Posted on 01/30/2008 10:31:05 PM PST by Between the Lines
ATLANTA (AP) — Led by former President Carter, thousands of moderate and liberal Baptists prayed and held hands across a massive exhibit hall Wednesday, trying to overcome racial and theological divisions and challenge conservative Southern Baptist dominance of their tradition.
The meeting, "Celebration of a New Baptist Covenant," included four major black denominations, Baptists from throughout North America and former members of the Southern Baptist Convention upset by its conservative views and ties to the religious right.
More than 10,000 participants are expected over three days.
In his opening address, Carter, a longtime Bible teacher at his Plains, Ga., church, called the gathering "the most momentous event in my religious life."
He repeatedly asked the audience to keep the event free of criticism of others.
"What is the prevailing image of Christians today?" Carter said. "It's the image of divisions among brothers and sisters of Christ as we struggle for authority or argue about the interpretation of individual verses in the Holy Scripture."
He called animosity among Christians from all traditions "a cancer metastasizing in the body of Christ."
The former president insisted the meeting was strictly religious, not political. It is being held just days before Feb. 5, when 24 states will hold presidential primaries or caucuses.
Former Vice President Al Gore and former President Bill Clinton are among the major speakers. Earlier in the day, at a separate meeting of the black Baptist groups, Sens. Barack Obama and Hillary Rodham Clinton spoke about their presidential candidacies.
The black Baptists ended their meeting early so they could join the Carter-led event, which critics have dismissed as little more than a Democratic rally. The Rev. William Shaw, president of the National Baptist Convention USA Inc., the largest of the black denominations, said, "This time was set without any reference to the political calendar."
The meeting involves 30 Baptist groups that represent millions of people and span a range of theological and political beliefs. Many oppose abortion and same-sex marriage and ordain only men. However, they all heavily emphasize Scripture on social justice — a major focus of the gathering.
"What we do as Baptists in this movement is biblically centered," said the Rev. Jimmy Allen, an organizer of the event. Allen served as the Southern Baptist president just before conservatives took control of the denomination waging a bitter fight over biblical inerrancy that lasted through the 1970s and 1980s.
Carter severed ties in 2000 with the convention because of what he called its "increasingly rigid" beliefs. He said Wednesday that he has been communicating with the current Southern Baptist president, the Rev. Frank Page, who has said that he "assured President Carter of my prayers" for the meeting despite some doubts about its purpose.
With 16.3 million members, the Southern Baptist Convention is not only the largest U.S. Baptist group, but also the largest Protestant denomination in the country.
Northern and Southern Baptists split in 1845, when Northerners said they wouldn't support missionaries who were slaveholders. Black Baptists generally formed their own denominations and had their own splits over civil rights strategies and other issues.
Several speakers Wednesday invoked the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. when describing why this meeting was so important. Bill Underwood, president of Mercer University in Macon, a sponsor of the event, said, "I think we are taking a step today on the long and difficult journey to one day achieving Dr. King's Dream." On the Net: New Baptist Covenant: http://www.newbaptistcelebration.org/
The split off Baptists have sunk to new lows.
By their fruits you shall know them....
So Carter sucks at being a Baptist too? Is this guy good at anything?
Apparently, Baptists are all Democrats now. Any remaining Republicans ought to get a clue.
For the life of me, I don’t know how a TRUE believer can call themself a liberal! I think that Jimmy, just talks the talk, knowwhatimean?
Not by a long shot... but the SBC has been moving in cycles from right to left, back to right, and back now to the left.
By the way - any of you know that Mick Huckabee was ordained and started his preaching as in the BMAA (Baptist Missionary Association of America), and later moved to the SBC (assuming for career reasons...???).
“I think we are taking a step today on the long and difficult journey to one day achieving Dr. King’s Dream.”
That “dream” has been contorted into a moneymaking machine that—in order to continue making money for its greedy parasites—must never achieve the dream!
Interesting that Christ said “It is finished” and offers salvation to anyone regardless of fleshly distinctions. These people use Christ for cache and then talk about everything else but HIM!
Newsflash for the racist hucksters: Jesus is LORD, Dr. King is a nobody next to Him!
I ran into a friend of mine said was gonna take some words and make them rhyme I said you can fool some of the people some of the time, but you can only fool half the people half the time He "Yes I do believe this is true. Would you like to go sniff some glue? We'll fly to where the skys are blue and look for things both bright and true" And on a pretty Sunday morning a bunch of pretty Baptist girls linked ther pretty hands and sang:
Carter is not a Southern Baptist - he is part of the CBF -Cooperative BAptist Fellowship. They HATE the SBC, and only stay affiliated in some churches to keep members and $$$.
Baptists come from both sides and from the middle also, just like most other denominations. This 'New Covenant' is an attempt by the Democratic party to neutralize what they see as a conservative base.
Baptists are lost to Satan. What a shame.
Huckabee was scheduled to be a speaker at this event. He pulled out after the SBC criticized the event as being a political ploy by the left.
Never judge a Baptist by a convention SBC or otherwise. Baptist Churches were traditionally run as independent Churches and followed the Bible not a bunch of “religious” politicians. The SBC was an affiliation of Churches not a central church like the Huckabean’s would like.
He purports to teach the Bible. How does he explain this verse:
Deuteronomy 30:10
I call heaven and earth today to witness against you: I have set before you life and death, the blessing and the curse. Choose life, then, that you and your descendants may live,
As a Baptist, I doubt I'll be visiting that church any time soon.
Not all Baptists are lost to Satan. I am a Baptist, so I should know. Baptists are very diverse. Some are on the Left, some in the Center, others on the Right.
The Three Stooges! Resurrection Tour!
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