Baptist Coalition Aims for Moderation

[DeepModem Mom]

Source: New York Times

By NEELA BANERJEE
Published: January 27, 2008

For more than 150 years, Baptists in the United States have splintered along political, theological and racial lines. But this week, some of the country’s largest Baptist groups — representing about 20 million believers — will meet to try to mend the old fractures and, some leaders say, present a more diverse and moderate image of their faith than the one offered by the conservative Southern Baptist Convention.

The three-day meeting of more than 30 groups — known as the New Baptist Covenant Celebration, which begins on Wednesday in Atlanta — is a result of efforts by former President Jimmy Carter to draw together long-divided Baptists.

The meeting’s statement of shared purpose, known as its covenant, calls for Baptists to focus on their traditional values, like “sharing the gospel of Jesus Christ,” and to work together on social issues like fighting poverty. It does not create a new denomination.

“I would like to see a demonstration that Christians who have different backgrounds and different political and theological orientations and geographical locations can come together in the spirit of unity,” Mr. Carter said, “not just for Baptists, but for Christians all over the world.”

But for other Baptists and experts on the faith, a central aim of the gathering seems to be to create a theological and political counterweight to the Southern Baptist Convention, which many of the groups that plan to attend have left....

Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/27/us/27baptists.html?hp

[msongs]

1. fundies will always be fundies no matter how they masquerade as something else

if you don't belong to their club you are going to hell when you die and that's the end of it.
been there done that with their cult views.

Msongs

[Miss Chybil]

2. Do you think Jimmy Carter is a fundie? nt

[Adsos Letter]

4. I don't care if they are fundie or progressive...

I call upon religion in America to restore and actively maintain Church/State seperation...it would be a good sign if they did it themselves, since our current SCOTUS seems to be headed in a wrong direction on this issue.

I don't hold much hope for this, btw.

[davidinalameda]

3. so every Christian is a fundie?

or are you just getting that big paint brush out and painting every person of faith a fundie?

[struggle4progress]

5. I've never been ashamed of voting for that Carter fellow twice

[notadmblnd]

6. I watched a program on PBS last night that was talking about the zealots

toning down their stances on political issues and discontinuing their rants on issues like gays and abortion from the pulpit. They are learning that it divides their churches and causes many members to leave and they can't have that. All I can say is; that it is about damn time they put their religion back where it belongs.... in their own personal lives.

[DeepModem Mom]

7. Yes, and if this is a step in that direction, I welcome it. The "Religious" Right...

has driven our political life in recent years. Thank God -- so to speak -- there are signs the stranglehold they had on our national life is ending.

[notadmblnd]

9. it is cyclical you know?

At the end/beginning of every millennium, religion(s) increase in popularity. I think it has something to do with superstition and the belief that the world is coming to an end, and that it makes many of us sinners want to make it right with "god" before that end comes. I figure that as we get into the middle part of the century, religion will become more obscure. You know, it's a funny thing about Christianity, many think that as long as you get in that repentance line before the clock strikes Armageddon, it's ok to commit all the hating and sinning and misery causing that they can.

[DeepModem Mom]

10. It has been cyclical in this country, I know. I'd have to read back...

in American history to try and figure out if religion has, in our history, played a part in politics as big as in the last few years. It does come to mind, however, that it played a positive role, I think, in the abolition of slavery -- which I guess is the kind of thing these modern reformers have in mind.

[notadmblnd]

11. Thsi looks like a pretty good timeline and yes, the religious have always tried to have a big

influence. Here are a few excerpts and I'll post the link when I'm done.

April 29, 1607 At Cape Henry, Virginia, the first Anglican (Episcopal) church in the American colonies was established.

September 16, 1620 The Mayflower left Plymouth, England with 102 Pilgrims aboard. The ship would arrive at Provincetown on November 21st and then at Plymouth on December 26th.

March 05, 1623 The Virginia colony enacted the first American temperance law.

September 06, 1628 Puritan colonists landed at Salem and started the Massachusetts Bay Colony

June 30, 1629 Samuel Skelton was elected the first pastor of Salem, Massachusetts. The church covenant created by Skelton made his congregation the first non-separating congregational Puritan Church in New England.

February 05, 1631 Roger Williams first arrived in North America. He would soon question the rigid religious policies in the Massachusetts colony, leading to his being banished to Rhode Island five years later. There he would create the first Baptist church in America.

May 18, 1631 The General Court of the Massachusetts issued the decree that "no man shall be admitted to the body politic but such as are members of some of the churches within the limits" of the colony.

October 09, 1635 Roger Williams was banished from Massachusetts. Williams had argued against civil punishments for religious crimes and, as a result of his expulsion from the colony, he founded the town of Providence and the new colony of Rhode Island, specifically as a place of refuge for those seeking religious freedom.

September 08, 1636 Harvard College (later University) was founded by the Massachusetts Puritans at New Towne. It was the first institution of higher learning established in North America, and was originally created to train future ministers.

March 22, 1638 Religious dissident Anne Hutchinson was expelled from the Massachusetts Bay Colony as punishment for heresy.

May 03, 1675 Massachusetts passed a law that required church doors to be locked during services - evidently to keep people from leaving before the long sermons were finished.

May 11, 1682 After two years, two key laws were repealed by the General Court of Massachusetts: one which prohibited people from observing Christmas and another that set capital punishment for Quakers who returned to the colony after being banished.

February 29, 1692 The Salem Witch Trials began when Tituba, the female slave of the Reverend Samuel Parris, Sarah Goode, and Sarah Osborne were all arrested and accused of witchcraft.

December 12, 1712 The colony of South Carolina passed a "Sunday Law" which required everyone to attend church each Sunday and to refrain from both skilled labor and traveling by horse or wagon beyond what was absolutely necessary. Violators received a fine and/or a two hours in the village stocks.

This next one supports what I was saying in my OP:

July 08, 1741 Jonathan Edwards preached his classic sermon, 'Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God,' a key step in the beginning of New England's Great Awakening.
June 22, 1750 Jonathan Edwards was dismissed from his post as minister of the Congregational church in Northampton, MA. He had been there fore 23 years, but his ultra-conservative theology never wavered and over time both it and his inflexibility on administrative matters had become too much for the congregation.

December 25, 1789 During the first Christmas under America's new Constitution, the Congress was in session. This fact may seem odd today, but at the time Christmas was no t a major Christian holiday. As a matter of fact, Christmas had a bad reputation among many Christians as a time of un-Christian excess and partying. Between 1659 and 1681, celebrating Christmas was actually illegal in Boston and anti-Christmas sentiment in the North prevented the day from becoming a national holiday until 1870.

it gos on and on.. but you can clearly see the influence

http://atheism.about.com/library/FAQs/religion/blrel_amrel_chron.htm

[Adsos Letter]

12. Even "Progressive" Christianity can wield undue influence in politics...

For an example of Progressive Christianity's willingness to embrace war as a means of forwarding progressive ideals, see:

"The War for Righteousness: Progressive Christianity, the Great War, and the Rise of the Messianic Nation." by Richard Gamble.

http://www.amazon.com/War-Righteousness-Progressive-Christianity-Messianic/dp/1932236163/ref=pd_bbs_sr_3?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1201389826&sr=1-3

The reviews are worth a read, also.

Gamble's work focuses on the political influence of Progressive Christian leaders in accepting, and promoting, America's entry into WWI as a way of furthering Progressive ideals worldwide.

Separation of Church and State is a fundamental to a free society, imo.

[DeepModem Mom]

14. Thanks, notadmblnd! nt

[calimary]

13. One would hope so. It depends on how much clout they wind up having.

But I did find this, that gives me a teeny spark of hope anyway...

http://www.opednews.com/articles/1/opedne_william__080125_think_you_know_the_g.htm

Interesting reading. Fairly uplifting, too. I hope it's true. But knowing some of the forces involved overall, I reserve judgment.

[LiberalFighter]

8. Not going to happen

Geography, race, and human differences. It's easier to question authority and difficult for the leaders to control those under them.

[CatholicEdHead]

15. Many are jumping ship to the Catholic Church

and going as conservative as possible. The converts are extreme zealots wanting to kick us cradle Catholics out for questioning one thing.