Background Information:
Full name: Walter R. Strickland II
B.A., Cedarville University
M.Div. Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary
Th.M. Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary
Ph.D., University of Aberdeen, Scotland
Associate Research Fellow, Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission
Contributor, The Gospel Coalition
Assistant Professor of Systematic and Contextual Theology, Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary
Associate Vice President for Diversity, Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary
Overview:
Walter Strickland’s position as Associate Vice President for Diversity at Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary acts as a testament to the woke ideology which pervades the institution. Any church, university, seminary, or other organization which has a hired position involving diversity has embraced tenets of critical race theory and woke ideology more broadly. Several whistleblowers, perhaps most notably Jon Harris (host of the “Conversations That Matter” podcast and author of Social Justice Goes to Church and Christianity and Social Justice), have come forward to report that critical race theory and other forms of woke philosophy are, in fact, taught by professors such as Strickland at SEBTS.
Strickland has promoted the work of James Cone, especially The Cross and the Lynching Tree, which he called Cone’s “most beautiful monograph.” In an interview published on the YouTube Channel of the Jude 3 Project, he said that the work of Cone (who he called the “godfather of black liberation theology,”) was something that the interviewer should “be blessed by.” He urged his audience: “If you have not gotten that, you need to read that. It will challenge you. It will stretch you.” In that interview, he also insinuated that there is a “stranglehold that white men have had on academia in America.” Strickland had also praised the work Liberation and Reconciliation by J. Deotis Roberts as his “favorite theological book of all time.”
However, Strickland has also been clear in a New York Times interview that, despite his support for Cone’s views and writings, he doesn’t “mention him by name, because I don’t want to put unnecessary stumbling blocks in their [Christians who are skeptical of critical race theory/black liberation theology] way.” This is a common tactic used by proponents of social justice ideology/Leftism/woke philosophies, because subversion of conservative circles requires indirect rhetorical strategies and subliminal messaging, rather than outright and direct communication. After describing his subtle pedagogical methods of converting students to adopt a similar perspective, he also said: ” Before they [students] know it, they’re nodding their heads. They’re agreeing that systemic injustice and racism are a form of sin. I get in the back door by walking around the linguistic land mines that are so charged in our cultural climate.”
Walter Strickland was one of the architects on the Resolutions Committee of Resolution 9, which attempted to establish critical race theory and intersectionality as “intersectional tools. Voddie Baucham said concerning Strickland and his involvement in the formulation of R9: “Committee Chairman Curtis Woods and member Walter Strickland have been promoting CRT and Intersectionality through their positions as professors at Southern and Southeastern Seminaries, respectively, as well as through other events both within and outside the SBC.” (1)
A document was released which details the courses in which Walter Strickland has promoted liberation theologians, which are THE 7940 (Liberation Theologies) and THE 4940 (Liberation Theologies). Among the recommended “important” books in the class, as revealed in the document, are the following:
“J. Deotis Roberts – Liberation and Reconciliation: A Black Theology James Cone – God of the Oppressed
Anthony Bradley – Liberating Black Theology: The Bible and the Black Experience in America
Gustavo Gutierrez – A Theology of Liberation: History, Politics, and Salvation Anne M. Clifford – Introducing Feminist Theology.”
Strickland has also said that he embraces a gospel that is distinct from the salvific Gospel of historic Christianity. He remarked: “The gospel that I’ve had to, you know, have to keep my faith– and that’s real– to keep, for me to be a Christian, the gospel had to engage these things [the goals and ideas of liberation theology/social justice ideology], or it’s not good enough for me, which is why people say that Christianity, at times, is a white man’s religion– because if it doesn’t engage these things, then what good is it?” This is an example of substituting the true Gospel with an imitation gospel that adds various, unbiblical requirements that align with Leftist politics rather than with orthodox Christianity and right Biblical practices.
Bibliography:
- Baucham, Voddie. Fault Lines: The Social Justice Movement and Evangelicalism’s Looming Catastrophe, p. 142-143.