In December 2020, Dates was among Black church leaders who left the Southern Baptist Convention after all six of its seminary presidents denounced critical race theory. “How did they, who in 2020 still don’t have a single Black denominational entity head, reject once and for all a theory that helps to frame the real race problems we face?” he wrote. “As for me and the Progressive Baptist Church, I keep hearing the words of Harriet Tubman: ‘We out.’
“The hard reality of the seminary presidents’ statement is that Black people will never gain full equality in the Southern Baptist Convention,” Dates continues. “My acknowledgement of this is not a statement of submission, but an act of defiance.”
