SBC elects a black president

[William Thornton]

This is ABP. Fred Luter gets about 15% of Bob Allen's story. Allen sees to it that Emmanual McCall gets more than that. Allen usually does a great job and ABP is indispensible if an SBC wants to stay current on all the Baptist news but old Bob hit the wrong notes here.

The election of Fred Luter was an authentic, unadulterated good moment for the SBC, not that mod/libs need to acknowledge it, and deserves a stand-alone topic.

There is a long term trend in the SBC of a large proportion of new SBC congregations being non-white.

[Sandy]

He also got in some mention of past SBC power brokers Foy Valentine and Franklin Paschall as well.

I wonder if the wider acceptance of African Americans in the SBC has not been due directly to the theological stance the convention has taken since 1979. African American church goers tend to be pretty liberal politically, and pretty conservative theologically. Looking at statements of faith on line for major African American denominations, most of them have a definition of inerrancy that is comparable to the BFM 2000. Then, too, the old moderate leadership core of the SBC came out of a lot of churches that restricted African Americans from being members, and wasn't inclusive of African Americans in the lower level leadership of the denomination.

[Dave Roberts]

[Sandy]

[Ed Pettibone]

[Dave Roberts]

[Ed Pettibone]

Ed: I think perhaps Dave and Sandy May both be over looking three major influence on the change of racial attitudes in the south including the SBC. The first would be the number of returning service men who had worked along side of and drank beer in the PX, the NCO club and Officers Club and attended chapel with each other. Second would be the integration of both College and Pro athletic teams and the third would be the move south of major businesses in search of cheaper labor, but bringing management and supervisors with them. Yet for the most part churches drug their feet. And a large part of that came from Black churches which where concerned about "assimilation".

In 60-61 I attended a Baptist jr. college in Mississippi that was considering admitting African students who would recommended by SBC missionaries. But not African Americans, their rational was "We can know that students coming from Africa are pure blooded Blacks". That was part of why I did not stick around to take one last required course during the summer to get an A.A.. The firing of a Sociology professor for teaching too much sex in a class on Social Disorganization was another, and that my wife could eliminate 38 miles of commuting to work.

[Sandy]

There are lots of outside influences and social factors that have brought about the changes in attitude toward African Americans being included in the SBC, as well as in other denominations and church groups. But in SBC history, it will be the conservatives in 2012 who actually put an African American in a top leadership position. It has only been during the past 25 years that African Americans have appeared on the higher levels of executive employment at the mission boards, though there have been relationships especially involving NAMB with predominantly African American churches and denominations for quite some time.

As far as it goes, the growth of predominantly African American churches affiliated with the SBC is in areas of the country outside of Dixieland more than it is taking place in the South. Houston was pretty progressive with regard to the number of African American churches involved in the SBC and subsequently, in the higher levels of local denominational life. Under conservative leadership, the number of predominantly African American churches in the SBC is booming, and the number of churches willing to cross over from the National Baptists and be dually affiliated is growing exponentially. Here in the northeast, in the Philadelphia area, and across the river in South Jersey, and in Metro New York, Southern Baptist work is led by African Americans, and is growing exponentially.

But African American Baptists are theologically conservative, and that has opened the door for many of them to affiliate with the SBC and for their pastors and church leaders to occupy trustee board seats, and now, to be elected to office. Luter is typical of African Americans in the SBC in this regard. I would expect moderates to be a little muted on this particular subject, and perhaps a little biased, because they weren't able to get the denomination to this point. And I'm not aware of any predominantly African American congregations that are affiliated with CBF.

[William Thornton]

I feel certain that the SBC has many times more black congregations, most dually aligned, than the CBF has congregations.

I think that my mod/lib friends may be out of touch on this matter.

[Dave Roberts]

[Stephen Fox]

Is the story on this piece; and the whitewash of SBC takeover Fundy history. I am hoping Curtis Freeman and others weigh in soon; most especially Chandler Davison of Rice U. His memories of Judge Pressler and Marney's days at FBC Austin in the 50's are interesting indeed.
And don't forget Jack Harwell at Ga Bap CIndex was let go cause some of the fundies wounds never healed when in April 68 Harwell said Martin Luther King, Jr was his brother.

Countin on Dr. Thornton to dissect the Worthen piece.

Check my comment to this piece at NY Times. It got 4 recommends and an endorsing comment from Brooklyn

http://campaignstops.blogs.nytimes.com/ ... ostComment

[Stephen Fox]

[Sandy]

[Ed Pettibone]

[William Thornton]

Ed, You put words in my mouth. I did not suggest that Bob Allen was unfair. His piece was tendentious to toss in all the paragraphs about McCall.

[Tim Bonney]

[Sandy]

This is just going to be hard for moderate Baptists to take, William. I mean, the SBC is rapidly becoming one of the most racially diverse Christian denominations in the country, under the leadership of conservatives. Essentially, under moderate leadership, African Americans were never given admission to the highest levels of denominational leadership. Now, under the conservatives, they are found on trustee boards, important committees, and in the highest offices. Luter is the first African American president, but the SBC had previously elected Eric Redmond of Maryland as second VP a few years back. Redmond was pastor of Hillcrest Baptist Church in Temple Hills, Maryland, one of a growing number of SBC churches that are not predominantly African American, but are pastored by African Americans.

I would say that the total number of African Americans, predominantly African American churches, integrated congregations and African American pastors of integrated churches in the SBC now exceeds that in the ABC-USA. In fact, I would guess that the total number of African American church members in the SBC is greater than the total membership of ABC-USA.

[Tim Bonney]

[William Thornton]

[Tim Bonney]

[Ed Pettibone]

[Big Daddy Weaver]

[Big Daddy Weaver]

Why did it take the SBC 17 years after that 1995 resolution to get an African-American candidate for President?

Richard Land claimed he'd spent half his career working for this day. That's BS. If Paige, Paul, Richard, any of those guy had wanted an African-American as president, it would have happened.

Why didn't the SBC follow that 95 statement up with an African-American candidate in 96 or 97? If the SBC is so ethnically diverse, surely there is no shortage of qualified leaders out there?

Yes, the election of Fred Luter was a great day for the SBC. It was an important moment in American religious history. No doubt. I've said that a number of times. Symbols can be powerful. Or symbols can provide for the occasion to feel good without really doing good.

We will have to wait and see what happens.

I'll admit that the CBF is not on paper as ethnically diverse as SBC. Although, I'm willing to bet that our General Assembly is as ethnically diverse as your Annual meeting.

What we do have is great, improving partnerships with a diverse group of denominations and organizations. That's the benefit to being ecumenical rather than isolating oneself. We don't have a strong sense that the world revolves around the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship. We understand our limits and instead have chosen a path of partnership and ecumenical engagement.

The SBC is about as anti-ecumenical as they come. Even with Luter's election, I think it's highly unlikely we'll be seeing a joint SBC-National Baptist gathering anytime soon.

[Sandy]

[Dave Roberts]

Sandy, I'm not certain why you keep bashing the pre-1979 leadership on race. Most of us are rejoicing that the SBC elected Luter and believe it was good, if you read what we are saying. The climate now has changed considerably from the days prior to 1979. Southern Seminary was allowing African-American students all the way back to the 1940's, even when they could not acknowledge having them, at least not to the SBC annual sessions. Several prominent pastors wanted heads to roll when Martin Luther King, Jr, was invited to speak in chapel at SBTS.

The racial climate is certanly stronger for many of our churches. The church where I am now interim pastor is actively trying to recruit more African-American members. This morning, we had a new lady and her daughter come, and several folks surrounded her after worship with a strong welcome. Our problem is that we are within five blocks of three strong predominantly African-American churches who, interestingly, would like to recruit more Caucasian members. That is a long way from the climate of the 1960's. It was not until 1965 that the Voting Rights Act was passed and the Civil Rights Act followed in 1966. Read a bit more history of what it was like before being quick to condemn just because someone did not act in the same way your generation has done. Your closed-mindedness is showing on this one.