(The Dissenter) Russell Moore, David French, and Curtis Chang are the authors of “The After Party” curriculum which is supposed to equip churches and Christians on how to engage in politics without being “divisive.” Yet, these clowns epitomize everything that is wrong with today’s Church by wholly embracing practically every anti-Christian progressive ideology known to man.
In a recent clip of several of the contributors to this “church” curriculum, they praise one of the most divisive, politically charged social justice pastors in all of Evangelicalism—Charlie Dates. And they hold him ups as one of the examples of a Christian leader who represents exactly what they’re fighting for.
So who is Charlie Dates? In 2018..to continue reading click here.
This article was written and published at the Dissenter
This was when he wasn’t describing the SBC as a bunch of racists that will never change, calling some black SBC pastors mere “tokens” or “assimilators,” and calling SBC seminaries “vestiges of racial animus.
Having replaced James Meeks as senior Pastor of the progressive Salem Barptist Church, shrugging off all pretense of his former conservative affiliations, Dates invited Prr-LBGTQ, Pro-choice Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot, who came with her lesbian “wife”, to come preach at his church.
Dates warmly welcomes her as “Auntie” while the church gives her a standing ovation. She then proceeds to preach on Deuteronomy 31 and the transition of leadership from Moses to Joshua, calling Dates the “Joshua” to Meeks’ “Moses.”
Some of you may have some trepidation, some concerns about this transition (Dates becoming the new pastor) But I am here to tell you ‘fear not. fear not.’
Scripture provides us with a guide to navigate this moment. Now those of you who have your Bible (Applause] Pastor, did they really think I was going up here and talk to this congregation and not know my Bible? Those of you who have your Bible, turn with me to Deuteronomy chapter 31.
Tellingly, at the end of the address, Pastor Meeks (a Moody Bible Institute Trustee) embraces Lightfoot’s “wife” Amy Eshleman, who then leads his own wife off the stage arm-in-arm.
h/t Dissenter + Woke Preacher TV for the clip and the last line about Lightfoot’s “wife”.
(G3) In his letter from a Birmingham Jail, Martin Luther King Jr. addressed black pastors attempting to understand the civil rights movement. King understood that his rhetorical arguments would impact a much larger audience and help those foreign to the movement understand its goals.
After the Supreme Court overturned Roe, as black pastors grappled with its implications, it was clear that there was a growing need for clarity on the issue of abortion. However, in the current cultural climate, few would dare to write such a letter.
Many white pastors fear being criticized or attacked, and many black pastors find it difficult to openly criticize a fellow brother, especially one who shares his complexion. Insofar as the “black church” is concerned, evangelicals fear holding it accountable for missing the mark.
Conversely, the senior pastor of Progressive Baptist Church in Chicago, Charlie Dates, has written many critiques aimed squarely at the “White Church.” Furthermore, media outlets rush to publish many of his hot takes on everything from gun control to why America needs the black church.
In his article for the Washington Post, Dates writes, “America needs the Black church for its own survival because the Black church remains the prophetic and priestly conscience of the land.”
If Dates is correct, we must ask a question. As America’s priestly conscience, what is the black church saying in light of the Supreme Court decision regarding the reversal of Roe?
Like many black pastors, Dates is woefully silent on abortion these days. However, during the…
Pastor Charlie Dates of Progressive Chicago recently hosted the Justice Summit – “What Hath Justice To Do With Righteousness?” on June 16-17, 2022. The conference features a collective of Professing Christian leaders seeking to “move the Church forward at the intersection of theology, justice, and race.”
Ironically, nearly every speaker featured is either pro-choice or has been completely silent on the issue of justice for the pre-born since the May 3rd Roe v Wade SCOTUS leak, including the revelation on June 24 that it had indeed been overturned. The silence has been absolutely deafening, and we’ve catalogued that below.
Rev Dr. Otis Moss III is the pro-choice pastor of Trinity United Church of Christ. In 2008 he took over from Rev. Jeremiah Wright, who Barak Obama sat under for decades preaching black liberation theology, and whose church currently follows the Black Value System. Despite a ton of tweets, he has not said anything about the May 3rd leak or recent decision, choosing instead to comment on sports and gun violence.
In a recent sermon, Moss argues that humans have the right to freedom and agency over their bodies and that the government has no right to restrict it. He says that the idea of giving the right to restrict abortion over to the states is the same logic that led states to enslave black people.
“This decision opens the door to states restricting what is known as gay marriage, states restricting interracial marriage, states restricting contraception. The state’s restricting in-vitro fertilization. But one of the biggest pieces that no one is talking about is that this decision opens the door for states to restrict the voting rights of black people..
…they said that the Constitution doesn’t speak explicitly about it, so therefore, we will give it to the state. Well, if you have a state or states that we already know have legislators who are functioning with a political agenda, let me say racist agenda, then they now have the power to restrict the rights of people, especially those of African descent.
In another, he says “A pro-life position means a woman’s health and choices are between her god, her conscience, and her doctor, and the government has no place making sacred decisions for people of different faiths and traditions.”
Fredrick Haynes is the pastor of Friendship-West Baptist Church. In 2012 he famously supported Obama’s stance on supporting gay marriage, and himself is pro-choice, writing on Twitter and then saying in a recent sermon.
This past week, we heard several rulings come down from the Supreme Court, the Supreme Court that was basically put together; it really is illegitimate if we’re honest with ourselves, because there are stolen seats on that court.
…Because there are one-issue people who find themselves in churches across this country celebrating today, because they are one-issue people. Why? They call themselves pro-life. No, you’re not really pro-life. That’s an illusion, an illusion that masks the truth and the reality that you are one-dimensional persons… and that you are playing a power game of control, especially control over the bodies of others, the bodies of women, and that my sisters and brothers is what we cannot forget.
…(this woman) recognized that that whole anti-abortion piece had nothing to do with pro-life, it has everything to do with denying reproductive justice, bodily autonomy….So don’t tell me that you’re pro-life. No, you are pro-fetus. Don’t tell me you’re pro-life, you are pro-birth. Don’t tell me you are pro-life and let me talk to my bass-ackwards black folk who find themselves now jumping on board and saying ‘yes, this is a good thing because the nation is finally rising up to protect the unborn, the nation ain’t doing a damn thing to protect black-born people in this country.”
Christina Edmondson, from all accounts, is not pro-choice, but she never passes by an opportunity to dig at pro-life Christians. She’s an author who recently wrote how white Christians are racists who commit violence against black people by voting Republican and disparaging the Democrats for being anti-life. For years she was part of the Truth’s Table with Michelle Higgins, an openly pro-choice pastrix who would routinely promote Planned Parenthood and pro-choice slogans. After Roe was overturned, her other co-host, Ekimini Uwan, who has previously said that she does not want to overturn Roe v Wade, tweeted out, ‘America is a failed state.’
Edmondson has mentioned abortion a bit since the decision, but mostly to condemn those who praised it as failing to be ‘womb-to-tomb’ prolife, writing on Twitter.
Ppl can hide behind costless labels like “pro-life” that give the veneer of a moral high ground with 0 sacrifices
No universal health care
No justice for sexual trauma survivors (moreover granting abusers power)
No accountability for the sexual practices of men
No credibility. I have limited expectations for people who complained about a piece of cloth on their faces to give up anything truly costly for the sake of the unborn. Limited expectations for people who turned a blind eye to multiple sexual assault allegations to gain political power to actually care with understanding about and for rape victims seeking termination
or this, from 2 years ago.
Bree Newsome is famous for scuttling up the flagpole and removing the Confederate flag from the South Carolina state house grounds after the Charleston church shooting and getting arrested. She is radical in her beliefs, being openly against capitalism and wants to abolish all police and prisons. She has tweeted a hundred times since the May 3rd leak about all sort social justice issues, but has not mentioned anything about abortion.
David W. Swanson is the pastor of New Community Covenant Church and author of Rediscipling the White Church. In a book review by Neil Shenvi, he surmises that the message of the book is “Whites are broken, tainted, corrupt, complicit, and in need of repair.” From May 3rd, when the news of the overturning of Roe leaked, until today, despite tweeting hundreds of times about issues of gun violence and justice and racial issues, he has not mentioned it once, nor has he said it in his newsletter.
Esau McCaulley is an associate pastor at Wheaton College and a Theologian in Residence at the hosting church, Progressive Baptist Church in Chicago. Since the Roe v Wade decision leaked on May 3rd, he did not write anything about it on his Facebook page, and none of his Twitter posts mention anything about it; instead choosing to tweet a lot about gun violence and his newest book.
Lisa Fields is the founder of the Jude 3 Project and produced the documentary Unspoken. She has tweeted hundreds of times since the May 3rd leak, promoting her work, gun violence, the shooting in Uvalde, the Buffalo shooting, and retweeting Truth Table events, but nothing about abortion or the overturning of Roe v. Wade.
Raymond Chang is a pastor the President of the Asian American Christian Collaborative (AACC). We can’t see his posts after the May 3rd SCOTUS leak. Still, he posted a few dozen times since the overturning of Roe v. Wade came down, tweeting out about the second amendment ruling the day before, but has not mentioned anything about abortion.
Russell Moore has been somewhat active on Twitter since the SCOTUS leak may in May. He wrote one op-ed about it, but then nothing since then. With news of Roe v, Wade being overturned, he has not discussed it on his feed, podcast, or Facebook. Despite having a lot to say about other notable events, on this he has gone radio silent.
Justin Giboney is the founder of the AND Campaign, a wishy-washy organization that seeks to strike a middle ground between the democrats and republicans by always leaning toward the former. He is one of the rare speakers who acknowledged it happened, offering up a tweet or two about it, albeit in a dispassionate, unenthused way, noting it’s passing.
He also tweeted out a statement by the And Campaign, which reads:
“The life of unborn children must be protected, however, women should not be targeted for criminal prosecution for seeking or having an abortion. Furthermore, the holes in our healthcare system and social safety net must be addressed thoroughly if we really care about life…The court’s decision today highlights the need for Christians to address issues like maternal mortality, paid family leave, childcare and education, and economic security for mothers and families.”
Charlie Dates is the pastor of Progressive Baptist Church in Chicago, and he hosted the event. He did not say anything about it on Twitter, nor did he mention the May 3rd SCOTUS leak. He tweeted about gun control and the need to go “pro-life” on guns, but that’s it. The only mention he has given it so far is during his last church service, he gave it a strange nod by telling his congregants to ask him about it after the service.
“Listen, there’s a lot to be said. You know Roe v. Wade was overturned this week. I’m not getting into that; I’m not making a political statement about it. I just want y’all to know I saw the news too. And if you want my personal opinion, you can ask me when church is over. I do appreciate the statement that the And Campaign made.”
Dates also said of pro-LGBTQ, pro-choice Pastor Fredrick Haynes, in his introduction of him:
“(he pastors) one of our nation’s cutting-edge, innovative, pressing into the kingdom of darkness, gospel preaching churches. And that church has just grown to life in amazing ways. Aside from all of that he really is, in my opinion, one of the leading voices to help frame the narrative for the church in our fight against injustice.”
(Evangelical Dark Web) In this edition of our series on Ghost Megachurches, we cover a predominantly black church in Chicago that once boasted 10000 members now in an evident decline. In the same month that Rick Warren announced his successor Andy Wood, James Meeks announced Charlie Dates would replace him at Salem Baptist Church in Chicago.
Branch Covidianism has not been easy on Salem Baptist Church. Credited by Christian Post as the reason for decline, the church seems to have failed to adapt well for their size in the highly competitive online environment. Black churchgoers have routinely been less willing to return to in-person worship and this would Salem Baptist Church looks like another casualty in the trend.
A survey of their most recent June 26th service shows a crowd in the mere hundreds with sections of the auditorium unused.
On YouTube, Salem Baptist Church has near 10,000 subscribers and on a good day a sermon has over 5000 views. For comparison, The Potters House of Sarah Jakes Roberts had over 600000 subs and easily amassed 20000 views a sermon. This Ghost Megachurch shut down its Denver location. What stands out the most about Salem Baptist Church’s video sermons is the poor production value, as the sermons are not even streamed in HD.
Enter Charlie Dates
James Meeks and his wife are set to retire prior to the 38th anniversary of the church they founded. Charlie Dates, someone who has some… to continue reading, click here
Two years ago the then former Southern Baptist wrote in a fiery departure letter to RNS how for years he was trying to give the SBC a chance to 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 will be taking over the 9000-15000-member megachurch (depends on who you ask) Salem Baptist Church from Pastor James Meeks, who is retiring. The church is known for both its size and its community activism.
What’s of note is that unlike his former denomination’s stance on women being pastors, and his own church’s position with its Southern Baptist background, Dates seemingly has no qualms with ladies leading the church. Given his new church’s size, we expect there to be dozens of pastrixes ins various states of theological disarray, including these ones here.
Either Dates changed his position on women preaching and pastoring, or he never held it out of conviction, only convenience. Like Beth Moore leaving the SBC to become an Anglican, and Rusell Moore leaving and becoming a member of a paedobaptist church, so frequently as prominent Southern Baptists leave the denomination, they end up on the exact opposite side of the views they once professed to hold, with Bates following the trend to a T.
Following the murder of 19 students and 2 teachers in the Uvalde school shooting, leftist evangelical thought leaders politicized the tragedy in an effort to push universal background checks and other gun control legislation. While many Texas state leaders have called for their constituents to pray for the families of the victims, shameless political clown Beto O’Rourke raided a press conference that was focused on the tragedy, in a publicity stunt that will likely backfire at the polls in November. A number of evangelical thought leaders made incoherent comments about guns, including SBC Presidential contender Bart Barber.
Not to be outdone by pagans like Beto O’Rourke, or ignorant evangelical institutionalists like Bart Barber, TGC author Charlie Dates has taken up the mantle of anti-gun activism in the name of being “pro-life”. Dates published a rambling pro-gun-control piece in Christianity Today, the rag to which leftists like Russell Moore run when they want to publish an article that would be better suited for a leftist secular news source like the Washington Compost. Simply add a little Christianese to leftist talking points, and voilà, secular thought is baptized in the waters of a “Christian Magazine”.
Talking About Chicago Gun Deaths Is Racist
Dates calls republican references to gun violence in Chicago a racist “dog whistle”. According to Dates, white evangelicals should not discuss gun violence in Chicago, because they don’t care about black lives lost.
“In short, I think you should leave Chicago’s name out of your mouth until you understand the forces that shape this city. We are not your rhetorical whipping boy, trotted out for another session of mockery that serves your political ends. We are not your minstrel show,played on repeat on your news channels as a way to reinforce tropes about the inherent dangerousness of Black people. We see what you are doing and name it for what it is: racism. We know that you do not actually care about the Black lives lost to gun violence here. If you did, you wouldn’t use dead Black boys and girls as a political tool. You would see their tragic deaths as a catalyst for action.”
According to Dates, white people who reference Chicago in their arguments are involved in a sinister plot that involves using “dead black boys and girls as a political tool.” Such an argument attempts to equate the deaths of children in the Texas school shooting with shooting deaths in Chicago. Dates ignores the huge difference between the deaths of schoolchildren in Texas and gang-related shootings in Chicago. The children in Uvalde, Texas didn’t deserve to be murdered. While all death is lamentable, many of the “boys” and “girls” who have died in Chicago were willing participants in the gang war culture of Chicago which glorifies crime and murder as a way of life. They live with one foot in the grave. Chicago pastors should place their focus on confronting wicked aspects of their city’s gang culture, rather than blaming white Christians for not advocating gun control measures (i.e., take the cannonball out of your own eye before trying to remove the BB from your brother’s eye).
Blame Republican States
Dates proceeds to blame the lax gun laws of Republican states that surround Illinois for the crime that takes place in Chicago. Instead of blaming Chicago gangs for rampant violence in the city of Chicago, leftists like Dates prefer to place blame on all of the surrounding states that have lax gun laws. Never mind the fact that the border states with more lax gun laws have a much lower crime rate than Chicago itself. According to Dates, Chicago is beholden to its neighbors.
“Chicago is a border colony. Illinois is a gun-restrictive state. Studies have shown that nearly 60 percent of guns connected to crimes in Chicago arrive through Republican states. The loose privileges of others have a direct, negative, and destructive effect on us.”
According to the study linked to Dates’ article, the death by firearm rate for black children is more than four times that of white children. Blaming Indiana for Chicago’s gun violence is equivalent to blaming the United States for gun violence in Mexico. A large number of guns are smuggled across the border from the United States to Mexico, by Mexican criminals who break many laws in the process. The vast majority of these guns are purchased by drug cartels. The United States is not responsible for gun violence in Mexico. The drug cartels are to blame for smuggling guns and committing murders. In the same way, the gangs of Chicago are to blame for gun violence in the city. Criminals will commit crimes with complete disregard for the law, and that is why they are criminals in the first place.
Adopt Leftist Policies or You Can’t Call Yourself Pro-Life
Dates joins other left-leaning evangelicals, who say that those who claim to be pro-life must promote a litany of government-funded social projects, supporting individuals who are born from conception to death. Apparently, pro-lifers must support increased funding for government childhood indoctrination centers, free government healthcare, and pledge themselves to Marxist organizations like Black Lives Matter; in order to be considered truly pro-life.
“We have waited for you to use your influence to lobby Congress for better school funding, access to quality health care, and food security. We have waited for you to denounce the alt-right racism that made a playboy a president. We have waited for you to declare that our lives matter.”
Social Gospel Pushes Aside the True Gospel
Asserting that white evangelicals who point out the gun violence of Chicago know nothing about the “hard work of pastors and religious leaders on the ground” in Chicago, Dates lists several organizations and individuals that work to decrease violence through Social Gospel work. Among these individuals is James Meeks, the executive vice president of Jesse Jackson’s Rainbow Push Coalition.
“If you talk about Chicago, talk about James Meeks and the Salem Baptist Church of Chicago, which decreased violence by voting their neighborhood dry for two decades.”
James Meeks’ strategy to end alcoholism in his community mirrors Charlie Dates’ strategy to end gun violence. Meeks focuses on the evils of those who supply alcohol to alcoholics, and Dates’ focuses on the so-called evils of gun store owners in states that surround Illinois. All of these strategies push aside the true Gospel of Jesus, as anti-gun Social Gospel advocates seek to build an ecumenical coalition of churches to push their social agenda. In advocating for Meeks as a pro-life success story, Dates promotes an individual who serves as an executive for Rainbow Push Coalition, an organization that promotes race-baiting, abortion rights, big government globalist agenda items, and a false social Gospel narrative.
Perhaps Chicago is not the only thing that should be left out of people’s mouths.
Charlie Dates is the prominent woke pastor of Progressive Baptist Church. A former/ present? ERLC and The Gospel Coalition contributor and definitely former SBC Executive Committee panel member, he recently left the Southern Baptist Convention on account of their failure to embrace Critical Race Theory. Notably, he attacked other Black Christians as sell-outs simply because they have not devoted their lives to fighting an artificial boogeyman, white supremacy” and well as “lambasted them for saying things like “I’m Christian before I’m Black.”
In a new post, he laments that “Black Sacred Music” is no longer being produced to capture the “black Christian experience in America” which is about the tone of their struggle against racism and white supremacy from the white man.
Bemoaning that white people in the majority culture have “appropriated it” he explains that Black Sacred Music is a “salvific instrument” and that if it is lost, Black Christians will have lost their witness in the world. Lastly, he says that the current crop of worship music is the same music of the slavers and captors, and that when Black folk sing it, rather than their own sacred black songs, they sound like the captors.
Prominent woke Pastor Charlie Dates, who recently left the Southern Baptist Convention on account of their failure to embrace Critical Race Theory, recently preached a message at the EK Bailey preaching conference, where he, as Reformation Charlotte describes, attacked other Black Christians as sell-outs simply because they have not devoted their lives to fighting an artificial boogeyman, white supremacy” and well as “lambasted them for saying things like “I’m Christian before I’m Black.”
“Once and for all delivered, we see that neither justice nor righteousness are well and (gone?) And I got to ask ya’ll ‘where we get that from?’ That ain’t part of our heritage, When did the black preacher become so dichotomized? When did black preaching start to break up?
Well, I got one idea. It’s how and where we’ve been trained. The further in and deeper down black preachers go into white evangelicalism, the more anti-justice and anti-black they become. They start saying stuff like ‘I’m Christian before I’m black.’
What? You are a bearer of the Imago Dei. You are made in the image and likeness of God. Your blackness is designed by God. Chosen by God. Formed by God. Cherished by God. And it doens’t mean that your blackness is superior, but it does mean that the people who told you that lie (Ed.Nt. that you should consider your identity in Christ above your ethnicity) need you to believe that lie, so that they can remain superior through that lie.
Pastor Tom Buck, who has been doing some generally excellent work (with a few exceptions here and there) exposing the theological fraud of Critical Race Theory (CRT) and pastors who can’t live without it, has exposed the heart of progressive pastor Dwight McKissic, who has pledged like Charlie Dates and Raph West to leave the SBC if they roll back Resolution 9 and make a formal resolution denouncing it from the convention floor.
The recent row started with this statement, which is a very apropos insight that we likewise made:
McKissic called it a misrepresentation and was mad because six seminary presidents denied any benefit to CRT. Buck shot back that he agreed with the assessment, pointing out in not so many words that it is a doctrine of demons.
McKissic, who by the way is a charismatic, believes in females pastors, endorsed Hillary Clinton for president, holds to Critical Theory, and is a race-baiting Cultural Marxist who routinely terrorizes the SBC annual meeting with resolutions forcing messengers to vote for his policies or suffer looking politically incorrect in the press, drew a red line in the sand.
What wonderful news.
At this point we have no reason to suppose that the SBC can pull itself out of this liberal pit they’ve gleefully jumped headfirst into, but certainly having McKissic weighing them down won’t help matters.
He’s a pus-filled boil that should have lanced and drained from the buttock of the Southern Baptist Convention a long time ago. Instead, he was left to fester for years and years, infecting and spreading his particularly potent leaven. With him gone, the SBC has a chance, but we’re not holding our breath. To quote AD Robles:
Near we tell, they’re not in the leadership, that’s for damn sure.
