Southern Baptists Face Turmoil Over Critical Race Theory, Whatever It Is

Litton has a reputation as a racial and cultural bridge builder who frequently visited Black congregations in recent years. Stone backs a new group called the Conservative Baptist Network that seeks to move the already-conservative denomination further right.

If the Southern Baptists’ internal debate sounds a lot like the Republican Party’s internal divide after President Donald Trump’s presidency, it’s more than coincidental. Polling trends show there are more evangelicals, a major part of Trump’s base, than a decade ago but fewer Southern Baptists. Like the Republicans, Southern Baptists face the challenge of trying to gain voters of color without losing their predominantly white conservative base.

Yet, Ed Stetzer, executive director of the Billy Graham Center at Wheaton College, finds hope in the denomination’s rising diversity and the election of Litton, who has made racial outreach and peacemaking a hallmark of his work since at least the 2014 riots after the killing of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri.

He also cited sensationalist media pundits for stirring needless alarm over CRT, which members then pass on to their pastors. Indeed, Fox watchers at liberal Media Matters for America found Fox News has mentioned “critical race theory” almost 1,300 times from January to mid-June.

“Pastors only have their members for one hour a week,” Stetzer quipped. “Fox News has them for maybe 30 hours a week.”

That’s a big challenge, but worth it, especially for an organization to which multitudes look for guidance as it tries to build on its own diversity.

Interestingly, the statement by the convention’s right wing didn’t say much about what CRT is, either. CRT, in simplest terms, was created by legal scholars in the mid-1970s as a scholarly lens or framework that seeks to understand the role that race and racism have played in American history and society.

But, outside of academia, that frame for inquiry and debate has been transformed into a terrifying “Marxist-inspired” child-indoctrinating menace — catnip for cable-TV pundits. Sensationalized like a QAnon conspiracy, that cartoon version of CRT makes an effective propaganda pushback against the racial justice movements that emerged after the death of George Floyd.

Recently, CRT has been vilified by politicians from the Trump White House to local school boards as a “radical,” “un-American” and “racially divisive” menace. Several states have banned schools from teaching it, and teachers at some schools, public and private, have been accused of teaching it — even when they really don’t.

Against that backdrop, the Rev. Litton, who is white, has his work cut out for him. His election sent reassuring signals of reconciliation, including his nomination for president by the Rev. Fred Luter, the only Black pastor to serve in the post. The vote by the largest turnout the convention has seen in decades was close, but decisive. Here, it appeared, was the leader that the denomination needs to calm the waters in these turbulent times — and he has a lot of waters to calm.

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(E-mail Clarence Page at cpage@chicagotribune.com.)