How Great Thou Alt
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The Southern Baptist Convention passed a resolution condemning the alt-right at their annual convention this week. Dwight McKissic, a prominent African American pastor in Texas, originally submitted the resolution for consideration. Rev. McKissic’s resolution resolved that the SBC would “reject the retrograde ideologies, xenophobic biases, and racial bigotries of the so-called ‘Alt-Right’ that seek to subvert our government, destabilize society, and infect our political system”
The resolution did not pass through the initial committee so Rev. McKissic introduced a motion for it to be reconsidered on the floor. It didn’t pass, and but the backlash was immediate both from inside and outside of the convention. (America’s most punchable Nazi, Richard Spencer, took to Twitter to express his pleasant surprise over the developments.) After what sounds like a lot of backroom dealing to save face, the SBC unanimously passed this somewhat watered-down resolution.
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I’ve written before about the growing divide between the frog squad and the religious right, mostly related to differing views on abortion. The differences are creating a fascinating identify crisis within the Republican Party. Potentially, this divide is one of the best opportunities we have to contain the frog squad’s radicalization of the GOP. In April, The Atlantic’s Peter Beinart made the case that Americans’ growing disengagement from organized religion potentially created space for the so-called alt-right to flourish, saying, “As Americans have left organized religion, they haven’t stopped viewing politics as a struggle between ‘us’ and ‘them.’ Many have come to define us and them in even more primal and irreconcilable ways.”
It would be easy to dismiss the internal SBC politics this weekend by saying the resolution only passed out of embarrassment. Perhaps that’s true, but I personally see it as a positive development. The fight against extremism isn’t a partisan fight, but one for the soul of what we want to be as a nation. Communities of faith have the power to make the fight against white supremacy less political and more human; I’m glad the SBC found their way.
The above is an excerpt from Ctrl Alt Right Delete, a weekly newsletter devoted to understanding how the right operates online and developing strategies and tactics to fight back.
