-killing Democratic party, then perhaps they should leave.
In this clip, however, he describes himself as “part of the problem” of racial injustice. Platt earnestly vows to teach on issues in the bible pertinent to black congregation members too, and not just white members as perhaps he’s done in the past.
He condemns church growth ideology that says he should not speak on race issues and affirms that it’s important to declare that white people are part of the problem when it comes to those very issues. He says:
I want to sacrifice more of my preferences as a white pastor. I need to grow. And my laying aside of preferences for members of this body because I want Christ to be exalted through increasing diversity in our leadership and our membership.
On a related note, I do not want to speak from the bible on issues that are popular among white followers of Christ while staying silent in the bible on issues that are important to the non-white followers of Christ. That’s not faithful pastoring.
I actually read this week how studies have shown that white church leaders are less likely to speak and act prophetically on race issues because white church leaders have more to lose when they do. Basically, if you want to draw a crowd in general, stay away from racial issues.
And if you want to draw a crowd of white people or black people or this type of person or that type of person then stay away from saying any one of those types of people is part of the problem on racial issues.
Because the reality is many people mainly want to be comforted when they come to church, and as people, we’re naturally drawn to that which brings the most benefit with the least cost.
So if you give people a choice between the church of comfort and the church of comfort but you need to make sacrifices to charge your life, people will choose the church of comfort most every time. Which is why we’ve designed so much of the church culture the way we have today.
It’s why we’re so prone not to talk about issues that are uncomfortable to us and I just want to see the bible doesn’t give us that option. Like Amos 5 doesn’t give us that option. We cannot truly worship God while we stay silent on injustice in all kinds of areas.
And I know as a white pastor I have blind spots. So I am part of the problem. I need friends and fellow pastors around me from different ethnicities who help me see those blind spots.
And I’m committed to listening and learning and loving- laying aside whatever contemporary church growth methodology says the best way to grow the church. I ignore the issues. I want to do the exact opposite. I want us to hear God’s word clearly on these issues and then we can trust him with the growth of this church.
David Platt is right about one thing: he is a part of the problem, but not in the way he thinks.
An article appearing on The Gospel Coalition describes God’s incarnate son as a “downwardly mobile migrant” and “middle eastern refugee” who faced “daunting pressures of exclusion and insecurity.”
The post, written by Jenny Yang, serves to link legal and illegal migrants and immigrantsto the experience Jesus had when his parents fled to Egypt.
If the name ‘Jenny Yang’ sounds familiar to you, it should. She’s the senior vice president of advocacy and policy at World Relief and has been platformed by Russell Moore and the ERLC many times before, being a frequent conference speaker.
She’s the same woman who said at an immigration conference that “Human relationships are more important than theology” and that almost every major Biblical figure was a refugee.
In her post she writes:
God’s incarnate Son was both a downwardly mobile migrant––he left the realms of heaven and pitched his tent among men (John 1:14)––and a refugee fleeing a genocidal edict (Matt. 2:13). He intimately knows what it feels like to be a stranger in a foreign land. He identifies so much with strangers that when we welcome them, we are welcoming him (Matt. 25:31–46).
and
Every Christian is led by a Middle Eastern refugee who faced the daunting pressures of exclusion and insecurity and yet carried forth his duty to obey his Father and love his people. Jesus’s birth gives us hope that despite the challenging circumstances we face personally or societally, we can always find healing––and a home––in him.
Yang says that when she reads her bible, she sees a “theology of migration from Genesis to Revelation.” She concludes in her article:
Sorrow and joy are intermingled markers along a refugee’s journey, but the Christmas story is a reminder that our challenging circumstances don’t have the final word. Jesus does.”
Kyle J. Howard, between breaths of saying that he would never join a denomination led by white folk because of how inherently racist they are, and telling people it’s ok to not read God’s word or go to church if they find it “triggering” (see screencaps at end of post) has thought up a wonderful new tall tale describing shockingly racist behavior he experienced during his time at Southern Baptist Theological Seminary (SBTS).
While Howard over the years has described in uncomfortable detail how much spiritual trauma he was traumatized with while being traumatized by anti-trauma experts who racially traumatized him and left him even more traumatized than the last time he was being spiritually and racially traumatized, this is a new story. You’ll recall he preciously claimed that someone told him “Since you’re black you probably don’t know what reformed theology is” and all these stories here .
In this case, Howard claims that one of his professors, desiring his class to do a research paper on a famous preacher, told the young skulls full of mush that he didn’t have any black pastors to recommend as black preachers had “inferior theology” to white preachers.
He then embellishes further.
Some very strong “I was in the line at the grocery store when a woman tapped me on the back and said ‘I don’t like your shirt that says “God bless the USA” on it.’ Then I loudly responded so that half the store could hear….and then everyone clapped and cheered and the manager came over and shook my hand,” and similar claptrap.
You know how that goes.
Unfortunately, Howard is known for his exaggerations and complete fabrication. This is why we’ve had a running bounty of $3000 to anyone who can bring proof that Howard was a gun-toting gang member for the Crips.
Lest anyone forget, Howard was born with incredible privilege, with the proverbial silver spoon placed there by two attorney-parents. He was raised in an affluent Atlanta suburb. His brother capitalized on his privilege and became an attorney like his parents before him and Howard has been a professional student for most of his life.
However, Howard claims in his website bio that in High School he became “heavily immersed” in the Crips gang. Howard claims he carried a razor blade in his mouth, a .38 revolver on his hip and drugs in his pocket.
Also according to Howard, he lived a double life, selling drugs at night but doing high school debate and keeping up his academics during the day. His parents apparently weren’t aware of his secret life as a Crips member because he would intellectually debate his parents over supper and then go smoke weed and live the thug life.
Howard also claims he was a “battle rapper” in the “underground circuit” while excelling at his High School Latin class.
Howard claims that upon meeting his future wife, he gradually walked away from all the gang activity (in the 11th grade – lol) and they let him go willingly. [Editor’s note: Apparently they didn’t want him around either?] Howard states that his then future wife was oblivious to his gang activity as well (this leaves a total of zero people who can substantiate Howard’s claims).
If you’re asking why he would make up stories that would make even Ergun Caner blush, it’s simple: with someone as privileged (and White-privileged at that) as Kyle J. Howard is, it’s critically important that he identify with the victim-class.
To do so, he claims he was a secret gang member in high school, thus establishing his intersectionality creds.
So no. We don’t believe him for a second. If he wants to name names we would welcome that. But until he does, it’s just another Howardian allegation, and we know how seriously we should take those.
The Colgate company, known for manufacturing toothpaste, toothbrushes, and all other manner of machinations designed to leave one’s mouth minty fresh and plaque-free, decided to go woke and hopefully not broke when they released an ad featuring a young, non-binary teenage girl extolling the beauty of being a “they/them.”
The hot-to-the-touch-because-it-just-came-from-hell promo begins with the young woman repeating the usual array of progressive riffs:
Your identity is not (unintelligible) it’s who you are. Even if you’re questioning and trying out pronouns, that is you and I’m proud of you.
I’m Gianna and my pronouns are they/them. Oh Gosh, I can’t help but laugh, because I’ve never really said that out loud, so I’m kinda really happy.
I decided to make pronoun bracelets because people might assume your gender or your pronouns, and maybe they might pay attention to your bracelet and they might know ‘Oh hey, they’re non-binary.’
So, I just try and help people out because it really does hurt when you’re misgendered.
A text overlay informs that Gianna’s pronoun bracelets are sold online and at local markets [Editor’s note: There can’t possibly be a market for these, right? RIGHT!!!????] and that a portion of the money is donated to LGBTQ and racial equality groups. The video concludes with Gianna saying sweet nothings that mean sweet nothing:
Everyone is beautiful and more specifically you are beautiful so never doubt yourself.
https://twitter.com/i/status/1340854489063043073
For a company that has built a reputation based on the science of proper oral hygiene, you’d think they’d carry that conviction through to the rest of their endeavors, rather than betray the fundamental principles that made them successful.
In fact, if Colgate applied the same science principles towards the science of “they/them” non-binary genders as they do towards maximizing oral care, things would look much different. Rather than Colgate adopting cutting edge scientific technology to address gum deterioration, brush bristle tension, enamel preservation, and proper brushing techniques, we’d be gargling old-timey bottles of mysterious liquid whose label reads “Krazy Eddie’s Tooth Decay Elixir and Leg-lengthening Tonic” and the only three ingredients would be cocaine, horse urine, and a couple of drops of Red dye 40.
Crest. Arm and Hammer. Toms. Oral B: please take our money.
Once the transgendered tirade is out of the tube, it can’t be put back in.
A prominent Southern Baptist pastor has packed up his bags and taken his congregation out of the SBC, declaring, “we out,” and citing Al Mohler endorsing Trump and the letter sent by six seminary presidents rejecting Critical Race Theory (CRT) and intersectionality as his motive for leaving. The letter comes a day after the Rev. Ralph West, founder and senior pastor of The Church Without Walls in Houston, Texas, announced he was likewise cutting ties for that very same reason.
He wrote in a fiery departure letter to RNS how for years he was trying to give the SBC a chance assume good motives, but that that they’ve all shown themselves to be a bunch of racists unable and unwilling to change their kukluxklanning ways by not supporting CRT – an unforgivable betrayal which necessitates his departure. Dates laments:
Then, last week, a final straw. On Dec. 1, all six of the SBC seminary presidents — without one Black president or counter-opinion among them — told the world that a high view of Scripture necessarily required a corresponding and total rejection of critical race theory and intersectionality.
Dates, mad as a woke scold listening to a JD Hall sermon, continues:
When did the theological architects of American slavery develop the moral character to tell the church how it should discuss and discern racism? When did those who have yet to hire multiple Black or brown faculty at their seminaries assume ethical authority on the subject of systemic injustice?
How did they, who in 2020 still don’t have a single Black denominational entity head, reject once and for all a theory that helps to frame the real race problems we face?
He writes that the SBC is promoting the belief that a high view of Scripture “must mean an adaptation of Republican politics,” and with it, the dismissal of critical race theory and intersectionality because of a fear of “liberalism.”
Dates spent the rest of the time excoriating Mohler, makes a bizarre comment about abortion, says that some black SBC pastors are mere “tokens” or “assimilators,” calls SBC seminaries “vestiges of racial animus,” says that “Black people will never gain full equality in the Southern Baptist Convention. My acknowledgment of this is not a statement of submission, but an act of defiance. The SBC’s power structure wants to maintain white dominance,” and a bunch of other things.
In short, he loves CRT and intersectionality, they say they don’t, and so he’s out of here.
The funny thing, even though those six seminary presidents penned a statement rejecting CRT, half of them don’t even know what it is. Or they’ll say they reject it like Mohler, all the while creating a $5 Million dollar slush fund for only black students and allowing professors like Jarvis Williams, Matthew Hall, and Curtis Woods to teach there, all who have been heavily influenced by CRT.
In 2019 we were told by our #BigEva overlords that nobody in the SBC embraces Critical Race Theory, with Russell Moore, president of the Southern Baptist Convention’s Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission (ERLC) even saying in an interview a few months ago that he doesn’t know any conservative evangelicals influenced by CRT, and if someone put a gun to his head and asked him to name one, he wouldn’t come out alive.
In 2020, SBC pastors are leaving the Southern Baptist Convention because of a refusal to embrace CRT and intersectionality.
Southern Baptist president J.D Greear has offered up a response to the progressive resolution JUSTICE, REPENTANCE, AND THE SBC. The only thing you really need to know about it is that the original signatories were Rev. David Bumgardner- that young pastor-wannabe kid who voted for Biden, and Dwight McKissic, a notorious liberal who should have been kicked out of the SBC 20 year ago. The statement offers no resolutions, no arguments, no solutions, and no definition of terms. It is useless and vague, but that’s probably the point.
The whole resolution can be boiled down to these two paragraphs:
Many people deny the existence of systemic injustice (and systemic racism) as a reality. Many who recognize systemic injustices are labeled as “Marxists,” “Liberals,” and “Critical Race Theorists,” even though they are theologically orthodox and believe in the total sufficiency of Scripture…
Further, we stand firmly in opposition to any movement in the SBC that seeks to distract from racial reconciliation through the gospel and that denies the reality of systemic injustice. To deny systemic injustice would be to ignore the effects that sin has on both individuals, societies, and institutions.
Naturally, JD Greear, who might as well have been chugging thirty red bulls a day and dancing in the CRT Klubs all night for how woke he’s become, has some thoughts on the matter. They’re about what you’d expect from someone who never saw a police interaction between white police and a black person that he didn’t pronounce to be racist, and who has essentially become the “Al Sharpton for Evangelicals.”
Greear has three main takeaways:
1. Slavery of the 19th century has left a “long trail of destruction” that is “corrupting our institutions and subtly shaping our perspectives.” He further writes “Wherever we find damage caused by the legacy of sin, we must be committed to pursuing healing and restoration.”
This is to say, no matter how many times you repent of it, it won’t go away. Racism and white supremacy is alive and well in the SBC and is pervasive. It’s what prompted Beth Moore to say that “White Supremacy has held tight in much of the church for so long because the racists outlasted the anti-racists.” Everything is stained by the legacy of sin, and that trail of destruction manifests right now. There is never any escaping it. Think of it as the SBC’s shadow- it’s always there casting shade over every interaction between the races.
2. Far from condemning Critical Race Theory, he suggests that it isn’t that bad, and that “there are often things we can learn from questions raised and observations made.” He says that we shouldn’t resist those who are looking into the benefits of CRT or ” default to labeling believers who parse certain questions differently as “Marxist” or “racist.”
Ie. CRT is a useful tool, and you’re being “uncharitable, sinful, and intellectually lazy” if you name names and label proponents of it to be theologically suspect and question why they are so bent on protecting the use of it.
3. Greear believes the SBC needs more “affirmative action” and has been personally accomplishing this by rounding up the black folk and promoting them based on the color of their skin. He says: “Our leadership should reflect the diversity of our communities and proclaim the diversity of Christ’s coming kingdom (Acts 13:1–2; Revelation 7:9). To that end, I have aggressively sought to appoint people of color into trustee spots and other positions of influence.”
If you’re white and equally as qualified, tough luck. You’re free to dolezol yourself up a little to get that edge for the next appointment, but so long as your melanin count is a little low, J.D Greear will be passing over you.
All in all, his statement is what you’d expect from a racist-baiting marxist. About as clear as mud and twice as convincing.
Rick Warren’s Saddleback Church has invited “African American and/or Black Members” and their spouses of any ethnicity to attend a special gathering with racial trauma experts, with non-spousal white church members asked to pray for the event but to stay away.
Warren sent the invite out to members, informing them that “We don’t want to be a church that just talks about love, that just studies love, that just defines love, that just prays about love. It’s not enough to just say we love people. We have to show love.“
With Saddleback’s many campuses still closed and with no plans to reopen any time soon (the opposite of loving people in their church), the special gathering is happening via Zoom and is virtually hosted by Pastor Anthony Miller and Dr. Anita Phillips.
Miller is the communications pastor at Saddleback, and Phillips is the Trauma-expert. As one might expect, Phillips is a theological mess and deeply compromised. She promotes and partners with Trinity-denying Heretic TD Jakes, retweeting out his material and being a speaker at his “Woman Thou Are Loosed” masterclass. When she’s not doing that, she’s hosting In the Light Podcast, which is a smorgasbord of divisive, gospel-redefining critical race theory talking points. The announcement continues:
Our worship team has also arranged a one-of-a-kind gospel experience. We want this to be a safe space for our Black brothers and sisters to heal and be fed mentally, emotionally, and spiritually by their church family heading into the new year…
Worshipping next to a person with white skin is not safe? Congregational worship is nothealing or edifying when there is white folk around? What fresh hell is this? Does Saddleback believe white brothers and sisters are giving black members the heebie-jeebies because of their melanin?
Furthermore, keep in mind this is a Zoom call. No one is even in the same room. This is some next-level divisiveness that the church is facilitating black members needing a virtual “safe space” to have their “gospel experience” so that they can “heal” away from the lighter-skinned congregants.” God forbid there might be white members sharing bandwidth with black members and streaming the same thing.
Notice also how Saddleback singles out “African American” members as privy to this evening of racial healing and that other “persons of color” like Asians, Hispanics, and Latinos will have to content themselves with staying away from this blacks-only service and hanging out with the whities in prayer? To wit:
For everyone else in our church family, I invite you to pray that God will use this night to begin the healing process that leads to true fellowship in our church family, and that God will begin the ministry of reconciliation in all of us as we head into new waters in the new year.
True fellowship and reconciliation do not occur within a body by having a “Blacks-only service,” or a “Latino-only service,” or a “Whites-only service.”
Rather, true fellowship occurs when you denounce these hellish, racist, race-baiting filthy rags as satan-stained damnable doctrine and instead have every tongue, tribe, and nation worship together as one in Jesus Christ, irrespective of race, gender, age, socioeconomic status, or any other artificial divider the world might think up.
Dear Saddleback Family,
We don’t want to be a church that just talks about love, that just studies love, that just defines love, that just prays about love. It’s not enough to just say we love people. We have to show love.
I can’t wait to share with you my vision for next year, and how we’re going to continue loving and serving people who are in pain. But right now, before the year is over, we’re starting with our Black brothers and sisters.
So if you are an African American and/or Black member of Saddleback (and spouses, no matter your ethnicity), you are invited to a special Zoom gathering Monday night December 14, at 6:00 PM with me, Pastor Anthony Miller, and Dr. Anita Phillips, racial-trauma expert and host of the In the Light podcast. Our worship team has also arranged a one-of-a-kind gospel experience. We want this to be a safe space for our Black brothers and sisters to heal and be fed mentally, emotionally, and spiritually by their church family heading into the new year. Click here to register and receive the link.
For everyone else in our church family, I invite you to pray that God will use this night to begin the healing process that leads to true fellowship in our church family, and that God will begin the ministry of reconciliation in all of us as we head into new waters in the new year.
