2020 Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Kamala Harris of California. | Gage Skidmore
Southern Baptist Convention President J.D. Greear is urging pastors in the denomination to refrain from calling Vice President Kamala Harris “Jezebel” due to the racist connotations of the moniker. He is calling on them to honor and pray for her as an elected leader instead.
Greear’s guidance comes in the wake of SBC’s pastors, including SBC Executive Committee member Steve Swofford, referring to the vice president by the term.
“I realize that some pastors are likely unaware of the history of certain racial stereotypes in calling or comparing our Vice President to Jezebel, but that doesn’t make such statements any less unwise,” Greear, who pastors the multi-campus Summit Church in North Carolina, wrote in a Twitter thread Tuesday.
Arlington pastor Dwight McKissic receives racist letter after leaving Southern Baptists of Texas Convention
The letter comes on the heels of a resolution McKissic disagreed with and comments about Vice President Kamala Harris by a Rockwall pastor.
Pastor Dwight McKissic poses at his Cornerstone Baptist Church in Arlington on Wednesday, February 3, 2021. McKissic is considering leaving the Southern Baptist Convention after a history of racial tension, underscored by comments pastors have made this month about Vice President Kamala Harris, calling her Jezebel Harris. (Lola Gomez / Staff Photographer) to include additional comments from McKissic.
A prominent Black pastor has left the Southern Baptists of Texas Convention, and its parent group, the Southern Baptists Convention, could be the next to see him walk out the door.
Greear spoke out about this because it’s something several prominent Southern Baptists have been doing over the last few weeks. Tom Buck, senior pastor of First Baptist Church in Lindale, Texas, called Harris a “Jezebel” shortly after the inauguration. But even before the inauguration, Steve Swofford, pastor of First Baptist Church of Rockwall, Texas, referred to the now Vice President as “Jezebel Harris” in a Sunday morning Sermon. Swofford sits on the influential SBC Executive Committee.
Calling a woman a “Jezebel” is the sort of “bold” take you post when you’ve got nothing whatsoever to say. The “Jezebel” label is a well-worn racist trope. The Jim Crow Museum of Racist Memorabilia at Ferris State University documents the long, horrible history of calling Black women “Jezebels,” which “began in slavery, extended through the Jim Crow period and continues today.” While the original Jezebel of the Bible is portrayed as an evil queen in the Old Testamen
Two days, to be exact.
On Jan. 22, Tom Buck, pastor of First Baptist Church of Lindale, Texas, equated Kamala Harris with the biblical Jezebel.
“I can’t imagine any truly God-fearing Israelite who would’ve wanted their daughters to view Jezebel as an inspirational role model because she was a woman in power,” Buck tweeted.
He has since doubled down in the face of criticism, tweeting “I 100% stand by it,” and insisting, “Should Jezebel, who governed in godless ways, have been a role model simply because she was a woman in power? If not, why should Kamala, who’s governed in godless ways, be a role model just because she’s a woman in power?”