Читать книгу The Craft of Innovative Theology. Argument and Process онлайн

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In 1965, the SBC continued to argue that only the gospel could reach the hearts and minds regarding the problem of race. It issued a statement that the racial problem could only be solved on “distinctively spiritual grounds.” Accordingly, the law can desegregate the public schools, extend public accommodations, and guarantee voting rights, but only the gospel can transform human lives.³⁸ Importantly, this resolution also spoke about how racism limited the SBC’s ability to be effective in its mission endeavors both at home and abroad. SBC evangelism leaders had received complaints that the SBC’s reputation for racial prejudice had impeded its evangelistic work.³⁹ Their foreign missionaries were hampered by the SBC’s racism and it should be rejected so that missionaries’ hands might be unchained to do their tasks. They also included the statement that racism “does violence to the altar of God and is rightly understood as a sin against God and humanity.”⁴⁰ Followed by a confession of its “conformity to the world,” it rededicated itself to a ministry of reconciliation between African Americans and whites, between believers in segregation and integration. The SBC vowed to work, finally, toward solving the problems of unfair housing, unequal justice, and voting rights. The resolution ended as it had begun, with the SBC’s justifications for it: “We further recognize that our main task is to support and promote our programs of world missions and evangelism.”⁴¹