I don’t believe the so-called elites see themselves as elites. I really don’t. The guys I know, they don’t consider themselves elites. I think if somebody disagrees with these people, they … James Merritt came down [to South America] when he was president of the Southern Baptist Convention. The IMB sent him down and Wade Akins and I took him out street preaching. So James, he’s a great guy. So all these people that people have problems with, they’re just trying to pastor their churches.
Do you believe racial reconciliation needs to be addressed in the SBC?
I grew up in Tallahassee. My high school was either the first or second integrated school in the state of Florida. In 1963, I remember the separate water fountains, the separate restrooms. And when I was 16, on the basketball team, our star basketball player had to stay in the janitor’s home on an away trip because they wouldn’t let him stay in the hotel with us because he was Black. I came home to my parents at 16 and said “that is wrong.”
When my wife and I were considering where to go on the mission field, we thought we’d go to China because Monterey Park was the first Chinese-majority city in the United States. It’s 50,000 people, 95 percent Chinese. But God introduced us to the missionaries from Tanzania. I didn’t go to Tanzania because of my background, but I spent 12 years in Africa. I had African pastors.
In Africa, I was always treated with respect. When I was in Africa, because of my background, I did do one thing differently. I decided I’m going to treat these guys the same way I would treat all my friends. I would eat out of a common bowl with them. I would share my water bottle with my African friends because I knew that some of my friends back when I was growing up would’ve never done that. I would say the finest believers on the planet are the ones that I served with in North Africa. We opened Baptist work in [North Africa], the Muslim part.
My answer is, and I thought this just this morning, race is not a biblical word. Ethno is the biblical word, ethnicity. As we know, there’s only one race, the human race, but there are different people, tribes and the word translated most often, which it’s also in my book, if you go to the contents, the keywords, look up ethnos.
So what is ethnicity? It’s language shared, an ethnic group. I think that by talking about race, we’re emphasizing something that’s not a biblical term. Let’s talk about ethnicity. Are there different cultures in America? Yes, there’s a myriad of them, but we pretty much have the same language of English. It may be spoken a bit different.
Certainly, there needs to be racial reconciliation, but it’s more of an American thing than it is an overseas thing. They’re not talking about that in Africa. What they’re talking about is tribalism and colonialism, which is left over from the colonial powers that rule them.
I just like the tactic that Nelson Mandela took, where he just forgave his captors. And you know, the movie about his life, where he’s supporting the South African, all-white rugby team, wearing their jersey just to emphasize, “Hey, we’re one people now.”
I understand the Deep South, and I know there’s some hurts there, but I tried to make a difference personally in my life.
What are the most important assignments in the role of the SBC president?
I would say, just because of the history of the Conservative Resurgence, is to appoint the Committee on Committees. My wife served on the 1989 Committee on Committees, a Jerry Vines appointee.
The SBC president represents Southern Baptists to the secular world and also to the Southern Baptist world. Southern Baptist presidents visit disaster sites. I think that’s an important pastoral role.
