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Can anyone find it? How long has he been president? A google search still has Bryan Wright as current president and Frank Page's from 2006 can still be found. How long does it usually take them to figure this out? Also, I noticed a of The Daily Show with John Stewart quoted Frank Page on something about homosexuals in the Boy Scouts and they (not sure if it was The Daily Show or whoever they got the tape from) listed Page as the current president of the SBC.

Looks like the SBC Executive Committee does not maintain an "SBC President's Page" any longer. I don't know why. Perhaps they are trusting Wikipedia to handle that stuff.

Looks to me like the author is simply stating what is a very related fact about Fred Luter. He is the first African American President of the SBC, that is a fact, and it happens to be intricately relevant to this particular piece, which is about recognizing African Americans who were first to do something. You'll have to do much better than that to support your claim.

I'm inclined to agree with Sandy here. To "milk something for all it is worth" is not synonymous with to "mention something when it is relevant and pertinent".

First of all, the Carver medal wasn't awarded by the SBC, it was awarded by Simpson College, a United Methodist-related school in Iowa. It is a medal given in honor of George Washington Carver, who was, among his many accomplishments, the first African American to do a lot of things. One of the considerations for which Luter received the award was being the first African American president of the SBC, an accomplishment that I would consider worthy of the award, and completely relevant to it. He is the President of the SBC, and so a recognition as prestigious and as honorable as this one would certainly draw the attention of Baptist Press, among other news media outlets. If that's "milking his status for all its worth", then the United Methodists and Simpson College are collaborators with the SBC in doing it.

It really seems to bend some non-Southern Baptists out of shape pretty badly that the SBC is making strides in the area of equality and diversity that they once thought was their own personal domain.

Ed, care to guess what proportion of SBC churches describe themselves as ethnic or minority?

Care to volunteer what that proportion is for ABC or CBF?

No, Timothy, the issue isn't how long it took. The SBC was organized in 1845, and it took fewer years total for it to go from organization to integration, and now to an African American leader than it did most other American mainline denominations, which only began integrating in the 1950's. The issue is that it is getting harder and harder for CBF and other moderate Baptists to demonize the SBC. Southern Baptists are investing resources into church planting, putting Latinos and African Americans in charge of those efforts in the large cities, and are having a lot of success at reaching people while other Baptists are having "dialogue".

Sigh, Sandy you are playing fast and loose here with numbers. Why are you counting 167 years for the SBC leaving out the years Baptists were in one group together in the Triennial Convention? Or do you believe those folks weren't Baptists before the SBC? But you are counting together all the denominational predecessors of the UMC into one 184 year old history from Coke and Asbury?? That is some strange math there and doesn't prove anything except that you seem to believe the SBC should get some kind of strange bonus points towards speed of integration for breaking away from the rest of Baptists in 1845 to support slavery. Go figure.

How many African-American denominational executives are there in the SBC? How many women denominational executives? How many Asian denominational execs?

Here is a link to the photos of twelve pages of UMC Bishops. You can note a lot of persons of color and a lot of women. And the SBC has managed to elect one African-American President. Congratulations, it is a good thing. But don't expect people to act like you've done something earth shattering or ground breaking.

http://www.umc.org/c.lwL4KnN1LtH/b.2227 ... &b=2227449