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| Home Front: Culture Wars |
| Carter-Clinton Pretend To Be Religious Again To Subvert Baptists |
| 2007-01-17 |
| Forty of the nation's Baptist groups have united to counter what they're calling the "negative" image of the Nashville-based Southern Baptist Convention. Led by former President Jimmy Carter and backed by Bill Clinton — both of whom left the Southern Baptist churches they were raised in — the "New Baptist Covenant" will hold its first convocation in Atlanta next January and plans to address issues of poverty, AIDS and other social ills. Absent from the group are leaders of the nation's largest Baptist denomination, the 16 million-member Southern Baptist Convention. Southern Baptist pastors and leaders yesterday disputed the notion that Southern Baptists have an image problem, criticized the effort as politically motivated and pointed to Carter and Clinton's stance on issues such as abortion as evidence of how out of touch the group is with views of mainstream Baptists. "I think Carter and Clinton want to keep Baptist as an identity, but they want to do so by gutting what most Southern Baptists believe in, such as authority of Scripture and the exclusivity of Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord," said Kevin Shrum, pastor of Inglewood Baptist Church in Nashville. "My question is: Are they going to produce literature, start a seminary, do world or local missions or, from what it appears to me, is this just a front for political activity for churches and individuals who agree with their positions?" But Nashville-based Baptist Center for Ethics executive director Robert Parham, an organizer of the effort, said the goal of the group was to showcase the often-eclipsed views of "Golden Rule Baptists," Baptists who are neither conservative nor liberal but espouse the biblical teaching of "treating others as we would like to be treated." "Baptists are more than Southern Baptists, who are more Southern than Baptist, more exclusive than inclusive, more negative than positive, yet Southern Baptists too often define what it means to be Baptist" said Parham, a longtime critic of the Southern Baptist Convention. "Regrettably, the word Baptist has become synonymous with an anti-everything posture. Anti-women, anti-public education, anti-Catholic, anti-Jewish, anti-Disney. The perception that the Southern Baptist Convention represents all Baptists is one reason we met in Atlanta to plan a celebratory gathering that will reshape public opinion about Baptists." Organizers include leaders of the nation's major Baptist organizations and denominations, including the predominantly black National Baptist Convention, USA; the National Missionary Baptist Convention; the North American Baptist Fellowship; and groups in Canada, Bolivia, Brazil and elsewhere. Collectively, the groups say, they represent some 20 million Baptists. The majority belong to the Baptist World Alliance, a group that Southern Baptists voted to leave in 2004, citing differences over the international group's tolerance for homosexuality and support for women in the clergy, among other reasons. In his announcement last week, Carter said the new group plans to devote efforts to promoting a unified voice on "traditional Baptist values, including sharing of the Gospel of Jesus Christ and its implications for public and private morality." Baptist pastors like the Rev. Billie Friel say that's fine with him, but he won't be attending. "I wish them well," said Friel, pastor of the 2,000-member First Baptist Church in Mt. Juliet. "But I think we as Southern Baptists do aid the hungry and the poor. We have special offerings throughout the year and we have never forsaken the opportunity to minister." As for negative images of the Southern Baptist Convention, said Friel, "if someone does have a negative picture, I think it's because of lack of information, because the good that is being done by Southern Baptists far outweighs the negative." Ircel Harrison, the Murfreesboro-based state coordinator of a Southern Baptist breakaway group — the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship — said he believed an emphasis on social issues by the new group was an important reminder for all Baptists. "Carter has made a real effort to find ways for Baptists to recover their identity as a people who are concerned about folks in all socioeconomic situations," Harrison said. "By and large, Baptist have become pretty affluent across the board. Sometimes we forget where we came from." The Cooperative Baptist Fellowship expected a number of its locally affiliated churches were interested in attending the Atlanta conference, he said. Organizers of the new group said Southern Baptists would be welcome to join, and pointed out that while national Southern Baptist leaders were not part of the effort, many individuals and state representatives are. But Richard Land, a prominent voice of Southern Baptists as the head of the Ethics and Religious Liberties Commission, said that the majority of Southern Baptists will find this group too liberal, noting that most Southern Baptists did not vote for Clinton or Carter. "I suspect that Mr. Carter and Mr. Clinton are upset about that," Land said. |
| Posted by:Anonymoose |
| #4 The kumbaya "Christianity" of Carter, Clinton, and Obama is faux-Christianity. It is "liberation theology", more honestly known as Marxism hiding behind a Bible. It is nothing less than a particularly evil and insidious form of Gramscianism. Real Christianity isn't doctrinaire jerks like Phelps, but neither is it calculating relativist politicos like these. Carrot AND stick, not carrot OR stick. |
| Posted by: no mo uro 2007-01-17 19:56 |
| #3 I read about this last week. Clinton said he was there just to be a cheerleader. Or to do cheerleaders. I forget. |
| Posted by: tu3031 2007-01-17 16:01 |
| #2 "Operation Herod" 'Nuff said. |
| Posted by: mojo 2007-01-17 15:37 |
| #1 " . . . is this just a front for political activity for churches and individuals who agree with their positions?" Yes, it is. Divide and conquer is a Dem strategy. |
| Posted by: ex-lib 2007-01-17 15:16 |