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Woke Preacher Clips

Apr 4, 2022 • 16 tweets • 5 min read • Read on X

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JUNE 2020: Panel discussion at Willy Rice's Calvary Church endorses Robin DiAngelo's "White Fragility" by name, unironically, without caveat

A lot of SBC people have asked me to clip this for weeks, ignored it until I noticed yesterday that CC made the YouTube link private

Cont'd: "[Cain] says, 'Am I my brother's keeper?' In other words, he was saying, 'That's not my brother. He's my enemy.'"

Speaker is Zelvis Applin, lead pastor of South Hills Church

Willy's question in the first clip is a callback to a previous monologue from Applin. For context, Applin was asked to keep talking about a point from one of Calvary's deacons, who articulates the concept of racism without racists (though not by name)...

The image of Chauvin with his knee on George Floyd's neck says: "This is the condition that you've been in, that your ancestors were in in slavery...in Jim Crow. This is what y'all were in even after the Civil Rights, and this is where you will continue to be. Under my knee."

Earlier: Pastor Jon Matthews of New Philadelphia Worship Center says, "Here's what racism does: In America, it gives white people the benefit. It gives black people the doubt." Tells story of how he was falsely accused of stealing food that he was distributing to the needy.

So, this guy saw Jon at a gas station with a pallet of food + apparently called it in to police. Obviously, no bueno. But both Jon + Willy act aghast that, when the cops call to investigate the report, they want the numbers of ppl who can verify who he is + where he got the food.

What that stranger did to Jon is pretty great evidence that, yes, racism is not a thing of the past, but it's bearing false witness to insinuate these officers engaged in racism or partiality. Why express frustration with people who follow the Bible's command...

...to establish all things on the testimony of 2 or 3 witnesses? Cops investigate tons of hoaxes and spurious police reports. They can't assume that they're fake. They prove that they are fake. Jussie Smollett got caught because cops sincerely tried to find his assailants.

If they got a call about a pallet of stolen food in the next few days and they HADN'T act on that tip, their jobs are toast. What ever happened to empathy? Officers take 20 minutes to make 3 phone calls before they dismiss a report, and a local church smears them as racist?

So, the takeaway from the story is Willy remarking Jeff, a white deacon at Calvary: "If you'd been carrying that in your truck, you and I aren't gonna get stopped."

(Jon didn't get stopped by the police, either)

*to Jeff

One last moment I found noteworthy: Kevin, another deacon at Calvary, says the church should be leading protests right now, just like...Paul and Silas praying and singing hymns in jail???

Let's let him finish that thought.

OK for real this time, last clip: Jeff, a Calvary deacon, says: "Our nation was founded on, essentially, we stole the land of people who were here, and then we took free labor from east Africa to make ourselves rich. That's not stuff you see in our history textbooks."

That stuff *has* been in history textbooks for decades, it just wasn't framed in a Disneyfied "Evil Pinkies vs. noble BIPOCs" narrative. You're dumbing it down by phrasing it this way. You're not becoming more sophisticated.

Anyhow, this is nowhere close to the worst June 2020 panel I've clipped. It's not without serious red flags, though. Like I said, I was hesitant to go through it until the church tried to scrub it. You can still get a copy here FYI subsplash.com/calvarychurch-…

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Sep 15, 2025

James T. Roberson III of Bridge Church NYC denounces the assassination of Charlie Kirk but spends roughly half his statement (and even the following prayer) dragging the man's name through the mud:

This morning before we pray, I want to lean into some of the political tension in our country and the recent assassination of gentleman named Charlie Kirk, who was assassinated this past Thursday, I believe. And I've written out a statement here.

2 Corinthians 10:3-5 reads this way: "For though we walk in the flesh, we are not waging war according to the flesh. For the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh, but have divine power to destroy strongholds. We destroy arguments and every lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God. And we take every thought captive to obey Christ."

In this text, Paul is reminding us that as believers, our battle is not a physical battle. It's a spiritual battle God has called us to be a part of. And it is therefore not fought with carnal weapons but with spiritual ones. And I think in this political tension that we live in, Charlie Kirk and other political activists, particularly some on the evangelical right, often see ideas and policies that claim to be Christian, but they're fought with in a carnal posture. They're fighting for Jesus with anger and harshness and rage. And the danger of that is when you when you fight spiritual battles in a carnal way, the world responds with that same carnality. It's as if the world says we know how to do worldly better than you.

So, let me be clear. I denounce his assassination veheminently [sic], and we all should. That shouldn't be hard. It's wicked. That's obvious. It is also wicked to celebrate his death. It is carnal to celebrate his death. To lack empathy for someone who doesn't have empathy for you is to live in carnality.

At the same time, while he fought for ideals that he believed were Christian, I also denounced the way he carried himself and especially the way he talked about black people.

So, here's what I want us to remember as a church, what I need all of us to know. People are not defined by their ideology. They are defined by the image of God. Genesis 1 says "God created them in his own image." So here's what we've got to understand. Charlie Kirk, at his core, is not a Republican or a conservative. He is a child of God made in the image of God who has right-wing positions. And as a believer, we're called to see people not politically but spiritually. The Bible says in 2 Corinthians 5, "From now on, therefore, we regard no one according to the flesh, even though we once regarded Christ according to the flesh." I think we're getting some feedback over here, FYI.

So, let's be clear. We should be grieving with his wife, his kids who have woken up this morning without a father. We should weep with those who weep, and we should be praying for their families. But I also grieve for our country that elevates people into hero status and martyr status so quickly.

Disagreement is not wrong, but it's how we disagree that matters. And my prayer is that we, the people of God, would resist the temptation to fight our battles with carnal weapons. Instead, let us choose a spiritual posture that Christ has given us, because truly, the weapons of our warfare are spiritual and not carnal. Amen. Pray with me.

Father, we pray right now that as we jump into the word here, we do lift up the Kirk family. We lift up those who are weeping this morning. And I pray, God, for a spirit of compassion in this room. Make us wise with what we post online. Make us wise with what we watch online. But just because someone fought for Jesus doesn't mean they fought like Jesus. God, I pray for a spirit of peace. I pray that a spirit of fruit in our community and I pray that we would renounce all elements of the flesh. Now, God, be with us. Speak to us in this time. In Jesus' name. Amen? Amen.

Of course, Roberson is throwing stones in glass houses here. I knew to look him up because in 2020, his was one of the most harsh and angry voices I found. He plagiarized a profane, viral video in defense of riots during a sermon

Roberson is tight with leadership in @NAMB_SBC, will be speaking at a Send Network event this October

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Campbell even compares her being "hated by evangelical" to Paul and Jesus facing resistance from "the religious elite" in Judea.

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A PCA Mission To North America (MNA) employee under Irwyn Ince speaks out in support of the segregated event that has caused controversy in the past week.

Kellie Brown, the MNA staffer who suggested the Trump assassination attempt in PA was "staged," says "safe spaces" for minorities are the reason she remains in the PCA.

Brown and her husband Howard Brown are currently planting a church for the PCA, "Kindred Hope," which advises white Christians to become "allies" and financial backers rather than congregants.

"There's a lot of conversation around diversity. And a lot of, sadly, Christians are saying that we shouldn't have spaces for black folks, that it's divisive and whatnot. And I actually am a testimony that that's just not true.

When minority people have a safe space to be themselves and to share their hearts, and that space is protected and initiated and supported by the majority culture that's around them, then that makes them feel even safer, and it actually pushes us closer to being one church.

And a lot of voices out there would lie and manipulate that and make it seem like it creates divisiveness, but Christ Central is a testimony that that's just not true. And I'm still here in the PCA after 30-some odd years because of safe spaces and places like you had with Pastor Omari [Hill, of Perimeter Church] and other brothers to help navigate."