Carter, Clinton lead effort to give clout to moderate Baptists

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Carter, Clinton lead effort to give clout to moderate Baptists

Alternative sought to Southern convention

By Alan Copperman
THE WASHINGTON POST

January 21, 2007

WASHINGTON – Former Presidents Jimmy Carter and Bill Clinton are leading an effort to forge dozens of small and medium-size, black and white Baptist organizations into a robust coalition that would serve as a counterweight to the conservative Southern Baptist Convention. The giant SBC, with more than 16 million members, long has dominated the political, theological and social landscape among Baptists, often spawning resentment among smaller Baptist groups. It also has been closely aligned with the Republican Party.

The new coalition, which is Carter's brainchild, would give moderate Baptists a stronger collective voice and could provide Democrats greater entree into the Baptist community. Carter and other organizers are trying to walk a fine line, insisting that the alliance is not directly political while touting its potential to recast the role of religion in the public square.

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The Rev. Richard Land, head of the SBC's Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission, said the smaller Baptist groups are in “a search for significance and relevance.” Land scoffed at the idea that the new coalition would be nonpartisan.

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Carter and Clinton were raised as Southern Baptists but have expressed dismay over the Southern Baptist Convention's increasingly conservative bent since traditionalists defeated modernists in a struggle for control of the denomination in the 1970s and 1980s. The leadership battle, which raged over issues such as biblical inerrancy, temperance, homosexuality, abortion and women's roles in the church, culminated in 2000 with revisions to the “Baptist Faith and Message” that barred women from serving as pastors and called for wives to “submit graciously” to the leadership of their husbands. Carter stopped calling himself a Southern Baptist that year. Clinton attended a Methodist church during his two terms in the White House.

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The covenant would not be a new denomination but a coalition of four historically black Baptist churches – including the 7.5 million-member National Baptist Convention USA – and several predominantly white Baptist groups, including the 1.4 million-member American Baptist Churches USA and the 500,000-member Cooperative Baptist Fellowship. Together, they have more than 20 million members, outnumbering the SBC, which was not invited to the Atlanta meeting.


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