Last week, Evangelical Dark Web exposed the conspiracy for McLean Bible Church to join the Southern Baptist Convention and lie about it to both Lon Solomon and their own congregation. This was part of the bombshell emails that were released because McLean Bible Church lost a lawsuit where they spent $1 million trying to conceal these documents. Within the emails tells another story. David Platt and Dale Sutherland immediately look to take McLean Bible Church in a woke direction.
At the beginning of 2017, David Platt is brought on to become the interim pastor at MBC to replace Lon Solomon. During this time, David Platt reaches out to Paul Akin, his aide at the International Mission Board, to ask about diversity hires. Platt writes on March 15:
Hey Paul,
Dale and I were discussing via email exploring some intern possibilities through schools like Southern and Southeastern. Do you know who would be the best people at those seminaries to contact along those lines?
And as we’ve discussed, McLean is really wanting to explore diversifying leadership with multiple ethnicities. Would love to explore leaders along these lines from Southern/Southeastern or anywhere else we know. I know you contacted Dustin to get the information on the Asian fellowship out there… have we heard anything back? And is there anyone else we could point Dale to when it comes to contacts/networks we know?
Thanks, man.
David
David Platt immediately makes it clear that he wants to hire non-Whites. Despite this, he is intent on denying the leadership position at MBC to a racial minority. Wokeness is generally hypocritical and David Platt is no exception to this trend.
Dale Sutherland quickly sends a follow-up email:
Thanks Paul. I’m anxious to follow up on any contacts you make.
The next day Paul Akin responds:
Dale,
Thanks. I just sent you two emails (one for Walter at SEBTS and one for Kevin at Saddleback).
Walter is African-American and Kevin is Asian-America. One other thought might be to also connect you with Edgar Aponte as he might have some contacts/ideas for potential HispanicAmerican leaders…Let me know if you want me to “reconnect” you and Edgar via email.
Thanks,
Paul Akin
Senior Aide to the President
The Walter from Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary refers to Walter Strickland who has a host of woke preacher clips. The Kevin from Saddleback Church refers to Kevin Nguyen, a then pastor at Saddleback. In either case, Paul Akin is not recommending good connections, as Strickland is incredibly woke and Nguyen worked for Rick Warren.
The race-based hiring that David Platt intended to do was part of a larger trend at the time to make the church less White. David Platt is clearly pursuing a multiethnic model, something that was also part of his reasoning for elevating Mike Kelsey in 2023 to his position. So, David Platt’s subversive actions were par for the course for woke preachers at the time. But what is stunning is how transforming MBC to a woke church is an immediate agenda item for Platt who at this point is merely an interim pastor, a fact made more clear by his usage of his IMB email address.
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2 Responses
this investigation you’re doing into mclean serves as a model for how all intuitions become woke. i would like to know more about platt and his upbringing and background and any connection he has to financiers and woke activists in his early years. he is obviously one of the tips of the woke spear infiltrating the US baptist church – after it has been softened up by well-meaning but ultimately destructive elements.
It’s probably as simple as how grounded is he is in the Word of God and the key issue here isn’t so much about the gospel itself but how he views Genesis. Most people who have a strong view of Genesis (6 literal days, and the universe not older than 8K years ago), typically are the one’s that stand on a rock compared to those like David Platt and many others.