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The MLK50 Conference held on April 3-4, 2018 by the Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission (ERLC) has been controversial, to say the least. Some Christians saw the conference as unifying and necessary, whereas others saw it as divisive and unproductive. The MLK50 Conference is a topic that Darrell and Virgil intended to not discuss on the Just Thinking podcast but were urged to by many who reached out to them on social media after having heard some of the messages that were emanating from that event. Having live-streamed portions of the conference themselves, Darrell and Virgil use this episode as an opportunity to convey their own thoughts on how, in their opinion, the conference misses the mark of the gospel.
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Man you Brothers blessed my soul with this one man. Authentic Truth Here! The Gospel must be the root in all we do or it’s just Moralism. Which is another Heresy. I call it “Shinning a Terd”
We must go backwards to go forward indeed. The Gospel does exactly that because it’s Transcends Human History. The Lamb was Slain from the Foundation of the Earth…..so it’s not bound by Human History or current events. The Gospel is always True to every event in Antiquity!
Godspeed my fellow heralds!!!
What can I say but Thank you! What objective biblical clarity exercised on such a saddening conference/movement. I just found this site the other day and will be glad to frequent it and justthinking.me many times in the future! Thank you again for your fidelity to the Scripture and humility expressed on such a divisive topic (MLK50).
Love you guys! Only good thing coming out of MLK50 is I found out about you on Twitter! You’re making too much sense!
Brothers, Thank you so much. I have been wrestling with these issues for around four years now, reading, researching and discussing these things. In the midst of my busy pastoral responsibilities it has at times exhausted me mentally and emotionally. I have found kindred brothers of a different ethnicity seeing things biblically and I am elated ! I will be seeking to listen to your podcast and analysis. I pastor in Sacramento, California where in recent days a tragic killing has brought tensions to our city that we have not known in my fifteen years pastoring here.
I would like to share some thoughts with both of you that would add specific clarity to what Chandler said as being wrong. I’m not mad at him, but he was specifically my pastor for 10 years and I have a solid opinion of where his error was made at ERLC. I love him, but he was and is absolutely wrong. And tonight at the T4G David Platt attempted guilt by proxy as well. Would you consider emailing me so I could reply. My intent isn’t to tear him down, but name his error specifically and why the Holy Spirit was not in that message.
Josh@pauperschapel.com
Thanks so much guys. I have been praying about this issue for a long time. I appreciate you speaking against condemnation and stigmatization of all “white” people like me 🙂 I just had to send a series of very random comments..
Do you think God delegitimizes/mocks “white evangelical” cultural forms of worship like Chandler did?
On justice. It’s odd how there was the typical call against [justified] “mass incarceration” yet the whole conference was an [unjustified] mass accusation for anyone with white skin. Mass incarceration…meaning incarceration of actual criminals who actually victimized people (with some anomalies in unjust imprisonment). But white people are held to pay for other people’s sins. Logic fail.
Also odd how every time someone prefaced their talk as “not political” was usually laced with shallow leftist political points. Yet, they never discussed the impact of 50 years of voting for policies that have harmed the black family in our major cities and destroyed babies in utero. Odd how they are pushing for diversity, but rarely hold the same open and inclusive stance to black conservatives (e.g. those who reject marx and cone) and certainly don’t expect historically black institutions to become more racially diverse. How, aside from grooming/education/career-ladders do you get more qualified-at-high-leadership-level church leaders of color to immediately join high-level ranks at “white” churches, if they don’t vacate high-level leadership positions in “black” churches? Logic fail.
Further, its odd that the loudest voices on racial mending, never hold race transcendence as an ultimate goal. If race was a social construct used inappropriately to hold people down, then shouldn’t the best solution be to work towards eliminating the social construct altogether?
Last thought I promise. I’ve always wanted to hear a Christian SJW explain how old a white child needs to be before they can be accurately called an oppressor.
Thanks again!
Thank you for speaking truth and verbalizing what I wasn’t able to put into words. Thank you for thinking biblically.
Appreciated your conversation very much – am grateful that God has raised up such clear-headed, gospel-centered thinking men as you two, and pray that you are reaching the hearts and minds of many. May God bless and widen your ministries.
I really enjoyed this podcast and am currently listening to the previous podcasts. I watched all but one of the videos from the MLK 50 Conference prior to listening to this podcast and had many for the same thought you guys did. I am a young white woman and listening to the speakers made me feel judged for not buying into the white privilege SJW narrative that culture and the conference was selling; I don’t like being made to feel guilty for being born white because I had no control over it nor did I have control over the injustices of the past.
The lead pastor at my church attended the conference and lead a discussion the following Sunday about racial unity and reconciliation. While there were some parts of the discussion I could agree with, there were parts that were too close to the SJW concepts of the racial reconciliation movement for my comfort. Like the speakers, he only focused only on white church members needing to do better with race relations. He stated that finding a member of a minority race who agrees with the your agenda is racism; therefore I am racist because I know of people who are black, such as you guys, who agree with me that white privilege isn’t a thing and that SJW practices is detrimental to the gospel. So, I cannot defend myself if I were to speak to my opinion on this topic.
My small group and I talked about the MLK 50 Conference and the discussion this Sunday, and I wanted to speak up and give what was obviously the dissenting opinion, but I did not feel comfortable and was worried that the men and women in my small group would look at me differently because of my views on the subject.
I say all of that to say thank you for making this podcast. More specifically, thank you for making the podcast about the MLK 50 Conference. Listening to the conference speakers, I began to wonder if I really am guilty of being a racist, but listening to the podcast, I know I am not alone in what I think about this subject. It gives me peace knowing other people share my views.
One observation about the the conference and its speakers: when asked where do we go from here, I did not recall hearing one person say that predominately white churches should partner with minority church and merge their congregations. It might have been said, and I am just not remembering. Out of all of the speakers there, there was only one pastor who said his predominately black church merged with a predominately white church. If this conference was truly about racial reconciliation and unity, why was that not the first suggestion?
Once again, thank you both for making this podcast.
Many thanks for this. You eloquently summed up many of the problems with what was said at this conference.
May God bless you both.
Paul
Thank you, thank you. I am a young Christian black woman. This ERLC MLK#50 conference, the speakers and panelists have left me shaking my head. Very disappointing to say the least. Most of the messages were an exercise in soft bigotry, some were overt bigotry expressing to black America that “we still own you.” The great white saviors must continue to take care of the boacks, and the black “coons” will ensure that black Christian people fall in line with this soft bigoted oppression of marginalized people.
I have been sad, angry, and sad again. The ERLC/T4G is NOT an ally to black Americans. This conference revealed the true intentions of its founder and of their spokesperson, Russell Moore. I am glad to now know who they really are. I am reminded of words spoken by both MLK and Malcolm X, “Beware of the white liberal…”
Keep teaching the scriptures my brothers, now more than ever. Black people need TRUE men and women of God to challenge our community to turn back to our 1st love, Jesus Christ. Without holiness, no man shall SEE the Lord. Maranatha!