Weary of Southern
Baptists' dominance in American Protestantism, a new
push is originating among other Baptist groups aimed at
working on social justice issues and showing that
their religious tradition is broader than the
conservative SBC. Former president Jimmy Carter is
leading the effort.
More than 10,000
moderate and liberal Baptists are expected at a
three-day gathering starting Wednesday in Atlanta for the
''Celebration of a New Baptist Covenant.'' Organizers
aren't forming a new denomination, but want to develop
common ministries that would have a big impact.
Carter, a
longtime Bible teacher at his Plains, Ga., church, hopes the
event will ''solidify the image of Baptists and Christians
being able to cooperate with each other."
''We're not going
to delve into past divisions,'' Carter told the
Associated Press. ''We're going to try to show we can work
in harmony.''
The meeting is
taking place just days before February 5, when 24 states
hold delegate-rich presidential primaries and caucuses.
Baptist organizers say the timing is coincidental;
they began planning the Atlanta event about two years
ago, before the primary schedule was set.
''This has not
anything to do with Super Tuesday,'' Carter said.
Yet the biggest
Baptist names at the event are prominent Democrats. Along
with Carter, major speakers include former vice president Al
Gore and former president Bill Clinton, who has played
a leading and provocative role in the presidential
campaign of his wife, Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton.
Republican
senator Charles Grassley of Iowa will also address the
meeting. Former Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee, a Southern
Baptist minister and GOP candidate for president, had
agreed to participate, then canceled. Republican
senator Lindsey Graham of South Carolina had been
scheduled to speak, but instead will be campaigning with
Republican presidential contender John McCain.
''I think it's
going to be viewed, especially by lots of folks in the
Southern Baptist Convention, as a Democratic gathering,''
said James Guth, a professor at South Carolina's
Furman University who studies religion and politics.
''Mr. Clinton is still too controversial a figure to
be a neutral arbiter.''
Conservatives
waged a long, vicious campaign for control of the Southern
Baptist Convention in the 1970s and '80s to wipe out
moderate and liberal thinking in seminaries, churches,
and Baptist agencies. Paul Pressler, a retired Texas
judge and one of the leaders of the purge, famously said
that conservatives were ''going for the jugular'' for the
cause.
With 16.3 million
members, the denomination is not only the largest U.S.
Baptist group but also the largest Protestant group in the
country.
SBC leaders were
asked to participate, but convention president Frank
Page said last year, ''I will not be part of any
smoke-screen left-wing liberal agenda.'' Page issued a
more conciliatory statement last week, after Carter
contacted him to explain the gathering.
''I continue to
be concerned as to at least some participants' motives
for this event,'' Page said. ''However, I have assured
President Carter of my prayers for this meeting.''
The 30 groups
joining the new covenant effort say they represent millions
of Baptists. Among them are historically African-American
Baptist denominations, which produced many civil
rights leaders, including the Reverend Martin Luther
King Jr.
''This is an
opportunity to correct what should have happened long ago,''
said the Reverend William Shaw, president of the National
Baptist Convention USA Inc., the largest black Baptist
group. Northern and Southern Baptists split in 1845,
when Northerners said they wouldn't support
missionaries who were slaveholders. African-American
Baptists generally formed their own denominations, and
had their own splits over civil rights strategies and
other differences.
The groups
meeting in Atlanta span a range of beliefs on theological
and political issues, and have diverse styles of
worship. Many oppose abortion and gay marriage, and
several groups only ordain men.
However, they
also heavily emphasize Bible teachings on social justice.
The gathering will spend a significant amount of time
discussing poverty, health, and other policy concerns,
along with talks on preaching and the Gospel.
A leading
organizer of the event is the Cooperative Baptist
Fellowship, an association for Southern Baptists who
distanced themselves or broke with their national
denomination after conservatives took control. Carter
severed ties with the convention in 2000 because of what he
called its ''increasingly rigid'' beliefs.
In the last few
years, Southern Baptists have been struggling to reverse
stagnant membership. SBC leaders blame a lack of emphasis on
effective evangelism in their churches.
But many of the
Baptists gathering in Atlanta contend that the
denomination's ties to the religious right and its role in
the culture wars have alienated potential newcomers.
''The Baptist
brand has been damaged over the last 40 years, especially
the Southern Baptist brand, by the idea that conservatives
or Baptists or Southern Baptists are mainly known for
what they're against, who they're boycotting next,''
said David Gushee, professor of Christian ethics at
Mercer University, a leading organizer of the new covenant.
''The sad thing
is, on the grass-roots level, this is not how Baptists
are. I'm hoping, and actually praying, that the spirit of
this event will reflect that kind of loving, inclusive
community.'' (Rachel Zoll, AP)
