SBTS Prof. Jarvis Williams Says ‘You can have racism operating in a context where there are no individual racists’
Southern Baptist Theological Seminary’s ‘outtess yet in’ Critical Race Theory (CRT) supporter Professor Jarvis Williams gave a message back in 2018 at Bethlehem College and Seminary, where John Piper holds sway at the chancellor. Speaking on PasCon panel on the subject of “Ethnic Harmony and the Holy Spirit, Jarvis joined SBTS Provost and notorious self-described ‘racist’ Matthew Hall, Mt. Vernon Pastor Aaron Menikoff, Arrabon founder David Bailey, and John Onwuchekwa, who took a bunch of NAMB money and then left the SBC.
Williams, one of the professors hooping CRT into the SBC’s flagship university, (see here and here), was last seen in a segment sharing how he intentionally chose to pass over white congregants when choosing people to be a part of his small group, instead picking minorities and ‘multi-ethnic’ persons of color, in order to serve as a ‘model’ for the church. He kicks it off by explaining that because of Adam’s sin, we have deep and abiding sin everywhere. He notes:
“Sin is the ultimate enemy of reconciliation and Christian unity. So then as we move into our context today, I think racial hostility or ethnic hostility shows up in racial hierarchy, and white supremacy, and white privilege, and white power. We must remember this… because of sin, racial hostility shows itself up violently but also ideologically.”
Backing up the notion racism is in everything we do, and to provide a bit of context of what white supremacy, Matthew Hall explains that the Idea of ‘race’ was birthed in the United States and that on account of 400 years of slavery:
“Christians, those who have a biblical worldview, an understanding of these, severity of the fall, and the cancerous nature of sin and the way in which sin corrupts everything not just the human heart and conscience but the mind and even social structures, we shouldn’t be surprised that sin, the sin and the wickedness of white supremacy remains with us and it still is reverberating throughout our culture four centuries later
At this point Jarvis tags in again:
When we think about white supremacy, it’s not only the overt, violent expressions that you see on the television. In Charlottesville, for example. But white supremacy is an ideological construct that believes that whiteness is superior to non-whiteness.
So then, how this shows up, in part, is it shows up in curriculum. Right? I’m a seminary professor, and in theological education, you’re hard-pressed to find many evangelical institutions that have a regular requirement of black and brown authors. And often what happens is whiteness becomes the standard by which all good theology is judged.
You understand what I’m saying? So that if it’s right theology, it’s written by a white scholar who is contextualizing that theology for white audiences. And so one of the things we see is, and hear this very, very carefully. There’s racism by intent and there’s racism by consequence.You can have racism operating in a context where is [sic] there are no individual racists. And that, in part, is the way in which white supremacy works, in a socially sophisticated way.
Ie, even if there is no evidence of racism, in the midst of individuals who are not racists, in a context where there’s no reason to assume racism is occurring- there is, by default, racism and white supremacy – just done in a sophisticated, secretive way.
It’s nonsensical. Pick anything else. “You can have basketball operating in a context where are there are no individual basketball players. And that, in part, is the way in which basketball works, in a socially sophisticated way.
When you have whiteness as the priority, and when folks work and operate in such a way with curriculum, with economics, or with policies to maintain and to posture and to privilege that whiteness, and then to require those who are non-white to culturally colonize to whiteness. So then we think about reconciliation and ethnic hostility, the solution is not more black and brown faces in white spaces who colonize to whiteness.
The solution is fundamentally, yes, the gospel, the cross, the resurrection, right? The blood of Jesus. But also dethroning white supremacy in all of the forms in which it shows up in Christian spaces, folks. Because when Jesus died to disarm those principalities and powers, one of those principalities and powers, I would argue, is white supremacy and all that it entails. So feel that tonight. White supremacy’s not just violence or KKK or lynchings. It is also the belief, directly or indirectly, that whiteness is rightness, and everything has to be judged by that.
Ie, white supremacy exists because of the fall, and white folks are all white supremacists who believe that whites are superior to non-whites, as even a lack of racism on their part is evidence of a socially sophisticated secret racism and supremacy.
There is nothing Holy Spirit-filled about that claim, and you can thank Al Mohler at SBTS for keeping these men employed.
h/t to WokePreacherTV
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It’s like having an armed robbery with no robbers! Existentialism on crack.
SMH, I’m sick and tired of this stupidity. Mr. Williams, if you’re that much overly-concerned with the skin color of the author of a textbook, then you should probably consider the possibility that you may be a racist. The rest of the sane world doesn’t give a flip about the author’s skin color. But if you’re that concerned, why don’t you author a textbook? Quit the bellyaching and get to work on something constructive. Problem solved.
These CRT hypocrites are something else. Any and every apparent statistical disparity is deemed to be 100% concrete proof of “systemic racism” even if there are thousands of other possible explanations for said apparent statistical anomalies.
Yet when it comes to subjects outside their narrative or objectives they take a completely opposite view. Elections for example: numerous statistical anomalies (corroborated by other evidence) are deemed to be zero basis for any suspicion whatsoever of possible wrongdoing, worthy of even questioning much less investigating.
They pick and choose, arbitrarily selecting whatever fits their narrative and works toward their objective, purposefully ignoring everything else, passing judgement on others based on their flawed assumptions, and carrying out their prescribed sentence against them.
They are those who built their house on shifting sand.
This a_ _ hole has way too much time on his hands.
If blacks adopt some measures of white culture, it is an oppression of blacks by whites that they label “colonization”. If whites adopt some measures of black culture, it is an oppression of blacks by whites that they label “cultural appropriation”. This whole thing is a stupid and shortsighted lie. The Devil is laughing his horns off at these fools.