a man totally committed to the sufficiency of Christ and the sufficiency of Scripture…

In the recent Elephant Room 2 discussion T.D. Jakes, noted modalist and false prosperity gospel teacher, was accepted as orthodox by two white (semi-reformed) men (view transcript). If you want more information on that you can look here, here, and here. This was a disastrous move which opened up Jakes brand of false teaching to a broader audience.

James MacDonald, one of the curators of the whole circus, then selected 3 black pastors to sort of justify himself and what had taken place. You can see that video here. But in reality all MacDonald did was set off a racially charge firestorm right into the heart of the black church community. Pastor Voddie Baucham (a black reformed pastor) gave some excellent commentary on the subject:

“Second, the racial overtones of this matter have gotten out of hand (see here, for example), and must be addressed.  The ER2 controversy is now pitting black evangelicals against white evangelicals, and against each other with T.D. Jakes as the centerpiece.  This is an opportunity to pull back the curtain on the awkward racial dynamic in evangelical circles.  Race is a convenient ‘dodge’ for those with weak arguments, and an inconvenient truth for those who harbor prejudice.  Beyond that, it is an absolutely confusing subject for myriad evangelicals who simply love Christ, love his church, and want desperately not to offend their brothers and sisters in the Lord by using “black” when they should have used “African American,” or vice versa! 

The irony is that this issue is most pronounced when heterodoxy is in play.  For example, when a white evangelical disagrees with a solid, Reformed, black pastor on a technical theological issue, there is rarely a charge of racism.  However, let that black brother be part of a heterodox or heretical group (i.e., Oneness Pentecostalism, Word of Faith, Black Liberation Theology, etc.), and suddenly the white brother who makes the argument against him faces charges of racism!  Why?  Partly because of… RACISM! 

You see, some of this boils down to what has sometimes been called, “the soft bigotry of lowered expectations.”  Asking black people to adopt orthodox theology (when Lord knows they don’t have access to the same schools, books, opportunities, and, in the minds of some… lack sufficient intelligence) is asking them to negate their blackness.  While, on the other hand, the solid, Reformed, well-educated black pastor is NOT REALLY BLACK.  Therefore, he’s fair game.  Irony of Ironies… that is racist!  And that’s what has to be dragged out of the shadows.” (SOURCE)

So now, the black church has been used and exposed. James MacDonald has indirectly openly made aware that these black pastors are ignorant concerning orthodox theology. I made this point a long time ago in my post titled “The Black Church has no discernment!” In that article I attacked the fact the the black church had absolutely no discernment concerning the salvation of Barack Obama. I was right and this fiasco only further proves my point. These men on the stage were not lay-people. They were not country black folks who couldn’t read. If you listen to how well they were able to express themselves you should be able to deduct that they were educated and learned.

But all that means nothing when you still cannot determine right from wrong. And Jakes is definitely wrong. So now the black church “thinks” they are making their way up the evangelical ladder with invites from the whites but in reality they are being exposed as nothing more than theologically ignorant TOKENS.

Tokenism has been used for many years:

“In the arts, employment, and politics, tokenism is a policy or practice of limited inclusion or artistic and/or political representation of members of a traditionally marginalized group, usually creating a false appearance of inclusive practices rather than discrimination, intentional or not. Typical examples in real life and fiction include purposely including a member of a minority race (such as a black character in a mainly white cast, or a woman in a traditionally male universe) into a group. Classically, token characters have some reduced capacity compared to the other characters and may have bland or inoffensive personalities so as to not be accused of stereotyping negative traits. Alternatively, their differences may be overemphasized or made “exotic” and glamorous.”

The tokens in this video do have a reduced capacity compared to the other characters. They have no discernment! James MacDonald knew this, and sadly it’s the only reason they were selected to make the video.

One of the uses of tokenism is:

To criticize a minority group by using a pundit who is a member of that minority group.

The most vocal of MacDonald’s criticizers were Reformed African Americans, and now in an attempt to shut them up, James has implored worldly tactics to exonerate himself because of his great pride. These three tokens were nothing more than his puppets, and they served their purpose well. So Now for the second time the black church has been used and abused. The first time? When Obama was running for election.

Pastor Phil Johnson from Pyromaniacs wrote:

The take-away message is this: If you’re an old white guy with any hint of Reformed theology in your confessional statement and you don’t think T. D. Jakes’s equivocations at Elephant Room 2 were sufficient to erase decades of concern about his Oneness leanings and his relentless proclamation of a false Prosperity Gospel—then you must be a racist. And even if you don’t think you’re a racist, you should shut up anyway. Because in the black community relationships are more important than any doctrine, including the gospel and the Trinity. We all should strive to subjugate doctrine to relationships anyway.

If on the other hand you are a young black man with Reformed convictions—or any black person who just has a keen interest in doctrinal and biblical accuracy—you are a sellout and a reproach to your own community. (this would describe me-brdavision) The only possible explanation is that you are guilty of “White Idolatry.” You secretly wish to earn favor with Whitey. You should not only shut up, you should be ashamed. As far as the importance of relationships is concerned, we don’t really care to have one with you.”

End of discussion.