Since it is Black History Month, there is no better time for the Southern Baptist Convention to exercise a collective lament to the genuine and perceived racism of the past and present, and because Southern Baptists can never do enough to rectify past grievances, they require a new solution. As perhaps one of few lasting impacts from Ed Litton’s singular term as SBC President is the Unify Project, which hopes to help black and white churches reconcile. The plagiarist SBC president joins the first black SBC president, Fred Luter, to launch this “racial unity” project which announced its “40 Days of Prayer for Racial Reconciliation” beginning February 22, 2023, which corresponds with Lent.
The Unify Project is another example of the Critical Race Theory and Social Justice Gospel having overtaken the Southern Baptist Convention. Joining the two former convention presidents on the Steering Council includes Marshall Blalock, chairman of Bart Barber’s Abuse Reform Implementation Task Force; Missie Branch, Assistant Dean of Students at SBTS; H.B. Charles, who is on the council for The Gospel Coalition; Victor Chayasirisobhon, First Vice President of the SBC and Asian representation on the committee; Alan Cross, an SBC pastor who has written for the neoconservative outlet, The Bulwark; Brett Golson, Vice President for Spiritual Development and Church Relations at William Carey University; Charles Grant, Associate Vice President for the SBC’s Black Church Relations; Marcus Hayes, the woke pastor rejected by the congregation at FBC Naples; Brent Leatherwood, in coordination with the ERLC; Ramon Medina, who is a Hispanic pastor who is closely affiliated with NAMB; Keith Whitfield of SEBTS, who became name-dropped during Karengate; Frank Williams, a prominent black New York pastor; and Chris Winford, a pastor affiliated with Danny Akin.
The names consist of several rising stars within SBC circles, like Hayes and Blalock, who have gained prominence for the wrong reasons. Other notable players involved with the SBC’s Unify Project include Tony Evans, whose The Urban Alternative initiative works in conjunction with the project while Evan’s books are labelled as preferred resources. Tony Evans preaches “kingdom race theory” as a “biblical alternative” to Critical Race Theory, which is a softer version of CRT.
Critical Race Theory Resources
In addition to peddling Critical Race Theory, these projects are often a means to market literature to the church. The Unify Project promotes a list of anti-white books by anti-white authors and known liberals.
Recommended Resources
Ministers of Reconciliation: Preaching on Race and the Gospel by Daniel Darling
Removing the Stain of Racism from the Southern Baptist Convention by Jarvis J. Williams and Kevin Jones
Redemptive Kingdom Diversity: A Biblical Theology of the People of God by Jarvis Williams
One New Man: The Cross and Racial Reconciliation in Pauline Theology by Jarvis Williams
(Group Study) The Church and the Racial Divide – Leader Kit: Finding Unity in the Race- Transcending Gospel by Trevor Atwood; Editors: Trillia Newbell and Daniel Darling
The New Reformation: Finding Hope in the Fight for Ethnic Unity by Shai Linne
Insider Outsider: My Journey as a Stranger in White Evangelicalism and My Hope for Us All by Bryan Loritts
The Gospel & Racial Reconciliation (Gospel For Life) by Russell Moore and Andrew Walker
Advocates: The Narrow Path to Racial Reconciliation by Dhati Lewis
Most notably in the list is Jarvis Williams, who is the CRT professor Al Mohler has refused to fire, allowing him to spread his Marxism to seminary students. Dhati Lewis is a woke church planter formerly for NAMB, who has since branched out on his own. Daniel Darling was a Branch Covidian who took Soros money to peddle poisonous jabs to churches and later celebrated the appointment of Ketanji Jackson Brown to the Supreme Court.
It can be expected that none of these writers would correctly attribute problems in the black community to subcultural attitudes and personal choices, but instead appeal to systematic racism and white privilege as ongoing problems in America today. Real issues like the prevalence of fatherless homes and broken families can hardly be expected to be at the forefront of anything written by Jarvis Williams.
Assemble, Address, Act
The Unify Project’s solution to racial reconciliation is a three-step process: assemble, address, and act. Basically, the premise is that a bunch of interested pastors get together and have struggle sessions, sharing meals as they discuss race. Eventually, these pastors and their respective churches work together, combining strength in ministries, and that will spur racial healing. Just as Critical Race Theory assumes racism in every situation, the Unify Project assumes that “Most pastors are burdened by the racial tension in their community.” This is an assumption, not a reality. Compared to crime, the economy, the dysfunctional school system, and the Rainbow Jihad, racial division is hardly a priority for everyday Americans, and is largely driven by media perceptions.
Start with relationships you already have.
· Connect with pastors and leaders in your area who are passionate about racial reconciliation, and invite others who are open to discussing these issues.
· Aim to assemble a diverse group representing not only different ethnicities but different traditions, worship styles, and backgrounds.
The types of pastors that would be passionate about racial reconciliation are those who embrace the faulty teachings of Critical Race Theory. It would be like having a gathering of church pastors on climate change; no skeptic, or realist, would attend because such a gathering presupposes the problem and subsequent solutions. All this will amount to is liberal pastors who agree on racial issues sitting around and having monthly struggle sessions. As is typical with social justice, dialogue is treated as a solution.
The second point, to “assemble a diverse group” is Standpoint Epistemology, where a group is required to have “diverse” perspectives in order to arrive at the correct “truth.” As Mountain Valley Baptist Church in Idaho recently proved, a racially diverse group is not necessary to address community problems.
Your efforts are only as solid as their foundation. Agree at the outset that the only source of redemption and reconciliation is the gospel of Jesus Christ. Agree together that the Scriptures are the very best guide and ultimate authority over all of your efforts. Remember that gospel-centered racial reconciliation is not about one pastor or one church, but about seeing God’s kingdom made visible as his people pursue unity.
The project advocates the gospel as a foundation for “gospel centered racial reconciliation” but this does require ensuring there is proper understanding of the gospel. When Critical Race Theory is employed, it adds to the gospel and imputes sin on descendants for a prior generation’s sins. Basically, white people are guilty for the “sin” of slavery, regardless of whether the whites ancestors were even in America during the Antebellum period. CRT invents sin where there is no sin, requiring means of penitence to achieve a never-ending sense of reconciliation: being “colorblind” to race is bad; refusal to accept accusations of racism is a sin; disparities of any sort are attributed to racism; imputation of guilt for prior generations. Because CRT is fixated on “power imbalances,” there are unequal weights and measures favoring the “oppressed” groups. These things are antithetical to the gospel. Moreover, one cannot fully “atone” for them through Christ; instead, it is a category of sin with perpetual guilt on account of being member to an “oppressor” group.
The gospel is the ultimate truth, but CRT adds lies to the gospel, disregarding Scripture for a worldly standard. The SBC laments itself wrongly for being “a convention of churches that was founded in 1845 to support the appointment of slave owners as missionaries” even though according to Scripture, slave ownership is not disqualifying for ministry. Onesimus both owned slaves and was used by Paul in the early church. These are facts. People should disagree with the practice of slavery, but it is not disqualifying. Thus, the SBC was correct in its early assertion while they took steps towards the improved standing of black people in their founding, like the promotion of literacy amongst slaves—history that is forgotten.
The Address section details the need to have a plan for when a racial incident eventually occurs, cause according to them, “Your community will experience racial strife.” Thus, the church must be prepared to address it when it rears its head because the Unify Project assumes that it will. The recommended path is one of unified response between all the churches at “the table.”

The problem is that whenever a situation arises where there is a black death at the hands of police officers, racial animus is assumed by the media, politicians, and black community activists without proof. Even if it can be proven that Michael Brown assaulted an officer and did not have his hands up, or Jacob Blake digitally assaulted a woman, the police actions reflect racism. According to The Gospel Coalition, Kyle Rittenhouse was racism for killing two white rioters in self-defense. Even when all the perpetrators are black—it is racism and white supremacy. Compared to those most passionate about race, those who are “colorblind” are slowest to judge in a given situation, requiring proof of racial animus before arriving at such a conclusion.
The final step is to Act, which involves joint service efforts and annual events to combine forces in a display of unity.
Diverse groups of Christians serving their communities together provides a visible demonstration of the unity of the body of Christ and further erode racial barriers that exist in your community.
This is a great idea. Maybe the white church and the black church should team up together, to which they could accomplish much. Perhaps both could team up to serve at pregnancy clinics, minister outside the abortion factories, or even work together to protest the sexual indoctrination in public schools. The tragedy is that the black church in America is outwardly in support of many of these antinomian social agendas. Politically, they are voting for the pro-abortion politicians and leftist school boards. Since politics is zero-sum, racial groups being diametrically opposed politically inherently leads to distrust.
Under a CRT framework, one can be a “black body” but not a “black voice,” which is a racist means to denigrate dissenting blacks, so there are social ramifications within the black community to deviate from the consensus.
Conclusions
Though he is not president, the legacy of Ed Litton in the SBC continues through the Unify Project, which is an overt CRT ploy being syncretized to Christianity through a prayer initiative that corresponds with Lent. Social Justice creates another gospel, distinct and incompatible with Scripture, which is why the corollaries to CRT include modern gender theory, homosexuality, and feminism—all of which rely on intersectional dynamics to label desired groups as oppressed. Heresy begets further heresy.
The Southern Baptist Convention is given over to CRT and increasingly feminism. They do this while planting woke churches and failing to uphold the sanctity of life. What incentive is there to remain when the rising stars of the convention are in lockstep with figures like Ed Litton, Bart Barber, and Brent Leatherwood? Best to pack up and leave because it will only get worse.