The Southern Baptist Convention met in New Orleans last week and declared women lacked the necessary chromosome to pastor a church. Bless their hearts.

Some male allies rushed to post pithy memes expressing allyship to demonstrate their wokeness. Others sought to raise the consciousness of misogynists by providing biblical evidence empowering women.

But really, why bother? Been there – done that. I refuse to waste any more of my time on those who have repeatedly chosen alliance with oppressive structures.

I refuse to “defend” women or “speak” for their liberation. They have been doing an amazing job of speaking for themselves – and still they remain unheard. They really do not need me to live out some savior complex.

Besides, do we really think we can reason with a bunch of old white men bent of preserving the last vestiges of patriarchy? Or, for that matter, heteronormativity or white supremacy?

After all, these structures of oppression arise from the same philosophical reasoning which transfigure white men into gods. Why continue casting our pearls before swine?

These Southern Baptists in New Orleans may claim to follow Jesus, but in fact they are following a Jesus who hates women, anything queer and everyone who refuses to acknowledge their white supremacy.

Poor Al Mohler. He has lost his way and is leading so many through the wide gate and broad path toward perdition.

Their white nationalist Christianity has never had anything to do with good news, and we participate in our own oppression if we think we can come together with them and reason.

They are dead to God and humanity. Why discuss theological doctrines or biblical interpretations with a corpse? I suggest the rest of us move on and bask in the good news of life and life abundantly promised by Christ.

The Southern Baptist Convention, since its foundation when it defended the right to own enslaved African Americans, has continued to provide spiritual and philosophical justification for oppressive socio-political structures.

Religious cover is provided for policies throughout history that supported all that they have killed, all that they have stolen, and all that they have raped — policies that today continue to uphold patriarchy, racism and heterosexism.

As long as women (and everyone else they feminize) bow their knees to a white male made in the image of God, they participate in their own disenfranchisement. This eurochristianity is beyond reform, and we waste our time and energy trying.

The spirituality and morality of Southern Baptists meeting in New Orleans is anathema to those who are not male, who are not white, who are not straight. The ethics and morality of coheirs to oppressive structures are damning to those relegated to their underside.

The Baptist Faith and Message, which reinforces their white supremacy, patriarchy and heteronormativity, must be disobeyed and discarded if the goal remains salvation and liberation. To seek salvation from white male Southern Baptists using their philosophical and spiritual reasoning reinforces the colonization of the minds of the oppressed.

To enter a discussion seeking to raise the consciousness of these Southern Baptists assumes they can be redeemed. Maybe some might repent and turn from their evil ways, but as an organization, it is quite hopeless.

So, why remain if you are a woman, if you are queer, if you are of color, or if you are a white man who is considered a traitor to your race and gender? And if you do – shame on you for failing to hear the cries of Earth’s wretched.

Why stay where you are not wanted or welcomed and where you are defined as “less than” because of the body you occupy? To stay is to suffer from Stockholm syndrome, attempting to hold on to the philosophical and religious mores of Southern Baptists. How sad.

Their oppressive doctrines succeed when those on their margins regurgitate a religiosity, consciously or unconsciously, that expounds the supremacy of their eurochristian theological, philosophical or theoretical paradigms. The liberation process starts with the full and total rejection of Southern Baptists’ eurochristianity.

Decolonization of our minds means learning to think our own thoughts from the margins, rooted in our own cultures, apart from their eurocentrism. To serve and love eurochristianity or their white male god, created to spiritually maintain margins, means despising the religious and philosophical wisdom embedded within our own minoritized communities.

May I humbly suggest not validating oppressors by dialoguing with them. Instead, let us shake the dust from our sandals and move on – for surely it will be worse for them on the day of judgement than it was for Sodom and Gomorrah who faced God’s wrath for also refusing to provide hospitality to those society marginalized.

Let a bunch of misogynist men construct their faith on the dehumanization of women and others. Ignorant oppressors you will have with you always.

Choose life. Ignore the Southern Baptist Convention to their own spiritual irrelevance, as it strengthens its commitment to white Christian nationalism.

Find a spiritual home where no one needs to defend their humanity, where their full personhood is an accepted given. And let the dead bury the dead.

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