Voddie Baucham uses the word "ethnic" in seemingly the same way that many Christians, including Reformed Pastors and Theologians, have used the term "race" or "races" historically, and even recently. We can consider Geerhardus' Vos's well known Biblical Theology, in which he states, "Under the providence of God each race or nation has a positive purpose to serve, fulfillment of which depends on relative seclusion from others."
This is quoted by present day White RPCNA Minister Dr. Frank Smith, who said in his recent book Race, Church, and Society,
"Social and cultural distinctions still remain—they are not eliminated. The oneness celebrated in Galatians 3:28—a unity focused on our salvation and our right standing before God—does not eradicate our natural connections. We are not disembodied spirits—we still consist of a psychosomatic unit (soul and body), which means that we still carry those ethnic (racial) traits with which we were born and in which we were raised.
One implication of this phenomenon is that it is natural for people to group together ethnically. This is why, for instance, in New York, there is Little Italy; in New York and San Francisco, there is Chinatown; in San Francisco and San Jose, there is Japantown; in Chicago, there is Poland Downtown; in Los Angeles, there are Chinatown and Little Tokyo and Koreatown and Little Saigon; in Miami, there is Little Havana, while Tampa hosts another Cuban neighborhood, Ybor City; Grand Rapids and Holland, Michigan, are home to the Dutch, as are Oostburg and Cedar Grove, Wisconsin; and in places as diverse as Detroit, New Orleans, Atlanta, and Pageland, South Carolina, there are black neighborhoods. No one should accuse Italians, or Chinese, or Japanese, or Poles, or Koreans, or Vietnamese, or Cubans, or Dutch, or African-Americans, of being “racist!” just because they live amongst people with whom they have a natural affinity. You know, birds of a feather do, as a matter of course, flock together. While these distinct ethnic neighborhoods are islands within a larger community, they may also demonstrate a broader principle of separatism."
Also Smith, "God has both made man from one set of parents, and also created variation which is expressed not only individually but also in terms of groups. Therefore, on this matter, let there be humility and mutual forbearance on what term(s) to use. As long as the word “race” is carefully defined, so as not to buy into an evolutionary paradigm, there should not be any problem."
Smith, Frank. Race, Church, and Society (p. 23). Presbyterian Scholars Press. Kindle Edition.
We can also note Frank Smith's quotation of Dr. Morton Smith, one of the founding fathers of the PCA, who said, "the Bible seems to teach that God has established and thus revealed his will for the human race now to be that of ethnic pluriformity, and thus any scheme of mass integration leading to mass mixing of the races is decidedly unscriptural."
In fact, in the Trinity Psalter-Hymnal that the OPC and URC jointly produced in 2018, in the hymn "Arise, My Soul, Arise" In verse 2 we read, "his blood atoned for ev'ry race, his blood atoned for ev'ry race, and sprinkles now the throne of grace."
Now the OPC and URC, members of NAPARC, chose to put this hymn in their hymnal. Our church uses it. We like it. We sing Arise, My Soul, Arise. And the TPH explicitly recognizes that there are races of mankind, and that Christ's blood atones for every race. Yet some of these same denominations will deny the reality of race, or that it is acceptable to use the language of "race" or "races"!
And now, here is Baucham's quote below from a message he gave back in 2019:
"Ethnic and national identity is a conduit for culture and tradition. And that's important. That's good...the color blind idea runs us away from that. Ethnic and national identity teaches us dependence and humility. No single group possesses all the good....I live in a very heterogeneous culture [Zambia]. Most of the world is very heterogeneous. In most countries of the world people are of the same ethnicity, and the same background, and the same culture, they look alike....ethnic and national identity teaches providence. Every culture, every nationality, every ethnicity has a history that they can trace. My ethnicity teaches me about providence, knowing who I come from, how we got here, and how by God's grace we survived. That teaches me about the providence of God.
I have been living and serving in Africa for the last 3.5 years, and I have been reminded almost everyday, that it is amazing that my ancestors were torn away from that continent, and experienced the horrors of slavery, and now I was born in the center of the universe, in the greatest nation that has ever existed in the history of the world. And the healthiest, wealthiest, most educated, most prosperous black people on planet earth are in America. Where else on this planet to black people want to go and live, that's better than this? What is that? That's providence people. Would anyone have chosen that path? Absolutely not. But you look back on it and see providence. If you ignore culture and ethnicity, you don't see providence....you learn about the multi-generational consequences of sin....
Paul says in Romans 9 [regarding Paul's kinsmen according to the flesh]... 'I love my people,' that's what Paul is saying here. My kinsmen according to the flesh. Paul is not saying 'I am colorblind, ethnicity means nothing to me, I am a citizen of the kingdom of Christ, and I don't think about those people anymore.' That's wrong! That's not biblical. That's wrong! Paul speaks in the most passionate terms imaginable about the group to which he, by God's grace and by God's providence, belongs. It matters. It's important. It's important....
Here's the great irony, there are people who don't understand this when they see it in certain minority groups, but when you ask them about their family, they can tell you about what percentage Scottish, and what percentage Irish, and you know, what boat their ancestors came over on, and all these wonderful things. Hold on to that. But don't hold on to that and then tell me to forget my ethnicity...ethnic gnosticism is broken and sinful, and I am here to speak against it. But I don't want you to get confused and think that somehow I am arguing that one's ethnicity is unimportant. Paul makes this painfully clear, 'I could wish that I myself were accursed and cut off from Christ for the sake of my brothers, my kinsmen according to the flesh.' You don't get more passionate than that!
...Paul looks at providence, he's not saying merely our skin color, merely our geographic location, our oh. It's more than that. But then there are limits to this connection. I love the fact that it's not an either-or...for not all who are descended from Israel are of Israel...but through Isaac shall your offspring be named....it is not the children of the flesh, but the children of God who are counted as the promise...our connection to Christ is more important."
To much of that, I say amen! And indeed, the salvation of our souls and unity with Christ is the most important thing.
While I do not agree with every conclusion Baucham draws here [particularly his seemingly one-sided understanding of slavery in our nation, or that the USA has the "best of the best" from every nation here while evidently ignoring we also have far more of the "worst of the worst" with mass immigration], Baucham is not altogether wrong and even sees God's hand of blessing upon the black race through their being brought to the "center of the universe" here in the United States, etc.
Baucham's words and convictions rebuke many White pastors and theologians in our Reformed seminaries and churches today, who deny the reality of racial and cultural differences or even contradictorily claim that Whites are forever stained with wickedness for how they allegedly treated blacks. Baucham rightly sees that all of this is a foolish attempt by white men at "not being racist" against men like Rev. Baucham.
I agree one can fall into ditches on either side. But we know which ditch 90% or possibly more of our Reformed and Evangelical pastors and professors fall into today, and it is in the ditch of denying that racial or ethnic, cultural, and ancestral differences are real, or at least meaningful, to the point of excommunicating men who say these things do matter and are meaningful.
As even Baucham points out in his lecture, we are at the point [and his speech was recorded this in 2019] where many no longer affirm that Jonathan Edwards was a Christian. Baucham also has no problem with predominately white churches or predominately black churches. Baucham also did not like diversity quotas and racial tokenism, promoting a black who was less talented simply because he was black, etc. He didn't like whites doing this as an attempt at racial penance, etc.
In short, one wonders if Baucham were still alive today and were White, if he would be excommunicated in our NAPARC (or other Evangelical and Baptistic) denominations. I think the answer is that he would at least be defrocked and removed from ministry.
Below is the video of Baucham's lecture:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ip3nV6S_fYU&t=16s
Comments
Post a Comment