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commentary By David Sandmel | 18 mins ago

Southern Baptists overwhelmingly pass a resolution condemning the racism of the alt-right movement on June 14, 2017 in Phoenix. Photo courtesy of Baptist Press/Adam Covington

(RNS) The news out of the Southern Baptist Conventions annual meeting in Phoenix earlier this week took some by surprise: The conference ended with a near-unanimous vote condemning the so-called alt-right, the political movement that gained notoriety last year for injecting racism and anti-Semitism into the presidential campaign.

Despite the outcome, some in the media sensationalized the vote. Much was made of the fact that the resolution initially failed in committee even though it hadnt failed on the merits, but rather, over disagreements about language.

RELATED:In dramatic turnabout, Southern Baptists condemn white supremacy

And by the time it had reached the floor, confusion reigned, with delegates questioning the lack of clarity around the process and a failure to communicate clearly what the resolution was meant to do.

Despite the temporary confusion over process and intent, however, as outside observers with a vested interest in seeing anti-Semitism and racism pushed to the far fringes of society, we believeadopting the resolution was the right, principled and moral thing to do.The vote was significant, and not surprising.

It is remarkable that the leaders of the SBC, which was founded by pro-slavery Southerners and didnt formally condemn its past defenses of human bondage until 1995, have now put their church in the vanguard as one of Americas largest Christian denominations taking a step to clearly define and condemn the bigotry of the alt-right.

At a time when nooses and racist flyers are cropping up with shocking regularity on college campuses, and when swastikas and other graffiti have appeared at Jewish institutions and cemeteries, when Jewish journalists and others are being targeted on social media, and when Muslims and immigrants are harassed, it is imperative that major religious denominations step up and denounce this insidious and hateful movement, which is encouraging this activity.

Southern Baptists, meeting in Phoenix, overwhelmingly pass a resolution condemning the racism of the alt-right movement on June 14, 2017. Members of the Resolutions Committee that crafted the resolution, led by Barrett Duke , at podium, chairman, and executive director of the Montana Southern Baptist Convention, vote for its passage. Photo courtesy of Baptist Press/Bill Bangham

The alt-right couches its hatred in the language of an alternative political movement, and has pretenses of being part of the political mainstream.

Alt-right is a vague term that actually encompasses a range of people on the extreme right who reject mainstream conservatism in favor of forms of conservatism that embrace implicit or explicit racism or white supremacy.

Though not every person who identifies with the alt-right is a white supremacist, most are, and white identity is central to their beliefs. In fact, alt-righters reject modern conservatism because they believe that mainstream conservatives are not advocating for the interests of white people as a group.

Although the alt-right is not a large movement, the number of people who identify with it is growing. It includes a number of young people who espouse racist and anti-Semitic beliefs. It has a loud presence online. The intellectual racists who identify as part of it also run a growing number of publications and publishing houses that promote white supremacist ideas.

The good news is they havent been entirely successful and people are waking up to what they represent.

Steps like those of the SBC to clearly repudiate the movement go a long way toward raising awareness of the danger of the alt-right and making clear that their brand of hatred has no place in religion, politics or society. This is particularly important in light of recent polls that show a large majority of Americans are still unaware of the movement or what it truly represents.

We havent always agreed with the Southern Baptists. While theyve approved resolutions supporting Israel and rejecting racism and anti-Semitism, the denominations leadership has for years promoted the active proselytization of Jews.

We have been pained by public remarks, such as when the president of a seminary in Louisville, Ky., pointed to Scripture as mandating Jewish conversion and compared Judaism to a deadly tumor; or when, in 2002, a Southern Baptist leadersaid the Catholic Church had expressed anti-Semitism by adopting a declaration against proselytizing Jews.

We still disagree on some issues, and agree on others. But the alt-right is one on which we are in total agreement. It is important for society to see that people across the political and religious spectrum are united in rejecting racism in general and white supremacy in particular.

The SBC resolution states clearly that church leaders 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.

We couldnt agree more.

(Rabbi David Sandmel is director of interreligious engagement at the Anti-Defamation League)

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ADL: Southern Baptists did the right thing in condemning the 'alt-right' - Religion News Service

At their annual meeting, Southern Baptists agreed to a statement decrying "every form of racism, including alt-right white supremacy, as antithetical to the Gospel of Jesus Christ."

Denominational leaders had planned not to vote on a resolution about race relations, but reversed course following an outcry on the floor of the convention the day before. Leaders worked through the night to craft an updated resolution after the original text failed to gain traction on the first day of the convention.

Members of the Southern Baptist Convention, a coalition of churches that comprise the nation's largest Protestant denomination, convene just once a year to discuss church business, make budget decisions, commission new missionaries and vote on "resolutions" that affirm their theological, social or political priorities. A Resolutions Committee chooses what topics will be formally voted upon before the meeting. This year's list of approved resolutions, for example, included a call to defund Planned Parenthood, a rebuke of gambling and an affirmation that morality is important for political leaders.

Race relations are an extremely sensitive issue within the Southern Baptist Convention. The denomination was founded in 1845, when it split from other Baptists who opposed slavery. The denomination did not formally rebuke its past until 1995, when Southern Baptists voted to repent and apologize for their history of racism, support of slavery and failure to stand firmly in opposition to white supremacy. The body did not elect its first black president of the convention until 2012; the first black president of its annual pastor's conference began his term of service this year. Like the nation's population as a whole, the American Church is becoming less white, a demographic shift that has led many denominations to ensure they put more emphasis on diversity in leadership and make worshippers of color feel welcome in their sanctuaries.

McKissic's resolution, however, had been rejected by the convention's Resolutions Committee before the meeting. It would not receive a vote unless it was forced by the will of the convention attendees -- called "messengers" -- from the floor.

On Tuesday afternoon, McKissic stood to introduce his resolution and ask why it was rejected. Barrett Duke, chairman of the Committee on Resolutions, said that it had been rejected because it "was not well-written" and included "inappropriate" language.

McKissic called for the body to instruct the committee to reconsider, which would require a two-thirds majority. It failed.

Few messengers had seen the actual resolution and many expressed confusions about what, exactly "the alt-right" was. Still, the rejection set off alarm bells among many pastors at the convention who couldn't believe their denomination might fail to stand against new manifestations of racism and chose not to act.

After the vote on whether to consider McKissic's resolution failed, Rev. Garrett Kell, the lead pastor of Del Ray Baptist Church in Virginia, who is white, approached a microphone and addressed SBC president, Rev. Steve Gaines.

"This may show my ignorance, sir, because I don't know how this works," Kell said. "But I would hate for us to leave here today with confusion about where the Southern Baptist convention stands on the alt-right."

Kell was told that the messengers would need to agree to re-open the Resolutions Committee process, which seemed unlikely.

Meanwhile, McKissic was incensed. He walked through the crowded convention hall and demanded a meeting with the convention's Parliamentarian to find a way for the issue to be addressed.

McKissic was told that there was still a way: He could try to bring it up again at another session that night.

He did, but this time he didn't come alone. A group of mostly young, Gen-X and Millennial pastors had mobilized through social media, and vowed to help him navigate convention rules to force a vote.

"I'm going to make sure that this Southern Baptist Convention is not going to complete with any illusion that this entity supports in any way a racist group, especially in light of the fact that this convention was founded on racist ideologically," Kell said. "Being unclear on the spirit of this is dumb, foolish and bad stewardship of time."

Charles Hedman, a pastoral assistant at Capitol Hill Baptist Church in Washington, DC, and an attorney versed in the arcane rules of parliamentary procedure, took the lead from the floor.

He called on the convention to reconsider McKissic's resolution and "condemn the alt-right from the stage as we speak right now so there is not misunderstanding from the press or this convention."

Standing at another microphone across the room, Kell pressed further.

"I just want clarity from the president of the Southern Baptist Convention about whether we condemn, as a convention, racism," he said.

Speaking from the stage, Gaines responded, "I'll speak for myself. I don't know that I can speak for everyone in this room, but I believe God loves everyone. I believe there is only one race and that is the human race."

Another vote was taken on whether to make more time to reconsider.

They wouldn't know the results for another three hours.

Danny Akin, a denomination leader and president of the Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary, called Gaines on the phone.

"I think we're heading toward a trainwreck,"Akin warned him.

As a back-up plan, a group of pastors came together and vowed to work through the night to draft their own resolution condemning racism and release it on their own accord through social media.

But behind the scenes, Southern Baptist leaders were already working fast.

Russell Moore, the president of the Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission, and a leading Southern Baptist voice on the issue of racial reconciliation, took the lead to re-write the resolution. As an outspoken critic of Trump in 2016, Moore became a polarizing figure last year -- at least temporarily -- within the denomination. Trump went on to win a supermajority of support from evangelical voters, putting Moore largely out of step with his theological brethren.

But that was then. Now, the Southern Baptists needed his voice more than ever.

"It was critically important to get this right" Moore said. "The alt-right isn't just some sociological movement. The alt-right is contrary to the gospel of Jesus Christ and Satanic to the core. We need to be very clear on that."

Moore and members of leadership went into overdrive working backstage on a new, air-tight resolution.

After a worship service and a ceremony to commission new missionaries, Gaines and other leaders returned to the stage to announce the results of the vote three hours earlier.

This one, too, he announced, failed to reach the two-thirds needed. Messengers in the conventional hall gasped.

Gaines, however, was resolute about not leaving until the issue was addressed. Under a cloud of external pressure from media reports saying they had failed to condemn racism and a storm of criticism on social media, Gaines decided to push the boundaries of the rules.

The Resolutions Committee, he said, recognized that they had made a mistake and unanimously voted to request something of a parliamentary do-ver. Even though they had already formally closed their annual report, they requested permission from the convention to use open time the next day to hold a vote on a newly worded resolution that would condemn the of the philosophy alt-right.

A sea of hands went up throughout the convention all. Organizers said they saw only one person vote in opposition.

After the dramatic vote, pastors gathered in a nearby room to debrief, where they acknowledged that they narrowly dodged a catastrophe.

"We ended up with a black eye here," said Al Mohler, president of the Southern Theological Seminary. "We should never apologize for doing the right thing even if we end up a little bruised in doing it, even if we stumble over each other on the way to doing it. ...Thanks be to God we got a chance to come back tomorrow and say what we want to say.

"That was so close to being a disaster."

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After high drama, Southern Baptists denounce the 'Alt-Right' - CNN

New York Times

The Media Brought the Alt-Right to My Campus New York Times A man holding an alt-right banner during a Patriot Prayer demonstration at Evergreen State College in Olympia, Washington. Credit Jim Urquhart for The New York Times. Olympia, Wash. Evergreen State College is always an unusual school, located on ... and more »

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The Media Brought the Alt-Right to My Campus - New York Times

Reprinted with permission from MediaMatters.

A Virginia Republican gubernatorial candidate who was backed by, and affiliated with, segments of the alt-right media nearly won the states June 13 gubernatorial primary.

Corey Stewart, chairman of the Prince William County Board of Supervisors, narrowly lost to frontrunner Ed Gillespie, former chairman of Republican National Committee (RNC), by only slightly more than a percentage point.

Stewart, who was Virginia state co-chairman of President Donald Trumps 2016 presidential campaign, heavily courted the alt-right during his campaign, which he announced in April 2016. While he was the co-chair, Stewart wrote multiple pieces for alt-right-promoting website Breitbart. Shortly after he was fired from his position in October for taking part in a protest against the RNC, Stewart gave an interview to Mike Cernovich, an alt-right-affiliated troll who has a history of promoting conspiracy theories. During the interview, Cernovich said that he calls establishment Republicans cucks because they like to see Trump get screwed over by the media, thats what they get off on. Stewart replied, Yeah, I would agree. The term cuck, short for cuckservative, is widely used within alt-right circles.

In March, Stewart did a question-and-answer session on the Reddit forum r/The_Donald, an alt-right-affiliated forum that has, in tandem with other alt-right figures and fake news purveyors, helped spread conspiracy theories and misinformation. Stewart wrote on the forum that he is opposing the establishments handpicked candidate, former Bush guy, RNC chairman, and cuckservative, Ed Gillespie. The Virginia GOP state chairman criticized Stewart, noting that the term was used by white nationalists. r/The_Donald would go on to promote Stewarts primary campaign, along with 4chan /pol/, another alt-right-affiliated forum.

During his campaign, Stewart also criticized the city of Charlottesvilles plan to remove astatue of Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee, going to rallies to protest the citys action. He also responded to his critics by tweeting, Nothing is worse than a Yankee telling a Southerner that his monuments dont matter. Richard Spencer, a white nationalist who originally created the term alt-right, subsequently led a group of torch-wielding protesters in the city to protest removal of the statue. Stewart was the only candidate to not directly condemn Spencers protest. Stewarts stand earned him praise from alt-right outlets and figures: the neo-Nazi and alt-right-affiliated blog The Daily Stormer wrote that Stewarts actions showed how you win the game and how we go mainstream, while Occasional Dissent, a blog run by anti-Semitic writer Hunter Wallace, claimed that Stewart was taking a stand for Dixie.

After the close primary election, alt-right figures cheered Stewarts near-upset. Cernovich tweeted that the result showed GOP globalists that theyre all going to have primary challengers. He also said that Stewart showed them what one man can do with his populist revolution. Another alt-right-affiliated troll, Jack Posobiec, tweeted, Gillespie outspent Stewart 5-to-1 and barely won the race. Take note, Establishment. VDare, another alt-right-connected outletwhich frequently publishes articles written by white nationalists, claimed Stewarts heroic effort against useless consultantcuck Ed Gillespie showed nationalism lives.

Header image bySarah Wasko / Media Matters

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An Alt-Right-Affiliated Candidate Nearly Won Virginia's GOP Gubernatorial Primary - The National Memo (blog)

The event underscores a growing rift between the Patriot movement and other elements on the far right over the formers apparent lack of racialist sentiment.

Were not white nationalists. Were not racists of any kind. And if they show up [at our rally], I am going to personally, physically remove them. Because they are trying to co-opt what were trying to do.

Although Stewart Rhodes, founder and president of the Oath Keepers, has yet to uphold this threat, an alleged member of his organization seems to have done just that.

Video footage of a confrontation between a white nationalist protester and a member of This Is Texas, a purported affiliate of the Oath Keepers, shows a white nationalist protester being ejected from a group of Patriots after one of them snuck up behind the man and put him in a choke hold. The video has elicited strong responses from groups affiliated with the alt right.

The scuffle occurred at Hermann park in Houston, Texas after afake Antifa (short for Anti-Fascist) Facebook accounttitled Texas Antifa announced their plans to protest the parks Sam Houston statue, for Houstons status as a slaveholder. Whatever response the page and post were intended to garner, they elicited a strong response from This Is Texas, which announced on a Facebook page for the event:

Antifa has come out saying they will be bringing several large (communist) groups together to host a rally around the Museum District in Houston, Texas on June 10, 2017... This is it Texans, This Is Texas & it's time we nip this problem in the butt before our state starts looking more like California or Chicago rather than Texas. Please share this event & our FaceBook page (THIS IS TEXAS) so Texans, III%ers, Oath Keepers, Conservatives, Constitutionalist & others are aware of the rally & can join if they would like to do so. God bless Texas!

This Is Texas was successful in drawing out a large crowd bearing various flags, including the Confederate Battle Flags, Gadsden flags, and flags of various militia and so-called Patriot organizations. As for the Black Panther Party, Antifa & more promised by This Is Texas, they were nowhere to be seen. Nevertheless, if This Is Texas et al. was spoiling for a fight that day, it certainly found one.

What the group hadnt counted on was a small group associated with neo-Nazi websiteThe Daily Stormerand Vanguard America (VA) also attending withflags of their own, including VA banners with the slogan We Have A Right To Exist, theKekistani flag, and VAs own recently adopted banner featuring a blue sonnenrad in front of a red and white striped field.

VA a fledgling neo-Nazi group associated with Identity Evropa and The Right Stuff is perhaps best known for an incident when a member offered to sell out his organization in exchange for not being doxed.

The video in question begins after police purportedly told a group of white nationalists from VA andTheDaily Stormer,which organizes real-world book clubs, to leave one area of the park after some back and forth with the Patriots. One man wearing the uniform sported at protests by VA members, a polo and khakis, returned to gather posters adorned with Pepe,Wojak, and the slogan No Blood for Israel that had been left behind, but instead entered into a bizarre verbal confrontation with several of the Oath Keepers.

These are good memes... the lone alt-righter protested as he juggled the signs, a megaphone and the VA flag.

Dude this is not Comicon!

As the shouting continued, David Amad, of Open Carry Texas (OCT), stepped forward. Son you are leaving here one way or another.

Before Amad could finish the threat a member of his group sprang from behind the lone alt righter and put him into a chokehold. After a few seconds the two were separated and Amad escorted the victim away from the scene while This Is Texas/OCT members radioed to police.

Thats why we were trying to escort you out, motherf***er! taunted one of the so-called Patriots.

The incident wasnt the only example of Amad failing to maintain control or cohesion at the protest.

Later footage shows Amad and members of This Is Texas arguing with a larger group of white nationalists, including the man who writes forThe Daily Stormerunder the pen name Azzmador.

What you gonna do, you gonna start a fight while packing a rifle? Azzmador can be heard shouting as the argument became heated.

An affiliate of Amads organization, who identified himself as head of security and commander of the Texas State Militia was also filmed as he approached black Confederate Arlene Barnum to ask whether her fellow flaggers, who were white, would put down their Confederate battle flags.

I think that you [Arlene Barnum] are the best example of why you should carry [that flag]... and Im not saying that in a bad way, you know what I mean? But if you dont mind, could you be the only one please?

The request was rebuffed.

Given all of the consternation surrounding the handling of the event, it is not surprising Oath Keepers has taken to Facebook to insist that the man who choked the VA member was not one of its own. The video has caused numerous denunciations of Oath Keepers and its leadership by several alt right websites, including AltRight.com, Brad Griffin AKA Hunter Wallace onOccidental DissentandThe Daily Stormer.

An article on AltRight.com titled Oathkeepers Turn Against the Alt Right was the first shell fired in a building salvo against Oath Keepers, and was quickly picked up by TheDaily Stormer.

These incidents comes on the heels of several other public spats between members of the Alt Right and various Patriot and militia groups.

Brad Griffin, who writes onOccidental Dissentunder the alias Hunter Wallace, has posted accounts of feuds between Patriot and militia organizations such as American Warrior Resistance and Oath Keepers after disagreements in Gainesville and New Orleans over the past month.

Im addressing a group called the American Warrior Revolution, were addressing our friends the Oathcucks, and various III% militia groups. Weve been watching you people since then and weve had a little trouble.

Griffin goes on to accuse the varied groups that make up Patriot Nation of being deracinated cucks and failing to support our free speech and defending our monuments, by standing in the way of the League of the South in New Orleans, Gainesville, and elsewhere.

The allegation that Oath Keepers are cucks who talk about how anti-racist they are, commonly referred to as virtue signaling, is a cardinal sin on the far right and a source of much of the ire directed against Oath Keepers, other militia groups, conservatives politicians, religious leaders, and in particular, boomers.

For Griffin and the other members of the far right now arrayed against Oath Keepers and the larger Patriot movement, the issue is that Oath Keepers tend to rely on public expressions of racial impartiality while hiding its own ethnic biases.

Last year, Stewart Rhodes and his Oath Keepers endorsed the virulently anti-Muslim essay, Tet Take Two: Islams 2016 European Offensive, which describes Islam as a ringworm infection [that] is dead and barren within the ring, but flares up when it parasitically feeds off the healthy, non-Islamic societies around it.

The essays author, former Navy SEAL turned Patriot novelist, Matt Bracken, believes that refugees in Europe represent a second Tet offensive, a reference to the 1968 infiltration of South Vietnam by Vietcong guerrilla fighters who then launched a surprise offensive.

Bracken blames Eurocrat elites for open European Union borders, saying they purposely have created a wide path for the onrushing Muslim hijra immigration invasion. Rhodes agrees, and said the same thing is happening in the United States.

The martial skill set bragged about by Oath Keepers, and the inclusion of anti-Muslim conspiracy theories into its worldview, showed its head in the physical space when ACT For America an anti-Muslim hate group listed by the SPLC asked the organization to provide security for its March Against Sharia rallies last weekend. Oath Keepers was eager to oblige, and its members, including Rhodes, were seen at several rallies carrying long guns and attempting to rub shoulders with law enforcement, who until the election of Donald Trump were frequently on the other end of Oath Keepers barrels.

This occurs as various long-standing divisions between far right groups appear to be breaking down in favor of loose coalitions in opposition to the looming specter of Black Lives Matter and Antifa, which was effective in mobilizing attendance at the Houston event.

Whether Amad, This Is Texas, and the various other Patriot and militia types in question are directly affiliated with Rhodes and the Oath Keepers, these incidents do tend to corroborate warnings from various watchdog groups about the threat posed by militia and Patriot groups appearing heavily armed at protests.

While they claim to be present to support law enforcement and defend the Constitution, the brutish tactics on display in Houston and elsewhere make it clear that entering tense political environments decked out in tactical apparel with a rifle and body armor does little to promote civil discourse.

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"Alt-Right" Declares Flame War On Oath Keepers - Southern Poverty Law Center