The Southern Baptist Convention's (SBC) political spokesperson Richard Land recently incited controversy with comments regarding the Trayvon Martin case. On his March 31 radio show, he called African-American leaders such as Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton "race mongers" and "racial ambulance chasers" who are politicizing Trayvon's murder. He added that seeing young black men as threatening is "understandable" since they are "statistically more likely to do you harm than a white man."
Land's comments caused understandable consternation among black Southern Baptist leaders, prompting him to issue an open letter of apology. We must tip our hats to Land for issuing the statement, but we should not simply move on and miss the significance of this situation. As Land's comments illustrate, the denomination still struggles with matters of race.
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