The 9th Commandment, Integrity, and Lack Thereof

Today, the online world lit up with a trailer for a forthcoming film titled By What Standard? This film is a production driven by a group within the Southern Baptist Convention called Founder’s Ministries. You can check out the trailer at the Founders Ministries website.

I should lay my cards on the table here. In one sense, I don’t have any skin in the game. I’m a convictional presbyterian, who is a member and deacon at a functionally independent baptist church in rural New Hampshire. Hardly anyone cares what I think, and that’s just fine with me.

However, on the other hand… what happened today, and what it seems like the men behind this film are planning, is deeply concerning to me. I have skin in the game because although I am a member of a different particular body, which will be largely unaware of and unaffected by whatever happens as a result of today’s dustup… I am also a member of Christ’s universal body which has already been and will continue to be, injured by the shenanigans that were demonstrated today.

For those living under some kind of rock… on another planet… in another universe… there has been a controversy brewing in various denominations. It takes different forms and flavors. In the SBC, in part because of its racially charged history, it has centered around racial reconciliation and tensions. There are two primary factions. The first is largely driven by its adoption of philosophical categories associated with neo-Marxist critical theory. Although I don’t like pejoratives… they do make for handy shorthand. This group is frequently called Social Justice Warriors.

The second group is those who argue that the former group has confused theological categories. They have allowed worldly philosophies and the spirit of the age to infiltrate and corrupt their theology. They have traded the Gospel of Jesus Christ, in which all redeemed image-bearers come together at the foot of the cross in utter equality… for the Social Justice Gospel in which those who have been given a place of relative advantage in the past (primarily white males) should debase and lower themselves in an attempt to even the scales.

Let me make one thing clear.

I am 100% in the camp of the latter. The Gospel of Jesus Christ is (in part) that every division that divides us has been broken down. “For he himself is our peace, who has made us both one and has broken down in his flesh the dividing wall of hostility.” (Ephesians 2:14, ESV) In him “there is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is no male and female.” (Galatians 3:28a, ESV) The only intersection that matters, is the one where justice and mercy meet, and that took place on a Roman cross on a hill called the Skull nearly 2000 years ago.

That is why it pains me to write this article.

There are many things about this trailer that bother me. There are many things about this trailer that could be considered dishonest. But I want to focus on one particular element that is especially egregious.

The trailer begins with clips from a presentation by Dr. Tom Ascol. “This is God’s world, and he gets to set the rules.” “I’ve seen godless ideologies that have spread throughout western civilization over the last several decades, with a vengence….”

It then interpolates a clip from James Meritt, with a subtitle indicating that the clip is from a panel discussion at SBC19. “I’d just like to directly address my white brothers and sisters out there,” he says.

The trailer then flips back to Ascol: “… to tell us what we are supposed to be seeing.”

The next clip is a clip of Matt Chandler, lead pastor of the Village Church. He says “Seek outside counsel. We’re just not experts in this.”

The trailer moves back to Meritt and the panel discussion.

Both Chandler and Meritt are washed out in a grayish overlay, presumably designed to give the clips a sort of surveillance video look.

Back to Ascol, in full and vibrant colors… Ascol laments the fact that the godless ideologies have been smuggled into many evangelical churches “through the trojan horse of social justice.”

Back to Merritt. “We’ve got an opportunity to prove that we need to listen, more than we talk.

Back to Chandler: “I wasn’t trained in any of this.” “Churches are going to be better for finding subject matter experts… and pulling them in.”

Merritt: “We’ve not been black.”

The trailer tells a compelling story. It goes something like this.

Ascol is identifying a problem within evangelicalism, particularly in the SBC. This ideology is godless, and exemplified by the interspersed clips of Chandler and Meritt, and has been smuggled in under the guise of so-called social justice. Chandler and Meritt, so argues the trailer implicitly, have both succumbed to this idea that White men who haven’t been black, need to seek black subject matter experts to address the problems. That they need to listen more than they talk.

The problem with this… is that it is a fabricated story. That’s a polite way to say that it is a disgusting lie.

Let me say that again, with gusto.

Whoever is responsible for putting together this trailer is a liar, and ought to repent of this sin, and publically apologize to Matt Chandler.

You see… the clip that they have distorted to make Chandler look as though he is saying the same thing as Meritt… has nothing to do with racial reconciliation or tensions. He is talking about an entirely different subject.

The clip in question is actually an interview that Matt Chandler gave in response to a tragic situation which occurred in his church. A young girl was sexually abused by a member of their staff, and he was explaining that when this happens, it is necessary for the church to call in outside experts to investigate the crime that has allegedly been committed. He was saying that when something like this happens, pastors should call the police because pastors are not criminal investigators. He was never taught that in seminary.

Do the makers of this clip really intend to say that turning over a sexually deviant criminal to the civil magistrate is a godless ideology? I think the Apostle Paul would have something to say about that. (1 Corinthians 5:5)

Of course, they haven’t intended to say that, because it is clear that they are trying to present the words of both men as though they are communicating the same thing.

They clearly are not.

This is compounded by the fact that the version of the trailer I saw on Wednesday morning did not indicate the venue or context of Chandler’s clip… but after the backlash they say, they added a subtitle which clarified. They either knew it was being used out of context and didn’t care, or they are lying about the fact that they knew and trying to save face.

However, when confronted on this… their response wasn’t to acknowledge that the clip was used in a misleading way and apologize… it was basically to chastise their critics.

On Twitter, @Chocolate_Knox, a part of the Cross Politic Podcast responded

“We know he’s talking about sexual abuse, that’s the whole point. The film will roll out the whole context and deal with CRT/sexual abuse/women preaching/ and race… that clip from Chandler is used to highlight one of many topics that will be covered.”

I’m not sure which is worse… that they were shady enough to misrepresent Chandler… or that they were stupid enough to not see how the interpolation of clips presented Chandler and Meritt as saying the same thing.

They are either liars, or they are idiots. I’ve listened to Cross Politic… and they aren’t idiots.

Here’s the plain and simple truth. The people who have produced this trailer have sinned against God and man. It is certainly the case that when division is caused by false teaching… that the ones who have introduced the false teaching are culpable for the division. However, when you respond to that division by breaking the 9th commandment… that lie and the further division that it causes… that’s on you brother.

I’ll leave you with the words of Benjamin Keach

The ninth commandment requires the maintaining and promoting of truth between man and man, and of our own and our neighbor’s good name, especially in witness bearing.

Q/A 83 of the Baptist Catechism