Читать книгу The Craft of Innovative Theology. Argument and Process онлайн
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Following the Brown decision in 1954, the SBC had merely desegregated its institutions as the law demanded. There was no official expression of Christian compassion offered to African Americans, and the SBC offered no responsibility for having supported the pain of the Jim Crow system until the peak of the civil rights in the mid-1960s. Its official statements and resolutions always were carefully crafted to show interest in African Americans, but they were more concerned with the criminality of mob violence, especially by racial agitators, and with maintaining social order. It began to change its tone only after it became clear that its desire to plant new churches in African American and other ethnic communities had been thwarted by its racist reputation.
These official public statements are a lesson in how those who support the subjugation of others can minimize their own complicity while deflecting blame for its tragic results. The SBC criticized African Americans’ lack of progress and used mildly worded resolutions to voice its concerns over racial strife. It deflected blame for almost the entirety of the twentieth century, until in 1995 it finally apologized for its participation and support of racism, slavery, and segregation. These efforts, however, would have consequences in terms of appeals to African American Baptists (see Box 3.7).42 Its stance over the previous century had solidified a racist reputation unknown to them (see Box 3.8).