Thabiti Anyabwile is a nationally known social justice warrior and evangelical leader. On Sunday, June 7, he preached a sermon titled Black Body, Shed Blood and Justice at Anacostia River Church where he is senior pastor in SE Washington D.C. The area is 92% black according to Thabiti. He started the sermon with these words.
There’s blood in the streets of American. A lot of blood. Any time there is blood in the streets that means a body has been killed. Truthfully, a lot of bodies have been killed, and a lot of blood is flowing in the streets. It’s been so for a long time.
Later in the message he says,
God hears the blood of black bodies. Black men and women, boys and girls cries out to God and God hears. With all the blood spilled in America, this country is storing up wrath for the day of wrath.
In context, he is referring exclusively to blacks unjustly killed by police as in the case of George Floyd. He uses the language of an agitator. This is a great disservice to his church. A lot of blood is NOT flowing in the streets due to police shootings or the use of lethal force that constitute murder under the law. He is bearing false witness and misleading his congregation.
I became aware of Thabiti’s message, Black Body, Shed Blood and Justice, while reading an article in The Christian Post about a protest march in Washington D.C. David Platt, former president of the International Mission Board for the Southern Baptist Convention, spoke and participated. He was introduced by Thabiti. Both men have been avid supporters of C.J. Mahaney and Sovereign Grace Churches, Inc. In so doing, they have committed grave injustices against the victims of sexual abuse in the denomination.
Evangelicals, David Platt march in DC against racism, police brutality: ‘Forgive us’
By Leonardo Blair, Christian Post Reporter| Monday, June 08, 2020
This article prompted me to listen to Thabiti’s sermon and finally write a post about his long term support of Mahaney. Here’s an excerpt.
Thabiti Anyabwile Turns Blind Eye to Sexual Abuse & Destroys Incriminating Evidence on Twitter
Thursday, June 25, 2020 at 5:42PM
Thabiti Anyabwile is a social justice activist but he was a social justice pacifist when it came to the victims of sexual abuse in Sovereign Grace Ministries under the leadership of C.J. Mahaney. In 2014, Anyabwile refused to talk or meet with me after I wrote him a thoughtful appeal (see below).
In 2016, he defended Mahaney’s innocence on Twitter and regurgitated the talking points that were fed him. Later, he destroyed most of the tweets. I saved all of them. The before and after comparison reveals his deceit, partiality, and ignorance.
The Christian Post article also motivated me to listen to his June 7, 2020 message.
Thabiti believes white racism and police brutality are rampant in society and therefore protest marches must be undertaken so the white national conscience “be stricken and made alive.” In his message, he informs church members that protest marches will be an “ongoing part of our life as a church and our witness in the community.”
Beloved, our protest today must be aimed at arousing the conscience of a morally sleep country. Our protest must stimulate the knowledge of wrong, and the knowledge of guilt, in fact there can be no truly lasting change in the country until the conscience is changed. Until people who did not believe certain things to be wrong come to see them as wrong, come to admit that wrong, and come to accept accountability for that wrong. The conscience must be stricken and made alive.
In his message, he talks about the mark of Cain and the curse of Ham in the Old Testament. Evangelicals at large have not used these texts to justify racism for at least 50 years. Read these helpful articles.
What was the mark that God put on Cain (Genesis 4:15)?
Thabiti says in his sermon,
This mark of Cain has often been interpreted as black skin. The mark of Cain and the curse of Ham sometimes get conflated together. Later in American evangelicalism, evangelicals would use the mark of Cain and the curse of Ham, not only to refer to blacks skin but use it to justify the enslavement of black people.
This has been true in the past but Thabiti makes it sound like a present day reality. It’s not! I know of no evangelical leader who teaches this grievous error. Thank God we have made tremendous strides addressing the sin of racism which existed in parts of Christ’s church.
The most prominent example of this change is in the Southern Baptist Convention founded in 1845. It was formed when the American Baptist Foreign Mission Board “denied a request by the Alabama Convention that slave owners be eligible to become missionaries.” Northern and southern Baptists divided over the issue of slavery.
Fourteen years late in 1859, the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary was founded. The Civil War was fought from 1861-1865. Both institutions argued for slavery and white supremacy. ALL that has changed – thank God! Read the report below. It documents the slow painful process and provides an honest accounting.
Report on Slavery and Racism in the History of the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary
December 12, 2018
“White evangelicalism has twisted the Scriptures” in the past but I don’t agree that what “we are seeing…right now” is due to that false doctrine. It has been repudiated throughout evangelicalism for over 50 years. Here’s more from his sermon.
But it must be said that when it comes to race and racial prejudice, white evangelicalism has twisted the Scriptures in the most wicked way to control, exploit, and destroy black lives and the black body. That ain’t popular but it is true. Right now we are seeing the poisonous fruit of that heretical theology and wicked practice. Our blood flows in the street because of teaching like this. It has wormed its way into the fabric and habits of the culture.
It leads them [white people] over centuries to indifference, and unaccountable attitudes, and self-pity even in the face of injustice committed against black people. That’s why we’ve got tons of professing evangelicals denying that racism exists, denying that systemic racism and injustice exists. That’s why we got so many professing Christians, evangelical Christians, who pity themselves in the midst of conversations about blood flowing in the streets. That’s why fragile white people can’t bear to have racism pointed out or want to talk about things in ways that leave them feeling comfortable. In short beloved, this is the kind of false teaching spread about for centuries and never fully corrected and its leads to what we are seeing today.”
“Tons of professing evangelicals” don’t deny racism exists. It will always exist. They do deny it is systemic in America. There is a world of difference between the two. Thabiti’s inflammatory rhetoric is destructive, not constructive. Further, the false teaching of white supremacy has been renounced throughout our nation though it will never be eradicated.
Thabiti is adamant about his belief that systemic racism and injustice exists for blacks in America. But he does not stop there. He must taunt “so many…evangelical Christian who pity themselves in the midst of conversations about blood flowing in the streets.” This is lamentable. I am glad to talk to Thabiti about “blood flowing in the streets.” That is an easy discussion to have if he is interested in the facts.
“Blood flowing in the streets” is not due to racism or police brutality, it is due to blacks murdering blacks. It is tragic. The blood of Cain is crying out (Gen 4:10). He murdered his brother Abel. That’s what’s happening in the black community. Unfortunately, rather than address the real problem, Thabiti sounds like an evangelical Al Sharpton.
On the 50th Anniversary of Martin Luther King Jr.’s assassination, Thabiti wrote the following on his blog on The Gospel Coalition website. It included this statement.
We Await Repentance for Assassinating Dr. King
APRIL 4, 2018 | Thabiti Anyabwile
I know Dr. King’s life was much greater than his death. I understand that his death gives us opportunity to reflect on his legacy. But it also gives opportunity to reflect on that twist in our soul that rose up and killed him. It gives opportunity to repent of the things some have with too much pride too often refused to admit is there.
My white neighbors and Christian brethren can start by at least saying their parents and grandparents and this country are complicit in murdering a man who only preached love and justice.
The second paragraph is irrational and unbiblical. We are not responsible for the sins of our ancestors. Further, the word complicit means “involved with others in an illegal activity or wrongdoing.” Such a statement is ludicrous. Read this article by Todd Wilhelm here or here. I agree with him.
Thabiti Anyabwile and TGC Have Lost Their Way, Racial Relations Suffer a Setback
Todd Wilhelm
April 9, 2018
Let me illustrate the injustice of Thabiti’s accusations. My parents and grandparents on both sides had nothing to do with King’s assassination. I grew up in southeast Pennsylvania near Quakertown and Germantown. The Quakers were abolitionists and helped slaves escape the South to the North in the 1800’s as part of the underground railroad. Two miles from my house was an old home on Ingram’s Hill that was used to hide and furnish slaves escaping the South.
Likewise, German ancestors founded Germantown and wrote the Petition Against Slavery in 1688. It was “the first protest against African-American slavery made by a religious body in the English colonies.”
Further, Gettysburg is 106 miles southwest of my hometown. I think Thabiti should visit the Gettysburg National Military Park where 50,000 white soldiers died to preserve the Union and abolish slavery. Moreover, does he appreciate the total casualty count of 320,000 white soldiers in the northern army? These men gave their lives for his ancestors’ freedom. He can do a protest march against injustice in Washington D.C. He should also do a gratitude march for “the blood flowing” in the battlefields of the Civil War.
He continues his belittlement. “That’s why fragile white people can’t bear to have racism pointed out or want to talk about things in ways that leave them feeling comfortable.” These statements reveal Thabiti’s reverse racism in my opinion – that is, his resentment toward whites in general and evangelical whites in particular. Furthermore, not only is he wrong about the facts, he speaks with a superior and condescending attitude – a kind of black supremacy.
Yes, there are white people in America who still cling to white supremacy. I encountered some of them when I did the U.S. Census in rural North Carolina ten years ago. Historically, white supremacy is the wretched belief the Caucasian race is superior to the African race. That belief has been part of our history.
From my perspective, however, that belief is no longer prevalent in our society. Thank God! That doesn’t mean there aren’t serious racial problems but I attribute them to the growing animosity between the races (black, brown, yellow, red and white). That is the new “racism.” Hatred.
And I have no doubt it has grown between some blacks and some whites in the aftermath of George Floyd’s horrific murder in Minneapolis on May 25, 2020. I don’t know if Officer Derick Chauvin and his three accomplices were motivated by old or new racism. I do believe they murdered a black man despite his gasp, “I can’t breathe.” It makes me shudder. I understand the anger. I trust the charges will be proven in court and they will be punished to the full extent of the law. That said, I disagree with Thabiti that kind of policing is pervasive. I agree with U.S. Attorney General William Barr.
Exclusive: Maria Bartiromo interviews AG Barr on police reform, Big Tech censorship, Durham investigation
June 21, 2020
BARTIROMO: Do you think that there is systemic racism in this country?
BARR: No, I don’t think there’s systemic [racism] -- well, I do think there’s racism in the country. Now, systemic, in terms of the law enforcement and the police agencies, I don’t think there is systemic [racism]…in those agencies. I think there may be individuals, and there are individuals, who may have bias.
I also agree with these statistics by one of the foremost experts on the subject, Heather Mac Donald. She is a social conservative but no friend of evangelical belief. She’s an atheist. Here is an excerpt from a recent article in the Wall Street Journal.
The Myth of Systemic Police Racism
Hold officers accountable who use excessive force. But there’s no evidence of widespread racial bias.
By Heather Mac Donald
June 2, 2020
This charge of systemic police bias was wrong during the Obama years and remains so today. However sickening the video of Floyd’s arrest, it isn’t representative of the 375 million annual contacts that police officers have with civilians. A solid body of evidence finds no structural bias in the criminal-justice system with regard to arrests, prosecution or sentencing. Crime and suspect behavior, not race, determine most police actions.
In 2019 police officers fatally shot 1,004 people, most of whom were armed or otherwise dangerous. African-Americans were about a quarter of those killed by cops last year (235), a ratio that has remained stable since 2015. That share of black victims is less than what the black crime rate would predict, since police shootings are a function of how often officers encounter armed and violent suspects. In 2018, the latest year for which such data have been published, African-Americans made up 53% of known homicide offenders in the U.S. and commit about 60% of robberies, though they are 13% of the population.
The police fatally shot nine unarmed blacks and 19 unarmed whites in 2019, according to a Washington Post database, down from 38 and 32, respectively, in 2015. The Post defines “unarmed” broadly to include such cases as a suspect in Newark, N.J., who had a loaded handgun in his car during a police chase. In 2018 there were 7,407 black homicide victims. Assuming a comparable number of victims last year, those nine unarmed black victims of police shootings represent 0.1% of all African-Americans killed in 2019. By contrast, a police officer is 18½ times more likely to be killed by a black male than an unarmed black male is to be killed by a police officer. …
The latest in a series of studies undercutting the claim of systemic police bias was published in August 2019 in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. The researchers found that the more frequently officers encounter violent suspects from any given racial group, the greater the chance that a member of that group will be fatally shot by a police officer. There is “no significant evidence of antiblack disparity in the likelihood of being fatally shot by police,” they concluded.
A 2015 Justice Department analysis of the Philadelphia Police Department found that white police officers were less likely than black or Hispanic officers to shoot unarmed black suspects. Research by Harvard economist Roland G. Fryer Jr. also found no evidence of racial discrimination in shootings. Any evidence to the contrary fails to take into account crime rates and civilian behavior before and during interactions with police.
Rather than condemn racist America, white evangelicals and law enforcement; Thabiti should condemn ANTIFA and Blacks Lives Matter. Doing the former wins him accolades in our politically correct society. Doing the latter may get him killed. Not by whites but by radicalized blacks filled with hatred and anti-Christian bigotry. I highly commend this article. It exposes the organization Black Lives Matter.
The Biblical Solution to Racism
by Dr. Lisle | Jun 26, 2020
The following headlines are from different newspaper accounts for shootings and murders in Chicago over the Memorial Day weekend, Father’s Day weekend, and July 4th weekend. These are black on black murders.
Report: Chicago sees its deadliest day in 60 years with 18 murders in 24 hours
Fox News Channel
June 9, 2020
The 18 deaths tallied by the University of Chicago Crime Lab made May 31, 2020 the single-most violent day in six decades, the Chicago Sun-Times reported Monday. The Crime Lab numbers go back only to 1961.
On May 29 and May 30, there were seven murders. In a city with an international reputation for crime, the 25 murders [out of 85 shot] on those three days made for the most violent weekend in Chicago’s modern history, according to the paper.
“We’ve never seen anything like it, at all,” the crime lab’s senior research director, Max Kapustin, told the newspaper. “I don’t even know how to put it into context. It’s beyond anything that we’ve ever seen before.”
104 shot, 15 fatally, over Father’s Day weekend in Chicago
Five children were among the 14 people killed, including a 3-year-old boy and 13-year-old girl killed in separate shootings in Austin on Saturday.
By Sun-Times Wire
Jun 22, 2020
Chicago's July Fourth weekend ends with 17 dead, 70 wounded
Don Babwin, Associated Press
Monday, July 6, 2020
One of Chicago’s bloodiest holiday weekends in memory ended with 17 people fatally shot, including a 7-year-old girl and a 14-year-old boy, and 70 more wounded, despite a concerted effort to quell the violence with an additional 1,200 police officers on the streets.
This is so grievous. If you’re counting it comes to 277 shootings and 57 murders over nine days in one city.
On July 19, a new book is coming out by Mark Vroegog. He is a well-known author and evangelical leader. The forward is written by Thabiti. Recently, Mark took a godly stand when he stepped down from the Board of Trustees at Cedarville University over their reinstatement of Thomas White as President. I sent him this tweet.
Brent Detwiler@BrentDetwiler
Thank you Mark for resigning in protest of the ungodly decision by Chairman Reno & Board to reinstate Dr. White as President even tho he covered up Dr. Moore’s crimes & deceived others in the process. The Board has acted w/ cowardice & corruption that the Lord will surely punish.
3:27 PM · Jun 26, 2020
I commend him for his decision. Unfortunately, I cannot commend him for asking Thabiti to write the forward to his book. Let me explain. The forward serves as another example of Thabiti’s deceit and prejudice. Nor would I agree with Mark’s assessment that Thabiti is “an authoritative voice in racial harmony” and models “gracious clarity.” I think he often divides, promotes falsehoods, and speaks with animosity. I hope Mark listens to his sermon and helps him to see his error and the issues in his heart. That would advance racial harmony.
Weep With Me – How Lament Opens a Door for Racial Reconciliation
by Mark Vroegop
forward by Thabiti Anyabwile
Crossway Books
July 14, 2020
Acknowledgments
A book on racial reconciliation authored by a white pastor requires faithful and valiant people behind the scenes. This book would not be possible without a host of people I’d like to thank. … Thabiti Anyabwile models the kind of gracious clarity I hope to emulate in this book. His willingness to write the forward and contribute a significant lament not only provided an authoritative voice in racial harmony but, I’m sure, also encouraged other lament writers to add their voices as well.
You can read the entire forward by clicking on the Amazon “Look inside” instructions here. The following are excerpts.
Forward
My family and I moved back to the United States from the Cayman Islands on July 1, 2014. …. Thirty-eight days after our arrival to the United States, Michael Brown was shot and killed in Ferguson, Missouri. Our furniture had not yet arrived from the Cayman Islands, so I sat on the carpeted stairs of our town house watching news coverage on my iPad. I cannot adequately describe the surge of feelings—plural—that threatened to burst my heart as I watched coverage. There was grief over the death of Brown. There was anger as protesting crowds swelled. There was suspicious and resentment as first the police department and then the prosecutor seemed to bungle things. Changing stories produced confusion. But most of all there was fear for my seven-year-old son. …
Then there came the emails and phone calls from well-intentioned pastor friends. Not to check on me or my son. But to tell me how wrong I was to have written this or said that. To assure me that the “narrative” I had fallen for was not true. To lecture me about respectability. To predict that my son would never face what Michael Brown faced because, well, he was my son.
Things got heated. Then some relationships frayed. Some others, sadly, ended in time. …
In our always-talking world, we now have a book teaching us a different language to calm the clamor and instruct our tongues. It’s not a book that attempts to fix everything or pretends its recommendations will be all the reader needs. But it’s a start. A very good start. And really, a start at reconciliation is what most of the church needs.
I don’t want to endure any more years of strife and turmoil like those following the shooting of Michael Brown. I don’t want to see the Lord’s body split and torn any further by the mistrust and impatience Christians from different ethnic backgrounds sometimes exhibit. I’d far rather lament together. Mark has made me hopeful that lamenting together can help us live together. If you have or want that hope, too, turn the page and dig in.
“I cannot adequately describe the surge of feelings—plural—that threatened to burst my heart as I watched coverage.” Thabiti was a fool to believe the news coverage which was blatantly false. What they reported was based on false witnesses as proven by the Federal investigation.
He says, “There was grief over the death of Brown. There was anger as protesting crowds swelled.” That’s because the media was presenting it as an unjust shooting. Thabiti was “mad as hell.”
He continues, “There was suspicious and resentment as first the police department and then the prosecutor seemed to bungle things. Changing stories produced confusion.” Now he implies the police department and prosecutor were at fault. No, they were not at fault. They did not “bungle things.”
Worst of all he says, “But most of all there was fear for my seven-year-old son.” This gives the impression an innocent Michael Brown was murdered by a police officer, a fate his son could suffer.
I don’t mind Thabiti sharing his feelings at the time. I’m aghast he does not make clear they were all unjustified! The overall tenor is Michael Brown was murdered. I don’t know how Josh Dennis, president of Crossway and Justin Taylor, executive vice president, who published the book, could approve the forward. It is altogether misleading.
Thabiti continues.
Then there came the emails and phone calls from well-intentioned pastor friends. Not to check on me or my son. But to tell me how wrong I was to have written this or said that. To assure me that the “narrative” I had fallen for was not true.
That is exactly right but Thabiti won’t acknowledge it. That is arrogant. Instead he puts his pastor friends in a bad light. He is misleading his readers again in 2020. Here is some of what Thabiti wrote on his blog at The Gospel Coalition in 2014 that friends were trying to help him see was entirely false.
Coming (Back) to America: My One Fear
THABITI ANYABWILE | AUGUST 18, 2014
Then I’d say two things: “Truthfully, the Lord has kept us from any fears that we can discern about planting the church or living in Southeast [Washington D.C.]. If I have a fear it would be one thing: bringing my son Titus to the United States [from the Cayman Islands]. He’s so tender and innocent and the States can be very hard on Black boys.”
That’s my one fear. This country destroying my boy. Ferguson [Missouri] is my fear. I could be the black dad approaching a white sheet stained with his son’s blood. I could be the husband holding his wife, rocking in anguish, terrorized by the ‘what happeneds’ and the ‘how could theys,’ unable to console his wife, his wife who works so hard to make her son a “momma’s boy” with too many hugs, bedtime stories, presents for nothing, and an overflowing delight in everything he does. How do you comfort a woman who feels like a part of her soul was ripped out her chest?
So I’m watching Ferguson and I’m thinking about Titus [his son]. And I’m thinking about the long list of African-American men shot to death for no good reason. And I’m mad as hell. And I’m scared to death. For my son. For me. For the possibility that my son could witness this happen to me.
I don’t care about the color of the hands that pull the trigger. They could be pink, brown, sandy. What I care about is the value of my son’s life. What I care about is the dignity and life-destroying devaluing of his life because in this country he is “black.”
Deadlier still are the many persons who seem not to recognize it. Who carry on without pause, who empathize with the shooter [Officer Darren Wilson] rather than the shot [Michael Brown], who express concern for the family of the living but little to no regard for the family of the deceased, who talk of obeying lawful authority while witnessing the unlawful use of authority, who keep resetting the conversation to call into question the teenage victim [Brown was 18] while granting the benefit of the doubt to the grown up perpetrator.
Thabiti’s fear for his son Titus is irrational if he is law abiding; but if he robs a store, shoves the store owner out of the way, punches a cop in the face, fights to take his gun, and charges him despite commands to stop, he may get shot and killed like Michael Brown. This country is not going to destroy his boy. The cops are not going to destroy his boy. There is no “long list of African-American men shot to death for no good reason.” Rather, it is the uncontrolled crime and violence in inner city black communities that could destroy his son.
He goes so far as to say, “Deadlier still are the many persons who seem not to recognize it.” You are deadlier than supposed racist cops if you don’t acknowledge Wilson murdered Brown. Oh my. I hope Thabiti has contacted Darren Wilson and his family to ask their forgiveness. They have been through hell. In so doing, he could weep with them and lament and open a door for racial reconciliation. Darren was completely innocent.
Lest you wonder about my critique, here are some excerpts from the criminal investigation conducted by the Department of Justice.
Summary of Evidence
Brown and Witness 101 had just come from Ferguson Market and Liquor (“Ferguson Market”), a nearby convenience store, where, at approximately 11:53 a.m., Brown stole several packages of cigarillos. As captured on the store’s surveillance video, when the store clerk tried to stop Brown, Brown used his physical size to stand over him and forcefully shove him away. As a result, an FPD dispatch call went out over the police radio for a “stealing in progress.” The dispatch recordings and Wilson’s radio transmissions establish that Wilson was aware of the theft and had a description of the suspects as he encountered Brown and Witness 101. (p. 6)
Shooting at the SUV
The evidence establishes that the shots fired by Wilson while he was seated in his SUV were in self-defense and thus were not objectively unreasonable under the Fourth Amendment. According to Wilson, when he backed up his SUV and attempted to get out to speak with Brown, Brown blocked him from opening the door. Brown then reached through the window and began to punch Wilson in the face, after which he reached for and gained control of Wilson’s firearm by putting his hand over Wilson’s hand. As Brown was struggling for the gun and pointing it into Wilson’s hip, Wilson gained control of the firearm and fired it just over his lap at Brown’s hand. (p. 80)
Shots Fired After Brown Turned to Face Wilson
The evidence establishes that the shots fired by Wilson after Brown turned around were in self-defense and thus were not objectively unreasonable under the Fourth Amendment. The physical evidence establishes that after he ran about 180 feet away from the SUV, Brown turned and faced Wilson, then moved toward Wilson until Wilson finally shot him in the head and killed him. According to Wilson, Brown balled or clenched his fists and “charged” forward, ignoring commands to stop. Knowing that Brown was much larger than him and that he had previously attempted to overpower him and take his gun, Wilson stated that he feared for his safety and fired at Brown. (p. 82)
It is right to peacefully protest and speak out against injustice anywhere it is found. At the same time, it is wrong to riot, loot, destroy property, disregard law enforcement and the like when it occurs. That is lawlessness. It too should be condemned. Thabiti doesn’t address this in his sermon. Nor does he express any appreciation for the heroic job law enforcement does every day in protecting us at the risk of losing their own lives.
I believe the definition of racism in America has changed from superiority to hatred or resentment for one another. And to be honest, I think Thabiti’s approach contributes to it. For example, white people resent being told they are racists and supremacists when they are not.
White people also resent being represented as though black lives don’t matter to them. They do matter. But here is my biggest issue with Thabiti. If black lives matter why isn’t he forcefully addressing the issues that are really killing them? He is missing the mark. He is on the warpath to nowhere.
For example, Thabiti should be publicly speaking out against the slaughter of millions of African Americans in the womb. This, however, was a second tier issue for Thabiti in 2016 when he voted for Hillary Clinton and advocated for her election.
Overturning Roe v. Wade isn’t worth compromising with Trump, my fellow evangelicals
By Thabiti Anyabwile
June 28, 2018
The potential nomination of a potential pro-life judge does not, in my opinion, alleviate the concerns I have about the racial injustices this same administration seems to multiply each day. What many evangelicals don’t seem to understand is they’re turning blind eyes to their brethren suffering at the hands of this administration for the long-held hope of overturning Roe. I’m for overturning Roe, but I’m also for protecting black and brown lives from racism and the kind of criminalization that swells our prisons and devastates communities or separates families at the borders.
The day after President Trump was elected, Thabiti tweeted out the following.
Thabiti Anyabwile @ThabitiAnyabwil Nov 9 [2016]
Congratulations white evangelicalism on your candidate’s win. I don’t understand you and I think you just sealed some aweful fate.
6:45 AM
Thabiti has often labeled President Trump a racist. That is pure slander. And I’ve never heard him commend the President for all the good he has done for the black community including criminal justice reform by working with white evangelicals.
Trump’s Evangelical Advisers Could Help Him Secure a Win on Sentencing Reform
Conservative Christian leaders are a major force behind criminal-justice legislation being considered in the Senate. But black and progressive clergy see danger in allying with the president, even on this issue.
EMMA GREEN
DECEMBER 12, 2018
Long-stalled legislation on sentencing reform may squeeze through Congress in the last few weeks of this session. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell announced on Tuesday that the Senate will take up the first step Act, which would create some flexibility around sentencing and release for certain inmates held in federal prisons. President Donald Trump has been a major backer of the bill—“Go for it Mitch!” he tweeted on Friday. Successful legislation would be a major bipartisan victory for the White House.
Along the way, one group in particular has been pushing for passage of these reforms: Trump’s circle of evangelical advisers, who helped inspire the bill. White, conservative Christian leaders are now in a position to help deliver a bipartisan compromise that could soften thousands of people’s sentences, largely those for drug-related offenses. Their African American and liberal counterparts, meanwhile, have felt conflicted about collaborating with the administration, even on a topic they care about deeply.
The First Steps Act was signed into law by the President.
Baptist Press
‘First Step’ criminal justice reform becomes law
by Tom Strode, posted Friday, December 21, 2018
WASHINGTON (BP) -- The launch of criminal justice reform backed by both conservatives and liberals [in Congress] has become a reality in federal law.
The First Step Act to promote the rehabilitation and societal re-entry of prisoners while maintaining public safety was signed by President Trump on Friday (Dec. 21). The measure provides training for inmates and reforms some sentencing requirements, including certain drug offenses.
ERLC President Russell Moore described the success of the First Step Act as a “tremendous victory” for criminal justice reform and cooperation across dividing lines for the common good.
Because black lives matter, he needs to major on the issues of sin that are destroying black lives. Far and away, the number one reason “blood is flowing in the streets” is due to abortion. Many studies could be cited. This brings about the wrath of God in far greater measure than police brutality.
Right to Life of Michigan
Black Abortions By The Numbers
More than crime. More than accidents. More than cancer, heart disease and AIDS. Abortion has taken more Black American lives than every other cause of death combined since 1973. In the United States, the abortion rate for Black women is almost 4 times that of White women. On average, 900 Black babies are aborted every day in the United States. This tragedy continues to impact the population levels of African Americans in the United States.
National Statistics
More than 20 million Black babies have been aborted since the 1973 Roe v. Wade U.S. Supreme Court decision legalized abortion in our country.
Here are some quotes from Thabiti’s sermon. He is talking about the consequences of law enforcement murdering blacks which is extremely rare. Abortion is rampant.
“God’s justice is sure. Not one, no one guilty of murder escapes the judgment and justice of God.”
“Will God be just? … First God will give the murderer up to a reprobate mind. It is part of his judgement. So we see in Romans 1:28-32.”
“You see sometimes beloved, God’s judgement begins with him just giving you over to your sin, to keep doing it. To be enslaved and dominated by it. That is part of his justice.”
These statements are true. Those that kill their preborn children are murderers and those that support such murders are complicit. This provokes the wrath of God and brings about his just judgements. God indeed turns people over to seared consciences, reprobate minds, and darkened hearts unless they repent and look to him forgiveness.
It is no surprise that murder in the womb has led to murder in the streets. Life is not valued. God is not feared.
And of those born, 69.4% are born out of wedlock. That compares to 11.7% for Asian women, 28.2% for white women, and 51.8% for Hispanic women. These statistics come from the National Vital Statistics Report (Nov 27, 2019, p. 5)
I don’t cite these statistics to exalt one ethnic group over another ethnic group but to identify the issues that must be addressed in the black community. And it should go without saying that immorality and abortion throughout the nation over the last 50 years have brought about its downfall. American is under judgement and it is only increasing. COVID-19 is just a foretaste. I expect far more deadly plagues in our future unless God Almighty brings about a largescale conversion of our citizenry through the gospel of Jesus Christ.
Let me share another horrific reality that is killing black people. The loss of self-control. For example, 74.0% of black women are obese or extremely obese. I do not say that to mock or belittle in the least. I say it because black lives matter. “Obesity increases the likelihood of various diseases and conditions, particularly cardiovascular diseases, type 2 diabetes, obstructive sleep apnea, certain types of cancer, osteoarthritis, and depression.” It is a systemic killer in the black community. See The Health Effects of Overweight and Obesity by Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Thabiti should lead by example. An overseer must be temperate, self-controlled, and disciplined (1 Tim 3, Tit 1).
Further, “Obesity may increase the risk of coronavirus-related deaths by 50%, according to a recently published report in the journal Obesity Reviews.”
Police brutality and racism are not destroying the black community. It is due to the breakdown of the family, immorality, out of wedlock births, an absent work ethic, a widespread sense of entitlement, lawlessness, disregard for authority, self-indulgence, obesity, abortion, drugs, alcohol, gangs, and murder.
Because black lives matter, these are the issues black leaders must confront in the context of preaching the gospel, building the church and promoting civil righteousness. It could cost them their lives. And let me say, I profoundly respect black leaders who are speaking out about these issues and seeking to make a difference in the church and society. Individuals like Dr. Rolland Slade, President of the Southern Baptist Convention, Dr. Ben Carson, Secretary of Housing & Urban Development or Dr. Jerome Adams, the Surgeon General of the United States, and they are from the only ones. There are many black heroes and heroines. And there are many godly black men and women who serve as examples. Thank you!
Railing against racism and police brutality is easy. It will win you accolades in our cultural climate. Speaking against abortion, immorality, sloth, gluttony, jealousy, violence, lawlessness, and murder may get you killed! Yet that is our only hope. The black community must be called to account for their transgressions against God’s law and pointed to the love and grace of God revealed in the cross of Christ. It is there they will find reconciliation with God and forgiveness from God.
This is the same remedy for white, brown, yellow, and red skinned people too! We are all children of wrath descended from Adam’s race. None is better than the other!
Thabitti should also condemned as godless and lawless ANTIFA and Black Lives Matter in the same way he would condemn the Ku Klux Klan. So too the rioting, looting, arson and destruction of property. Read the excellent article below. It includes an overview of Black Lives Matter.
The Biblical Solution to Racism
by Dr. Lisle | Jun 26, 2020
Thabiti should focus on calling the black community to repentance like we should be calling all peoples to repentance. Instead he is fanning the flames of hatred and racism in sermons like Black Body, Shed Blood and Justice. He is part of the problem, not the solution and diverting attention away from the central issues that really threaten the black community. If he wants racial reconciliation this is not how you go about it. And if he wants to save black lives, he must boldly address the sins that are killing them.
There is so much more to correct in his sermon. I hope others like Mark Dever and Issac Adams at Capitol Hill Baptist Church and 9Marks will do that. The same is true for his friends at The Gospel Coalition where Thabiti blogs and is a Council Member.
We need Thabiti, not as a social justice warrior, but as a Spirit-filled evangelist! He understands sin. He knows the gospel. He loves Jesus Christ. But he is on the warpath to nowhere regarding black lives matter. Racism, police brutality and social injustice are not causing black blood to flow in the streets of America. It is their hatred of God and his holy law and the only remedy is Jesus Christ! The same is manifestly true for all fallen humanity of all colors!
The only hope for white America or black America or any part of America is the shed blood of Jesus Christ that flowed from the cross on Calvary’s hill. That is our message. God executed Christ in our place for our sins. We are deserving of death and eternal punishment. Instead, he gives us eternal life if we humbly turn to him in contrition and faith. That is my prayer for black lives and all lives.
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