Short Take 3: Resurgence Turned Divergence in the Southern Baptist Convention, Part 1

Dwight McKissick.

He's a pastor in Dallas, and I believe you either had a debate or a conversation with him at some point. This is in the film. Let me play the soundbite. That's duplicity. And our convention will send a woman to do in foreign countries, Asia and Africa, South America, what they will not allow a woman to do here. That's duplicity. That's hypocrisy.

That's sin. When we allow it overseas, but don't allow it here, practically what we're saying is it's all right for a woman to preach to people of color around the world. They just can't preach to white men over here.

That's what we're saying. How do you respond to his assertion here, Tom? Well, it's wrong on multiple levels.

It's wrong historically. Lottie Moon was a 19th century Southern Memphis woman who went to China, gave her life and died in China, literally starved herself to death for the welfare of the people she was caring for. To bring the gospel to China, she regularly wrote back saying, we need men. Where are the men?

Where are the men? And yes, she did teach men, but she did it with complaints. And she did it because there was no one there to evangelize the men and teach the men the ways of Christ. But when men came, and she applauded that, she gave up that responsibility to them. The question I put to one of the International Mission Board vice presidents was if Lottie Moon were alive today and she came home from the mission field, would you have her preach in your church? He said, absolutely not. And she would not want to because she understood the role, responsibilities that God's ordained for men and women. So Dwight looks at something that happened. Yes, she did teach men, but she did it reluctantly.

She did it because of the difficulties of the circumstances there where there were no men. And he turns that into a norm. You talk about duplicity, that's duplicitous.

And then secondly, for him to say, well, it's okay. The only reason, the only explanation is we're happy for women to go preach to people of color, but not to preach to white men back home. Well, that's just racist.

I mean, I just I hate that. I mean, it's so blatantly untrue. But it does illustrate a lot of the problem that is going on today with how these issues of race and women and sexuality are intertwined and being advocated for from the same foundation and arguments because they come from the same faulty, unbiblical worldview. So I just reject what my brother McKissick said out of hand. He's wrong historically. He's wrong theologically. He's wrong morally in the accusations that he made.