Baptist seminary apologizes for ‘offensive’ faculty photo

Luther Vandross was outed as gay after his death.

The Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary has issued an apology after a picture hit twitter with five of its faculty members, all of whom were white, posing as rappers.

Barry McCarty, a professor of preaching and rhetoric, posted the picture to his Twitter account on Tuesday showing the five faculty members posing with “Notorious S.O.P” written in the graffiti on the wall behind them. “The Notorious School of Preaching faculty’s going away portrait,” McCarty captioned the photo.

All of the faculty members in the picture were wearing crooked caps, bandannas, or chains, and one man even had a gun to pose with.

The internet was quick to point out the offensive nature of the picture and the tweet, not only because of the racial implications but because of the stereotypes being perpetuated.

The picture and tweets were taken down, and David L. Allen, dean of the School of Preaching, first tried to explain the context: “This is a going-away picture we gave to one of our faculty members today at lunch, Dr. Charette, who is himself an excellent rapper.” He then apologized, writing, “I apologize for a recent image I posted which was offensive. Context is immaterial. @swbts stance on race is clear as is mine.”

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