Racism Satan's tool, Floyd tells Baptists

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SBC President Ronnie Floyd and Jerry Young, president of the National Baptist Convention USA, Inc., delivered joint keynote addresses at Mission Mississippi's racial reconciliation celebration at the Jackson Convention Center Nov. 4. BP/Special SBC President Ronnie Floyd and Jerry Young, president of the National Baptist Convention USA, Inc., delivered joint keynote addresses at Mission Mississippi's racial reconciliation celebration at the Jackson Convention Center Nov. 4. BP/Special

By Diana Chandler, Baptist Press

JACKSON, MS (BP) — Racism is from Satan and his demonic forces, and the only hope for its defeat is the church of Jesus Christ united across societal divisions, Southern Baptist Convention President Ronnie Floyd told a culturally diverse group of Baptists in Mississippi Nov. 4.

"I believe that the issue of racism is from Satan and the demonic forces of hell," Floyd told hundreds gathered at Mission Mississippi's racial reconciliation celebration at the Jackson Convention Center. "Racism is completely opposite from the message of Jesus Christ; it is completely opposite of the message of love, it is completely opposite of the message of dignity, value and the sanctity of human life. It is completely opposite of the message of reconciliation."

Floyd spoke to Southern Baptists, National Baptists, and others at the event aimed at exhorting and energizing pastors and the church to demonstrate the love of God in ending racism in Mississippi and the nation.

"One of the reasons I came to this city was to notify Satan and his demonic forces that … enough is enough," Floyd said. "The power of God is greater than the forces of evil, even the evil of racism, because greater is He who is in us than he who is in the world."

He called pastors to action, shunning passivity, and silence.

"It is now the church of Jesus Christ must rise; we must rise together as one," he said. "We are not black churches, we are not white churches, we are not Latino churches, and we're not Asian churches, and we're not any other kind of church. We are the church of Jesus Christ, the Son of the living God. That's who we are and our hope for racism to end in this country is the church of the Lord Jesus Christ

"It is the church who must be for the city of Jackson and whatever city you're from, it must be the church that is for the city," he said. "Each pastor must rise up and be the prophetic voice relating to the issue of racism, calling it what it is, praying against what it really is, and if the price is high, price is high."

Floyd and Jerry Young, president of the National Baptist Convention USA, Inc., delivered joint keynote addresses following a panel discussion with 20 additional pastors (10 Southern Baptists and 10 National Baptists). The NBC is the largest group of black Baptists in the U.S. with as many as 7 million members.

Young joined Floyd in calling the church to action.

"I believe that it is God's providence that has brought us here today," Young said. "I am absolutely prayerful that when we leave this place, that those of us who are here will have decided that we're going to spearhead a movement in this country that is relative primarily to the church, that we will no longer be satisfied to be persons who will simply declare the Gospel with our lips, but we're going to demonstrate it with our lives.

"Because in the final analysis, … Jesus says that the church … [we] alone are the salt and the light of the world," Young said. "And if the church is not light, and if the church is not salt, then the world itself is left to nothing but darkness and decay."

For full story go to Baptist Press. 

Baptists, cooperation, Mississippi, racism