SBC seminary helps Dwight McKissic after home suffers damage in Texas winter storm
Despite his criticism of the Southern Baptist Convention’s Council of Seminary Presidents’ statement on critical race theory, outspoken SBC Pastor Dwight McKissic was blessed by one of the council's six members after water damaged his Texas home amid wild winter weather this week.
The help came in the wake of McKissic's recent decision to end his longtime relationship with the Southern Baptists of Texas Convention after leaders adopted a “strongly worded, anti-CRT policy that denounces all aspects of critical race theory.” The disagreement also prompted McKissic to declare that he was even willing to cut ties with the SBC as well if the denomination's leaders rescind Resolution 9 on critical race theory that messengers passed in 2019.
None of that mattered on Thursday, however, when Adam W. Greenway, president of Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminaryrevealed on Twitter that he offered his support to McKissic after learning of his predicament.
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“Many families in the Metroplex and across Texas are dealing with home issues including pipes bursting and flooding their homes, rendering them uninhabitable. One of those affected is @pastordmack. Just spoke with @vmckissic1 and offered our support and our prayers. Pray for them,” Greenway noted.
McKissic, who founded and leads Cornerstone Baptist Church in Arlington, later revealed that Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary accommodated him and his family at the Riley Center. The Riley Center is a facility on the 207-acre campus of Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary that features 55 luxury guest rooms and suites just minutes from downtown Fort Worth.
“Bad news: Major water damage, house/guest house, uninhabitable. Good news: Was given keys to incredible accommodations at the Riley Center/SWBTS for as long as I need to stay, no charge! I love it when the church acts like the church & we behave as a family. Joy unspeakable! Thx,” McKissic tweeted hours after Greenway’s announcement.
Many Texas residents were forced to flee their homes this week as millions were left without power and water for days after a historic winter storm hit the state. Harris County Judge Lina Hidalgo called the storm the “winter version of Hurricane Harvey,” which hit Texas as a Category 4 storm on Aug. 25, 2017, killing at least 68 people and causing about $125 billion in damage.
More than 4 million households in Texas were left without power this week after the Texas power grid suffered major disruptions. By Thursday evening, all but 347,000 were still without power, The New York Times reported, but water concerns remained.
A spokeswoman for the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality told the publication that about 13.1 million people had been affected by disruptions of more than 800 public water systems. Many have been issued notices to boil water to make it safe to drink, while some homes have no water at all.
At McKissic’s Cornerstone Church, members handed out packages of bottled water to community members in need Friday despite facing challenging times of their own.
“We have been blessed and honored to partner with the city of Arlington,” a church official said in a video statement on Facebook, explaining how they can help people avoid having to boil water to have a drink of it.
“A lot of our members have been out of power and water and just gas. It’s been horrible, but we’re still alive,” the official said. “It’s bad, and I know it’s bad because we didn’t have water at my house. But let me tell you what I had to stop and think — there were some people that didn’t have water for weeks. There are people who had to get water out of a lake, a pond, a river that animals were defecating in.”
