(RNS) — The Rev. Charlie Dates, pastor of two historically black churches in Chicago, is defending the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. after California pastor John MacArthur said in February that the civil rights leader “wasn’t at all Christian”. .”
“We, the undersigned, regret having to write to you in this way, but we believe it is the only way to address the egregious harm that you – and those like you – have once again inflicted on Black Christians in America,” Dates wrote in a open letter which appears on the website of his Chicago Progressive Baptist Church.
Pastor John MacArthur, left, and Rev. Charlie Dates. (Left: video screenshot; Right: photo by Denis Contreras)
“Without doubt, Mr. MacArthur, you have made significant and useful contributions to the reading and understanding of Scripture for our present day. How ironic to now write to you, the teacher, a note of correction. We hope that you will find in this missive a patient and reasonable rebuttal to your reckless and ill-timed slander of the Rev. Dr. Martin L. King, Jr.”
The controversy reflects the lines that have been drawn in conflicts between Reformed Christians and other Christian groups over issues related to race or social justice.
MacArthur’s comments were made during a question-and-answer session at Grace Community Church in Sun Valley, Calif., where he is the longtime pastor. He was asked what he thought of two influential evangelical groups, Together for the Gospel and The Gospel Coalition, which are popular with Reformed Christians like those of the MacArthur congregation.
After pointing out that Together for the Gospel honored Reformed theologian RC Sproul shortly after his death in 2017, MacArthur added: “And the strange irony is that a year later they did the same thing for Martin Luther King, who was not a Christian. at all, whose life was immoral,” he said in a video job on X, formerly Twitter, in February. “I’m not saying he didn’t do social good. And I was always happy that he was a pacifist, otherwise he could have started a real revolution.”
The Gospel Coalition, he said, was once a good organization, but is now “useless” and “woke,” MacArthur said. “It’s Christianity gone astray,” he said – referring to the satirical nickname for Christianity Today, an evangelical magazine that MacArthur has disapproved of in the past.
A spokesperson for The Gospel Coalition did not respond to a request for comment.
MacArthur has been at odds with the Gospel Coalition since 2018, when that group helped sponsor a big conference in Memphis, Tennessee, to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the death of Martin Luther King Jr. and to condemn racism and its negative effects on the life of the Church. At the event were prominent leaders including Dates, Reformed preacher and author John Piper, Texas megachurch pastor Matt Chandler, then-SBC ethicist Russell Moore and organizer community. John Perkins. (Perkins and Piper are both longtime friends of MacArthur.)
The 2018 conference led MacArthur and others to write a statement on social justice — who warned against what he called dangerous ideas about race and justice. This statement contributed to the launch of the so-called “war against awakening” which has polarized both the churches and the broader culture.
Responding to MacArthur’s recent statements, Justin Giboney, president of the nonprofit AND Campaign, who also spoke at the 2018 MLK50 conference, wrote an essay in Christianity Today criticizing MacArthur’s stance on King.
In an interview, Giboney said his organization, a nonpartisan think tank that promotes Christian civic engagement, supported Dates’ open letter. He added that MacArthur’s comments about King reflect a broader “culture war dynamic” in which some are trying to “take down all the heroes” of social justice.
After learning of MacArthur’s recent comments, Dates, who is also pastor of Salem Baptist Church in Chicago, said in a sermon, part of which was posted to Instagram on February 26: “I’m so angry that I could cry. »
He noted in his open letter that MacArthur chose to make his remarks during Black History Month. And in a subsequent Instagram post, Dates said: “Pastor MacArthur, you will not do this to Dr. King…and you will not disrespect millions of Christians for no reason. »
In an interview on Monday (March 18), Dates said, “He can’t get away with this. He must know that black and black-friendly clergy across the country completely disagree with him on theological grounds. He is not the guardian of who is a Christian and who is not.
In the past, MacArthur sought to align himself with the ideals of the civil rights movement.
Phil Johnson, editor-in-chief of Grace to You, MacArthur’s media ministry, said the pastor does not give interviews or answer additional questions about King. But Johnson drew a distinction between King’s civil rights work and his doctrinal beliefs or conduct.
“As John MacArthur has mentioned in his recent comments, he believes that much of Dr. King’s work in the area of civil rights, voting rights, and equal treatment for all ethnicities was good and beneficial,” Johnson wrote in an email.
Johnson added that MacArthur has long been a doctrinal critic of King. “King’s doctrine and morals do not make him a model person that Bible-believing Christians should seek to emulate,” Johnson said. “This shouldn’t really be controversial for anyone familiar with his private life and beliefs.”
MacArthur’s comments echo those of other conservative leaders dating back to the 1960s. During the civil rights era, Christianity Today published a series of essays by then-FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover, who rejected the work of King and other black leaders as communists rather than Christians.
In the open letter, Dates invokes both Hoover and Alabama’s segregationist governor George Wallace, calling MacArthur “them in postmodern garb.”
The letter ends with a statement about its intention to boycott MacArthur’s work: “Perhaps we should tell you that we call on Christian clergy of all colors to stop reading your comments, to dislodge themselves from your lectures, and to give your voice no amplification in their teaching until you fight for justice to flow like a river in America and justice like a mighty river for those who are marginalized.
