by Sandy » Thu Feb 07, 2013 10:15 am
The perspective taken by virtually every American Christian group, church, or denomination during a long period of American history was segretation of races. It's there, it is part of the history, and some of what was history has carried over into the existence of groups that are still largely based on racial background.
This thread, and the resulting conversation, was launched by Ed's accusation that Baptist Press is "milking" the fact that Fred Luter is the first African American president of the SBC "for all it's worth," (whatever that means), and cited, as an example, the BP story about an award Luter had received, named in honor of George Washington Carver, for accomplishments that included his being the first African American President of the SBC. I am citing Ed's criticism of Baptist Press, and his choice of this particular example, as evidence of the fact that moderate Baptists, whether they be ABC-USA, CBF, or dually aligned, can't seem to pass up an opportunity to criticize Southern Baptists even when they are doing things that moderates have patted their own selves on the back for doing.
Southern Baptists are experiencing great growth in the Northeast, upper Midwest and far West, due to an aggresive and well planned church-planting effort largely led by African Americans in the inner cities. In addition to that, when the convention voted in favor of the resolution apologizing for their racist past, it wasn't just lip service, like a lot of "dialogue" between religious groups. They meant it. And they have taken steps to facilitate it. Many African American pastors are leading their congregations into affiliation with the SBC, in some cases remaining dually aligned with their African American based denomination, but in many cases, leaving it behind because the conservative theological stance of the SBC appeals to them, and some of them perceive their own denomination as being too liberal. SBC leaders were told that just passing the resolution, without including African Americans in genuine leadership positions wouldn't work, and they took that to heart. The same thing has been said about other ethnic minorities. I'm not sure how many trustees, committee members or executive board members across the various layers of SBC bureacracy are members of ethnic minorities, last I heard, about 25% and growing.
I don't know, but maybe the SBC becoming more ethnically diverse, and reaching into African American, Asian and Hispanic communities leaves moderates without grounds to gripe. The growth being what it is, it won't be long before ABC-USA won't be able to milk its ethnic diversity for all its worth.