Moody Apologizes Over Historical Blackface Photos

“Decades-old photos depicting white students in blackface in Moody Bible Institute yearbooks have led the leaders to issue an apology and pledge to carefully examine racism in its history and current ministry.” - CToday

Discussion

Not surprised. An attempt to salvage a dying school. Perhaps they should focus on their hypocrisy concerning Jerry Jenkins.

Wally Morris
Huntington, IN

While I share the concern regarding Moody, Jerry Jenkins, and for that matter James MacDonald, I think this is a good move. We are forgiven by Christ, so shouldn’t we be able to “own” our mistakes?

Regarding Chik-Fil-A, good for them, too. I grew up in a town populated significantly by people who had left Gary, IN when blacks started moving in, and while some of the attitudes I saw growing up have disappeared, others have not. Again, we might as well own it.

Aspiring to be a stick in the mud.

Of course we agree in principle for confession & repentance for sin, here are 2 problems:

What has Chick-Fil-A done that they need to apologize for? Seems similar to their waffling on homosexuality. A PR campaign.

The current agenda on racial issues will never be satisfied. No amount of money, social programs, admissions of guilt, saying “sorry” will satisfy. If you are white, and especially a white male, you are perpetually guilty. In an honest attempt to apply Biblical principles, many Christians are allowing themselves to be drawn into the identity politics culture, a pit that has no bottom.

I don’t need to “own” anything in this area. I’m not guilty of the “sins” I am supposed to be guilty of. Nor, I suspect, are many others. Fear is driving much of this problem, fear by whites of the social agenda. Much of this issue is actually creating the problems it claims it wants to solve. If there is any racism here, much of it is coming from non-whites showing hatred.

Wally Morris
Huntington, IN

Wally, they’re apologizing for things done by their students in the past, and printed in their yearbooks as recently as 1984. We’re talking living graduates still in the work force. Kids who grew up with Reagan. They need to own this.

And really, where we find it, we need to as well. Sure, BLM and others have “an agenda”, just like all of us. And like the rest of us, they have some things right, and some things wrong, and mature people can learn to differentiate that.

Aspiring to be a stick in the mud.

[Bert Perry]

Regarding Chik-Fil-A, good for them, too. I grew up in a town populated significantly by people who had left Gary, IN when blacks started moving in, and while some of the attitudes I saw growing up have disappeared, others have not. Again, we might as well own it.

The problem is the inclusive word “we.” I didn’t leave Gary, IN. I didn’t call black people names. I didn’t pull them over and harass them. I didn’t ask the police to do that. I didn’t etc etc etc. Why do I need to repent for what “you” did?

[WallyMorris]

Not surprised. An attempt to salvage a dying school. Perhaps they should focus on their hypocrisy concerning Jerry Jenkins.

Without hijacking the thread, can you tell me what Jerry Jenkins did that was hypocrisy? I ask out of ignorance? I believe he is the co-author of the Left Behind series (never read them, I did see the first movie). Is there anything more than that? Just curious.

Americans have a tendency to look at things very individualistically, rather than as a community. I don’t think as an individual that I’m guilty. I do think the white community, of which I am a part, is guilty. Many strides have been made in the last 50 years, but it doesn’t erase 400 years of wrong. So I don’t apologize for being white, but I do apologize for the wrongs of my white community. It seems to me that even the OT prophets were not above including themselves in the community which needed to repent before God.

What % of the white community has been or is guilty so that I should apologize?

Dr. Paul Henebury

I am Founder of Telos Ministries, and Senior Pastor at Agape Bible Church in N. Ca.

[Paul Henebury]

What % of the white community has been or is guilty so that I should apologize?

There is vast amounts of information available on this if you were inclined to learn more about it. I don’t see how it’s even a question that the white community is guilty.

could you help me out by giving me some links etc to this vast information?

Thank you.

Dr. Paul Henebury

I am Founder of Telos Ministries, and Senior Pastor at Agape Bible Church in N. Ca.

I am waiting in vain for someone to point me to where Paul, a representative of the white power structure of the Roman Empire, repented for his implicit complicity in the crimes of the Romsn Empire as he traveled and preached the Gospel.

Tyler is a pastor in Olympia, WA and works in State government.

[TylerR]

I am waiting in vain for someone to point me to where Paul, a representative of the white power structure of the Roman Empire, repented for his implicit complicity in the crimes of the Romsn Empire as he traveled and preached the Gospel.

Paul wasn’t white (ie Caucasian). Rome didn’t discriminate based on the color of one’s skin. Slavery was pretty much universal.

I also await revelation explaining the steps Phillip and Peter took (not to mention Jesus) as they evangelized the Samaritans to apologize for their Jewishness and for generations of hostility towards that entire people group. I await evidence of their Jewish fragility and their acknowledgement of this terrible sin.

Tyler is a pastor in Olympia, WA and works in State government.