Voddie Baucham on Critical Social Justice
Voddie Baucham is a graduate of Houston Baptist University, Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, and Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary. He formerly served as pastor of Grace Family Baptist Church in Spring, Texas, and is currently Dean of Theology at African Christian University in Lusaka, Zambia. Baucham regularly speaks on how the social justice movement and CRT are incompatible with a Christian worldview.
Baucham also has close ties with Founders Ministries, a group associated with the SBC that “is committed to encouraging the recovery of the gospel and the biblical reformation of local churches.” In a podcast from September 2021, Baucham explained to Founders president Tom Ascol and Founders vice president Jared Longshore that the phrase “fault lines” from his book’s title refers to the fact that prominent Christian leaders have fallen on different sides of the issue of “critical social justice.”
In his book, Baucham questions why church leaders and institutions such as Thabiti Anyabwile, Tim Keller, Russell Moore, the SBC, 9Marks, The Gospel Coalition, and Together for the Gospel are “identified with critical social justice,” while others, including John MacArthur, Owen Strachan, and Doug Wilson, are not.
Reactions to CBN’s Announcement
One Twitter user responded to CBN’s announcement by saying, “Wait, I thought you guys were opposed to plagiarism,” alluding to accusations that Voddie Baucham had plagiarized law professor Richard Delgado and author and math professor James Lindsay. Lindsay denies that Baucham plagiarized him, and Baucham’s publisher explained the alleged plagiarism as Baucham following a certain citation style when documenting his sources.
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Pastor, author and podcaster Marty Duren responded to the announcement by questioning Baucham’s Baptist affiliation. Duren asked, “Does this mean that 1) Voddie is a member of a Southern Baptist Church in Zambia? (There are none.) Or 2) that he’s a member of an SBC church stateside? Or 3) that the CBN has non-Southern Baptists on its steering council?”
Pastor Dwight McKissic, who has been vocal throughout the SBC’s battle over CRT, also commented on the news about Baucham. McKissic has said he would leave the SBC if the denomination were to rescind Resolution 9, which affirms that aspects of CRT are helpful. Prior to the 2021 SBC Annual Meeting, the pastor also denounced a resolution endorsed by Mike Stone declaring CRT to be incompatible with the BF&M. Responding to a different person asking if Baucham were part of the SBC, McKissic said:
The answer is, No! Bauchaum [sic] has mentioned in several venues he’s no longer SBC. He has next to zero credibility as a spokesperson on issues that interface with race relations in the AA community. The CBN wants to die on the CRT hill, and they obviously see Bauchaum [sic] as their man.
