Archbishop Beach's address is both comforting and convicting
Not one of us is exempt from his godly admonition
With most of the secular and religious media focused this week on the Southern Baptist Convention (SBC) gathering in Nashville, Tennessee, it would be easy for the Anglican Church in North America (ACNA) to conduct the business of its Provincial Council and College of Bishops meeting and escape from The Cove, North Carolina virtually unnoticed. Since its inception in 2008, the ACNA has held its periodic gatherings in various and sundry places across the continent without the faintest hint of acrimony or internecine conflict, despite the fact that some pretty major questions of polity and governance remain unresolved at the provincial level.
Unlike the SBC and other older ecclesial bodies, the ACNA does not waste a minute’s time (much less a day or two) at its assembly debating, amending, and voting up or down on an endless catalogue of non-binding and ultimately meaningless resolutions on social, political, or even theological issues. The tone of the gathering is set, and the state of the province is expressed, by the Archbishop’s Provincial Council Address. This year, the Most Reverend Dr. Foley Beach spoke with clarity and conviction, tempered with just the right amount of compassion and, where necessary, godly admonition as he reflected on the challenges facing the province. The Covid-19 pandemic and its aftermath obviously warranted special attention but the most pointed words in the archbishop’s address concerned two issues that have become intertwined in the ACNA, particularly over the past year or so.
The emergence of Critical Race Theory (CRT) as a rival to the Gospel of Jesus Christ has become a serious concern for many clergy and lay leaders as it has seemingly gained a foothold within the province, chiefly among second generation clergy. Archbishop Beach, echoing similar sentiments expressed by his second-in-command, Presiding Bishop Ray Sutton of the Reformed Episcopal Church (REC) at that sub-jurisdiction’s General Council last week, made it clear that this and other “secular theories” are not going to be the rule of thumb in the ACNA.
Theories can be helpful. The one getting the most attention in the media, Critical Race Theory, has some things which are helpful, but it is also full of anti-biblical and anti-Christian rhetoric and assumptions. We know that the Bible teaches us that “all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God” (Romans 3:23). All races have sinned. Every person in every race has sinned. The Bible also teaches that adultery is a sin (Ex.20:14), but just because this is a sin and some people commit it, it doesn’t mean everyone is an adulterer. Racism is a sin, but this doesn’t mean that all people of certain races are racists and all institutions of certain countries are racist, as Critical Race Theory proclaims.
I grew up in an era where to view someone through the color of their skin and base my actions toward someone because of the color of their skin (or their race) was wrong. The Bible teaches this. If you remember, the Apostle Peter was confronted by God with his racism in Acts 10. Once convicted, he said, in Acts 10:34, “Truly, I understand that God shows no partiality, but in every nation (race) anyone who fears him and does what is right is acceptable to him.”
The modern-day leader, preacher, and hero of the Civil Rights Movement, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., said it this way: “I look to a day when people will not be judged by the color of their skin, but the content of their character.” Secular theories leave God out of the equation and only in Christ will true racism be eliminated.
Much of CRT’s prominence in theological and political discussions across the province is owed to the proliferation of social media platforms. The archbishop admonished his clergy that having a Twitter account or Facebook page does not give them carte blanche to speak before thinking.
One of the problems I see is that too many of our clergy are emoting rather than speaking with wisdom and thinking critically. We are supposed to be cultural thought-leaders, or at least attempting to be. I read so many angry tweets or responses to something in the news that were basically reflecting a non-critical repetition of what the media already said. Without doing any homework, research, or searching for the facts, people are emoting and reacting, many times in complete ignorance of the facts, through their tweets and comments on social platforms.
It is as if we don’t know our Bibles. In Proverbs 18:17, it says, “The one who states his case first seems right, until the other comes and examines him.” And in verse 13, it says, “If one gives an answer before he hears, it is his folly and shame.” To make matters worse, if you disagree with these emotional and uncritical comments, you are condemned and attacked. Then you are cancelled; that is, written off as not worthy of fellowship. In the Church of Jesus Christ this should never be the case unless we are following the biblical reasons for doing so, as we find in 1 Corinthians 5. Jesus and the Apostles constantly spoke of unity and oneness in the body, not of cancelling one another.
This raises another question we should ask ourselves as we pontificate to others: why do I think I am so important that I need to be publicly commenting anyway? Have you become so self-important and so self-aggrandizing that you think the world cannot live without your comments on every issue presented to us by the secular news media? St. James tells us in James 1:21, “Know this, my beloved brothers and sisters: let every person be quick to hear, slow to speak, slow to anger, for the anger of man does not produce the righteousness of God.”
These words seem most applicable to a particular group of clergy who, in their zeal for “justice,” have made intentionally provocative statements, often dancing close to the edge of CRT, and brushed aside correction as being motivated by meanness and cruelty or, worse yet, racism and misogyny. This is a growing edge for some of our younger clergy and they would do well to heed the archbishop’s counsel. So, too, would those of us older clergy who may, on the surface, find comfort and encouragement in his remarks. Not one of us is exempt from his godly admonition about carelessly shooting off our mouths online. We have probably all been guilty of that at least once or twice. Beneath the surface, that is what is most refreshing about Archbishop Beach’s address. We can all take comfort in it, and we should all be convicted by it.
Well said, brother. ~Chris Cairns