Not Your Grandfather's Southern Baptist [SBC poised to elect first black president]

Wall Street Journal ^ | NAOMI SCHAEFER RILEY

[rhema]

For months, the leadership of the Southern Baptist Convention has been debating whether to drop the word "Southern" from its name. But last week, citing the hassle and expense, leaders abandoned this attempt to scrub the racial overtones from the convention's image. As it turns out, the SBC is poised to do something much more significant.

Meet the Rev. Fred Luter Jr., pastor of New Orleans's 4,500-member Franklin Avenue Baptist Church—and the man who this spring will likely become the first black president of the Southern Baptist Convention. He announced last month that he was putting himself in the running, and the convention's movers and shakers seem almost unanimous in their support.

The SBC was born in 1845 after Baptists from the Northern states refused to appoint slaveholders to missionary posts, and the Southern states decided to break off. Like many Protestant denominations in America that split over the issue of slavery, the Baptists remained separate long after the Civil War. Though the leadership of the SBC supported an end to segregation even before Brown v. Board of Education (1954), the denomination's churches in many cases remained hotbeds of racial animus.

It wasn't until 1995 that the SBC issued a resolution on racial reconciliation. As Richard Land of the convention's Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission explains, "Before that, what we had never done was accept responsibility, apologize and ask for forgiveness." Since then, the SBC's black membership has grown from about 337,000 to one million.

Mr. Luter, 55, came to Franklin Avenue Baptist Church 30 years ago from the Lower 9th Ward of New Orleans, where, after an almost fatal motorcycle accident, he had found God and a calling as a street preacher. (It's why he preaches fast, he explains: "You have to when you're trying to reach people just

[wardaddy]

oh shut up...PC clone...you always spout the same kumbaya crap

high and mighty you are

go back to the mall and buy some tacky clothes

[wardaddy]

btw...never claim to be a witness for God

we got plenty holy rollers like you fer that lady

i’m like Jerry Lee

boo!

[fieldmarshaldj]

Yer goin’ to hell playin’ a pee-anna ? ;-D

[don-o]

From my POV, what we have here is a fracture of a fracture of a fracture...etc.

The “one holy catholic and apostolic church” existed on earth for one millennium. The history of the second millennium is there for all to see concerning what became on the “one.” Since the Baptists (IIRC) claim “no creed but Christ) this fact doesn’t mean anything to them.

Not so many years ago, there was dissension in a large Baptist church near me. I heard one wag opine, “Baptists are like bees. When it comes time, they just have to swarm.” When ones heritage includes the option to break away, it’s just as natural as natural can be.

Didn’t Jimmy Carter, the famous Georgia Sunday School teacher, have his church bail out of the SBC over something or other?

So, I am a bit surprised at your seeming surprise over this latest event in a long string of traditional Baptist polity. If the hive gets stirred up enough, it’ll swarm.

[dixiechick2000]

“Didn’t Jimmy Carter, the famous Georgia Sunday School teacher, have his church bail out of the SBC over something or other?”

Yes...the “something or other” was that he and Clinton tried to set up their own “Baptist” church...one that agrees with the dem teachings on abortion, gay marriage, and such.

I don’t think it was very successful.

[dixiechick2000]

I remember this guy! He’s a good and loving man, wardaddy. No need to be worried about him being a PC president.

http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,2078484,00.html

If you disagree, just frmail me. ;o)

[Cronos]

if he’s conservative, this is a long-oerdue and very good move by the SBC

[uptoolate]

Dr. Voddie Baucham would have been good as well.