In nearly a decade of studying and (working at) practicing multiethnic ecclesiology, I have become convinced that God's unflagging purpose to reconcile the nations to himself and to one another in Christ means that Satan works especially hard to weaponize racial division.

We see this, for example, in Ephesians 2-3, in which the reunited Jew-Gentile (multiethnic!) church testifies to the principalities and powers that Christ is Lord. A church united in (ethnic) diversity testifies to the reality of God and gospel in a special way (John 17:20-23).

A one-wing plane can't fly (doesn't matter which wing), so Satan was content for the northern American churches to compromise orthodoxy (Unitarianism, etc) while pursuing orthopraxy (abolitionism), while the southern churches maintained orthodoxy while compromising orthopraxy.

Applying this to the current moment, I'm haunted by something @CharlieDates said on @dhati's "Why I Stay" (in the SBC) series. Dates said his church felt more comfortable joining the SBC after he was allowed to speak freely and truly at the MLK 50 event.

Now, this same event was denounced by a certain stream of those who claim to be gospel-crusaders and defenders of the faith. They claim it was a new liberalism infiltrating the SBC and evangelicalism via the @ERLC and @TGC.

And here's the thought I can't shake: that these folks who say and think that they're defending the faith are actually being weaponized by satanic forces for racial division. They are renouncing the voices who are moving toward a network of churches truly reconciled in diversity.

Satan would prefer to chop both wings from the plane (orthodoxy and orthopraxy), but he will settle for one. Those who "defend" the faith in a way that undermines racial justice and reconciliation are in fact undermining the faith they say they want to defend.

In other words, if false doctrine is one sure sign of compromise and satanic attack on orthodoxy, then racial division is a concentrated and especially terrifying sign of a failure of orthopraxy.

Racial injustice and division and doctrinal compromise can both destroy the vitality and witness of the church(es). Historically, the SBC has had both problems and worked to solve both problems. We must be vigilant about both.

That said, I believe racial injustice and division is vastly more threatening to the current life of the SBC churches than CRT/I. Like an order of magnitude more threatening.