‘Scheme of the devil’: Southern Baptist leaders repudiate Trump’s views on white supremacy

Senior leaders within the Southern Baptist Convention are speaking out against white supremacy in the wake of President Trump's controversial comments where he called on the far-right nationalist group Proud Boys to "stand back and stand by," the Christian Post reports.

"When asked to condemn white supremacy, every single one of us should be ready to do so. Racism is, sadly, not extinct, and we know from our Southern Baptist history the effects of the horrific sins of racism and hatred," SBC President J.D. Greear said on Twitter Wednesday afternoon.

"We denounce and repudiate white supremacy and every form of racial and ethnic hatred as a scheme of the devil intended to bring suffering and division to our society," he added. "We re-affirm what Southern Baptists said to this in 2017."

Other SBC senior officers endorsed Greear's message, including Marshal Ausberry, first vice president and president of the National African American Fellowship of the SBC; Noe Garcia, second vice president; Ronnie Floyd, president of the SBC’s executive committee; John Yeats, executive director of the Missouri Baptist Convention; and Alabama Baptist Kathy Litton, director of planter spouse development at the North American Mission Board.

Other evangelical leaders also spoke out, one of which was Southern Baptist Theological Seminary President Al Mohler, who called Trump's response to the debate question on white supremacy his “lowest moment” said a "failed opportunity."