Ed Stetzer

Background Information:

Full Name: Edward John Stetzer
Birthplace: Long Island
Master’s: Liberty University School of Divinity
Master’s: Southern Baptist Theological Seminary
Doctor of Ministry: Beeson Divinity School
Ph. D.: Southern Baptist Theological Seminary
Former Director of Research and Missiologist-in-Residence, NAMB
Former Executive Director, LifeWay Research
Executive Director of the Billy Graham Center, Wheaton College
Professor, Research and Missiology, Trinity Evangelical Divinity School
Contributing Editor, Christianity Today

Overview:

Ed Stetzer is deeply involved in the world of evangelicalism, particularly in the Southern Baptist Convention, Wheaton College, and Christianity Today. He presents several indications of woke ideology, especially in his damage-control interview of outed sodomite Jonathan Merritt, his promotion of White Fragility by Robin DiAngelo, and his promotion of the Evangelical Immigration Table, which is supported by the George Soros-backed National Immigration Forum.

Deleted Interview with Homosexual Jonathan Merritt:

In 2012, Jonathan Merritt, son of former Southern Baptist Convention President and current senior pastor of Cross Pointe Church, made some comments in defense of Chick-Fil-A against threats of boycotting from homosexual activists. One of those activists, in turn, revealed that Merritt had engaged in homosexual relationships in the past, highlighting Merritt’s hypocrisy. Ed Stetzer did an exclusive interview with Merritt on his blog on July 26, 2012, in an attempt to control the damage that had been done to the reputation of the son of the former Southern Baptist Convention President. In that interview, Merritt claimed to believe that homosexuality was a sin, and claimed that he did not “identify as gay.” However, on August 4th of 2021, Merritt admitted in an Instagram post that he is– and was at the time of his Chick-Fil-A comments (and before that)– “gay.” That interview has been removed from Stetzer’s blog.

Promotion of “White Fragility”:

Stetzer promoted critical race theorist Robin DiAngelo’s book White Fragility. In White Fragility, DiAngelo makes the claim that all white people are intrinsically and necessarily racist, and that any person who denies that supposed “fact” is also racist, but in denial. Any attempt to defend one’s character from accusations of racism (for white people) is interpreted as evidence that the accused white person is, in fact, racist and unwilling to “do the work of antiracism.” On August 4th, 2020, in a now-deleted Tweet, he wrote: “White Fragility has to do with how quickly white people respond with anger and defensiveness in conversations about race.”

The orthodox Christian response would be to reject the book and give it no further consideration. Stetzer’s response was to host a two-round discussion concerning the “merits and flaws of White Fragility,” thereby drawing attention to and platforming the critical race theorist perspective on the responses of white people to accusations of racism. The criticisms laid out in the discussions by individuals such as Neil Shenvi and George Yancey were minor and did not strike at the heart of DiAngelo’s significant ideological errors.

Stetzer and Soros:

In November of 2019, Ed Stetzer promoted the Evangelical Call for Restitution-Based Immigration Reform, which was designed to influence the 2020 Presidential Election. That reform plan was designed to enable illegal aliens to avoid deportation by paying a sum to become a documented immigrant. According to Michelle Malkin in her book Open Borders Inc.: Who’s Funding America’s Destruction?, “The National Immigration Forum (NIF) was founded by far-left attorney Dale Frederick ‘Rick’ Swarz of the Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights, who opposed tracking and deporting visa overstayers and opposed sanctions against companies that violated immigration laws.” The Evangelical Immigration Table is supported by that same National Immigration Forum, which is directly and largely funded by George Soros, a Leftist billionaire who has a track record of donating to organizations that promote and further Leftist causes. Stetzer said the following in another now-deleted Tweet on November 8th, 2019: “The just-released Evangelical Call for Restitution-Based Immgiration Reform points a way forward on immigration that’s guided by Biblical principles. It’s neither an amnesty nor a mass deportation. You can learn more & join me in adding your name…”