Dr. Richard Land: After Baton Rouge and Dallas, Nation Needs a ‘Sister Souljah Moment’
CHARLOTTE, N.C.—After deadly attacks on police officers in Baton Rouge, La., over the weekend and the tragic shootings in Dallas on July 7, Southern Evangelical Seminary (SES, www.staging.ses.edu) President and Evangelical leader Dr. Richard Land says the nation needs a “Sister Souljah moment.”
Land recently penned an opinion piece for The Christian Post, where he serves as an executive editor, stating: “All lives matter, including blue and black lives. We are all in this together.”
“It is well past time for some national political figure, preferably President Obama, if he has it in him, to seize a ‘Sister Souljah moment’ and denounce the anti-police, inflammatory, violence-inducing rhetoric of the Black Lives Matter movement,” Land wrote. “In 1992, then-presidential candidate Bill Clinton denounced African-American hip hop artist Sister Souljah for her violent lyrics and her inflammatory statement condoning black on white violence and saying in the music video of her song ‘The Final Solution,’ ‘If there are any good white people, I haven’t met them.’”
Land added that Bill Clinton, speaking at Jesse Jackson’s Rainbow Coalition gathering, denounced her language, saying, “If you took the words white and black and you reversed them, you might think David Duke was giving that speech.” Land further noted that Clinton’s “Sister Souljah moment” propelled him to the forefront of the 1992 presidential field and may have ensured his presidential nomination.
“This issue,” Land added, “would be entirely different if the ‘Black Lives Matter’ movement employed the phrase ‘Black Lives Matter too.’ As is, the slogan ‘Black Lives Matter” accompanied by hateful, inflammatory language like “pigs in a blanket, fry ‘em like bacon” has incited violence against police officers. Such violence and the language that incites it must be condemned in the strongest terms possible.
“The Federal Law Enforcement Officers Association,” Land continued, “asked President Obama to bathe the White House in blue light to show solidarity for our fallen police officers, but he refused. Yet, the White House has been adorned with rainbow colors in support of the LGBT community and the ‘celebration’ of same-sex marriage. That refusal speaks louder than any of President Obama’s words.”
This summer, Land was named to Donald Trump’s new executive board to provide advisory support, not an endorsement, to the presidential hopeful on the issues important to Evangelicals and other people of faith.
SES has announced its 23rd annual National Conference on Christian Apologetics, hosted by Calvary Church in Charlotte, N.C., on Oct. 13-15. The seminary will welcome such top name speakers as Norman Geisler, Richard Howe, Richard Land, Josh and Sean McDowell, Hugh Ross, Jay Sekulow, Lee Strobel, Frank Turek and J. Warner Wallace, along with many others. The theme of the 2016 conference, “The Defense Never Rests,” focuses on the ongoing charge to Christians to defend their beliefs rationally, intelligently and lovingly. For registration information, visit conference.staging.ses.edu.
SES is a leader in apologetics education—teaching students to defend their faith and talk intelligently, passionately and rationally about what they believe and why they believe it. Many courses focus on societal issues from a Christian worldview, delve into scientific apologetics or contemplate creation research.
Land is featured in his nationally syndicated daily radio commentary, “Bringing Every Thought Captive,” which airs on almost 400 stations nationwide, including nearly 200 on the American Family Radio Network and 100 on the Bott Radio Network. “Bringing Every Thought Captive” is also podcast daily on the free SES mobile app and airs locally in the Charlotte, N.C., area every weekday. The “Bringing Every Thought Captive” television program, hosted by Land, airs on the NRB Network Wednesdays at 8 p.m. and midnight EST. “Bringing Every Thought Captive” also reaches nearly 2 million households in the Chicago area on the Total Living Network. For details about stations, times, downloads and more, click here.
Land has taught as a visiting or adjunct professor for several seminaries and has authored or edited more than 15 books. He earned his Doctor of Philosophy degree from Oxford University in England and his bachelor’s degree (magna cum laude) from Princeton University. Land also earned a Master of Theology (Honors Program) degree from New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary, where he received the Broadman Seminarian Award as the Outstanding Graduating Student. Dr. Land was the 2013 Watchman Award recipient from the Family Research Council for his leadership on moral and cultural issues. He also received the Phillip E. Johnson Award for Liberty and Truth from Biola University in 2010. Land served previously (1988-2013) as president of The Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission, the Southern Baptist Convention’s official entity assigned to address social, moral and ethical concerns, with particular attention to their impact on American families. In 2014, he was appointed as a Senior Research Fellow of the ERLC’s Research Institute, and in 2015, he was named in the top 15 of Newsmax’s “Top 100 Christian Leaders in America.”
Southern Evangelical Seminary invites visitors to its web site to join the more than 20,000 people who have already downloaded the SES Apologetics App for Windows mobile devices and Android and Apple phones and tablets. Those with the app can get the very best news and information in Christian apologetics, including articles, audio, video, blogs and more from today’s most able defenders of the Christian faith—William Lane Craig, Lee Strobel, Josh McDowell, William Dembski, Frank Turek, Hugh Ross, Gary Habermas and other well-known speakers, authors and teachers.
Southern Evangelical Seminary has been ranked as one of the top graduate programs for General Christian Apologetics by TheBestSchools.org’s “Top 10 Graduate Programs in Christian Apologetics.”
For more information on SES, visit its web site at www.staging.ses.edu or Facebook page, follow the SES Twitter feed, @sesapologetics, or call (800) 77-TRUTH. For more information about SES’ “Ethics in Emerging Technology” program, visit www.ethics.staging.ses.edu and read the SES blog at www.WhyDoYouBelieve.org.
For information on SES or to set up an interview, contact Beth Harrison, 610-584-1096, ext. 104, Media@HamiltonStrategies.com, or Deborah Hamilton at 215-815-7716 or 610-584-1096, ext. 102, or
Southern Evangelical Seminary is a leader in apologetics education—teaching students to defend their faith and talk intelligently, passionately and rationally about what they believe and why they believe it. The Christian college and seminary offers a wide variety of bachelor’s, master’s and doctorate degrees. Programs can be completed through residence in the Charlotte area or online. The award-winning education at SES is distinctively Christian and focused on evangelism and world-engaging defense of the Christian faith—Christian Apologetics.
