Doctrine, Sermons

A Study in Racism

247 Comments

Meet Stinnet Ballew, author, preacher, and racist. Ballew is the host of the Harvest Time Broadcast which is replayed on fundy radio stations all over the country. He’s also a speaker at various churches and conferences.

In the audio clip below you can hear him attempt to use Scripture to prove that interracial marriage is a sin against God. And lest you be tempted to dismiss this man’s racist rantings as an anomaly in fundamentalism, this kind of teaching was embraced widely through fundyland until recent years by men like Bob Jones Sr., J. Frank Norris and others.

It’s worth noting that clip was discovered on Twitter via @IFBJoshOwens who was using it to defend this statement that he had made previously:

My wife & I were lookin’ on the web a little while ago & found a picture of a young, single, Missionary-friend, who’s a Missionary to a part of the world with folk of another color/race. Jess made the observation that “he’ll probably get him a black wife” & she’s probably right. When a young, single, Missionary s to a field of another culture/color/race, more than likely, they’ll get ’em a wife of that culture/color/race. How sad/wicked. That’s why it’s not a good idea, to say the least, to be a young, single Missionary.

I can only hope that @IFBJoshOwens is a parody account which is using some really strange attempts at humor. But reading through Twitter and listening to his online podcast, I get no real indication that this is anything but legit.

Now here’s Stinnet Ballew to bless our hearts with more racist drivel in the same vein:

247 thoughts on “A Study in Racism”

  3. I was raised in an all-white fundamentalist church. Among other myths that I was taught was that blackness originated as the “curse of Ham”, when Noah’s son viewed his daddy’s private parts.

    1. I heard that one growing up too. That’s a very old pernicious racist myth that is all tied up in “Christian Identity”, KKK, etc.

    2. I heard that growing up too. I also heard that it was OK that we kicked out the Indians because it said in the Bible that the sons of __ will have their tents removed by the sons of ___ (I forgot the names) and that Native Americans came from one tribe, and Caucasians were traced to the other tribe. Bible sanctioned genocide. 😯

      1. Bible sanctioned genocide.

        Sadly, it’s not the only one. Just ask the Caananites.

        You’ll need a Ouija board to get a reply, though.

  4. I would like to point out that what Stinnet is saying is not a white fundamentalist only teaching. There are African American fundamentalists that agree with the idea of blacks only marrying blacks, but as with whites, this transcends the religious branch boundaries.

    1. I know that a large black IFB church in NoVA didn’t want to marry an interracial couple. It is wrong no matter who it is.

    2. Yeah, but the difference is that if blacks preach against interracial marriage, they don’t have the ACLU and other “special interest” groups coming after them. It’s OK to be racist as long as you’re not white.

      1. I’d like to know when the ACLU has “gone after” someone for preaching racist/bigoted stuff? ACLU is the ones that go to court defending racists & bigots right to preach whatever they want (i.e. Fred Phelps).

        1. I agree. The ACLU has always defended anybody’s right to say (or preach) anything they want, even if it’s offensive. I mean, they went to court to protect the rights of NeoNazis and the Ku Klux Klan to demonstrate. They aren’t out to censor people– quite the opposite. They’re First Amendment extremists, if you want to call them that.

  5. So that makes it ok? Because other people are stupid too? The KKK and the Nation of Islam agree as well.

  6. I heard this from the fundy preacher of my old fundy church. He was a BJU grad. Jaws dropped and afterward he was surrounded by a swarm of upset deacons and members. There were a number of mixed marriages in the church. He never preached this BS again.

    1. Which would immediately raise questions for me as to whether he was preaching the “Truth” or his opinion and whether he was more concerned with said “Truth” or a paycheck. 🙄

  7. I thought my fundy upbringing was about as hard-core as it could get, but this type of racism was never apart of any of the churches I attended. I also play gospel music in alot of the churches in this area and have never heard anything like this. I would have left the IFB alot sooner if I would have experienced anything like this. I’m in the very tip of Virginia, maybe it’s a more southern thing. Although I don’t know if that would make alot of sense either based on my unscientific research I did in the military, I found the folks from the north to be 10x more racists than my fellow southerners.

    1. This never was present in the church I attended as a teenager, and for that I’m quite thankful.

  8. I remember hearing this in my NOT FUN-DaYS. It was a sin to have interracial marriages. He wouldn’t want to come have dinner at my house, because my 2 youngest children (who are adopted) are bi-racial.

    1. The weird thing is, some of these guys are very cordial and polite in person.
      I wouldn’t be at all surprised if he came over to your house and was cordial and friendly the whole time, and then climbed back in the pulpit the next day to preach another sermon against interracial mariiage.

  9. I thank God that I come from a large family with multiple nationalities/ethnicities. I’m sure it’s true that God has blessed/not blessed various countries or groups over the years. But I certainly do not believe this necessarily extends to the individuals of these groups. God loves everyone. There is not one speck of evidence that he hates interracial marriages.

    Forbidding Israelites to marry foreigners is one thing (as that’s part of the Law and relates to the specific running of a specific country that had special rules so they would be set apart and unique in the eyes of surrounding people), but even that’s a stretch. Look at Ruth, a foreign woman who has an entire book of the Bible dedicated to her. Look at Timothy, who never should have been born–his mother was a Jew, but his father was a Greek. Look at Rahab, who is listed in the genealogy of Christ himself (along with Ruth, mind you). You can’t just pick and choose Bible verses. You have to look at all of them.

  10. Well Said Annie Moose. The Bible is meant to be looked at as a whole. We are to use balance and discernment. Taking one verse or one premise and building a Theology from it is dangerous.

    As the parent of African American children and part of a transracial home, I am so sad for the people who are stuck in this thought pattern. Think of all the joy they are missing.

  11. My question would be how he would interpret God’s reasoning for sicking leprosy onto Miriam???? She was complaining about who Moses had remarried.

  12. Wow. Where’s his hood and cape? This is such utter crap. His vocal screeching is reminiscent of a someone trying (unsuccessfully) to clear his constipation – that is ironically fitting.

  13. He’s another fundie “Doctor”. His doctorate degree, self awarded, honorary or diploma mill?

    1. There’s one more type some of them get: an out-of-the-country degree from a Jamaican Bible College or something. I’ll admit that these degrees MAY be genuine, but a red flag goes up in my mind when I see one.

  14. Ballew’s comments are 100% wrong, asinine, idiotic, prejudiced, bigoted, xenophobic, completely lacking of any understanding of the English language, anti-Biblical, and the most extreme case of eisegesis in recorded history. Further, I would not be surprised one bit to find that Ballew is a racist himself, nor that his comments are informed by racist views. But Darrell, I gotta call shenanigans on you — the comments, in and of themselves, are not racist.

  16. As a missionary on “deputation” this depresses me. Yes, I am still an “IFB.” My wife is black. I am white. We have children. In my heart, I know as we visit churches, people smile at us, but yet this bigoted sentiment is still there. Why do I stay? Well, good people support us financially, and we believe in what we are doing. We are from a good church that is not this way, but that is not the norm. Sometimes I wonder why we even consider ourselves “indepdendent baptists”. I know many people that grew up with false doctrine like this, and I’m sure a lot of them still believe it.

    But I do believe the Lord placed me in this group of churches for a reason, perhaps to replace these ridiculous idiots with a new generation of people with some sort of semblance of sound doctrine and basic human dignity. It is morons like these that believe their church is only small because we live in the last days, instead of the fact that they spew hateful crap from their mouths.

  17. his decendants come from France and American Indians?

    i would be willing to bet a nickle that he has never taken a college level biology course…

    1. I’ll bet anything you want that he’s never looked up “descendants” in a dictionary.

  18. http://www.harvesttimebroadcast.com/guestbook.html#bn-service-top

    Make sure to post on his guestbook about his wonderful exegesis of Scripture.

    I love the every thing after his own kind logic. According to that, it is unnatural for a Collie and Lab to breed because they are different breeds. Its not good enough just to be a dog, and I guess its not acceptable for two Christian adults of different races to get married because they aren’t the same “kind” apparently. What a bozo.

  19. I remember hearing a message like this when I attended a church in GA. The pastor said God is against Interracial dating and looked my family when he said it. Since we were the only blacks in the church I guess he wanted to know that my brother and I were to stay single while we attended there. Another time I heard a pastor use the N word in the pulpit when he was preaching on this same subject. I know that not everyone in the south acts like this. But I have never forgot the hurt that this caused.

  21. And hath made of one blood all nations of men for to dwell on all the face of the earth, Acts17:26
    He made all nations out of one blood!
    God struck Miriam with leprosy for speaking out against Moses for taking an Ethiopian bride. Num.12
    All the Scripture he referenced were to keep the Israelites from intermarrying with those of false gods not different races. Ruth was a Moabite, yet she is in the lineage of our Lord. Its men like this that bring a reproach on fundamentalism. I believe the Bible fundamentally!!! But I’m NOT a racist!!! This preacher also preaches against men wearing a beard! There are idiots in every religion and denomination! Don’t judge all Independent Baptist by one bigot that wants to set himself up as a Baptist Pope!!!

Comments are closed.