Blogosphere Reactions To New Baptist Covenant

Reaction to the New Baptist Covenant Celebration has been negative in the Southern Baptist blogosphere. Surprise. Surprise. A friend of mine and Southeastern Seminary employee - Nathan Finn - asked on his blog whether any of those in attendance will write anything critical about the Celebration. Nathan expects us New Covenant Baptists to "gush about the whole thing." Well, I will rise to the occasion. The press room went light on the Diet Cokes. Who drinks REAL Coca-Cola's anymore anyways? Oh, and since we were in Georgia, why not replace Grant Teaff with Mark Richt. Coach Richt is a Baptist, brought to Christ by the great Bobby Bowden and has a powerful testimony. I am a Georgia Bulldawg after all. And Teaff's Bears could never have survived 4 quarters between the hedges against Richt's Dawgs!

Ok, that's the end of my criticisms.

So, here are a few reactions from Southern Baptist bloggers who did not attend the Celebration.

One blogger referred to the Celebration as "hogwash." David Worley who pastors a small church in the hills of Tennesse wrote:

"The New Baptist Covenant is a very bad thing that I certainly do not want the Southern Baptist Convention to be a part of. I pray that we will never be involved in an organization such as this, and shame on any Baptists that does get involved in such hogwash."

Another blogger wrote, "The heart of the NBC is not a good thing. Therefore, the NBC cannot be a good thing. Rationale: If the core has worms in it, the fruit will make you sick. Sick is bad."

David Roach, pastor and part-time pretend journalist for Baptist Press wrote, "At the meeting in Atlanta I heard a religion espoused that is different from the religion I practice."

Now, a handful of reactions from those who ACTUALLY made the trek to Atlanta with an open-heart and an open-mind.

Professor Mark Osler of Baylor Law School:

If ever there was a table of brotherhood set before us, it was this week in Georgia. I hoped that, above all else, it would be a moment of racial reconciliation, and that turned out to be right.

Dwight McKissic, Southern Baptist pastor of Cornerstone Baptist in Fort Worth on NBC:

"That was like heaven on Earth to me," said Dwight McKissic, pastor of predominantly black Cornerstone Baptist Church in Arlington. "I enjoyed the high church music of the Mercer [University] choir as much as I did the black Baptist choir."

"Transplanted Georgia Gal" of A Drafty Place blog:

I could tell you about all of that, and maybe you would be skeptical as I had been, or maybe the skeptic in you would take a break for awhile, like the one in me did, and maybe something like hope would start to rise in you, like it has in me, and like it seemed to do in thousands of other people. And the hope was this – the love of God in Christ, and what that love sets us free to do, together. I was an eyewitness to majesty this week, and that majesty did not look the way we tend to think it does. No purple mountains. No royal robes. No velvet thrones. No angels or archangels. No ecstatic visions of heavenly light. That majesty was regular women and men, black, white, and brown, sitting shoulder-to-shoulder, and sometimes hand-in-hand, seeking transformation and transfiguration towards Christ’s purposes, together.

Wilson of BoilerBabe blog:

The New Baptist Covenant Celebration was truly something special. I'm not sure what I expected, but I found the past three days more inspirational, more affirming, more provocative than I ever imagined.

Baranabas File:

God blessed this time in Atlanta. Let us pray that God will continue this blessing in the coming days.

Young Mike:

When the first hymn began, tears almost began to fall (and if you know me, that is VERY strange). When we held hands later in the service during a prayer, for the first time in my life in a worship service, I did not hold a white hand. When we began to disperse, the African American persons with whom I had just worshiped God, spontaneously hugged me and I hugged them back.

Now the cynic in me is mocking me, screaming, “KUMBAYA! MY LORD!” and trying to get me to erase the paragraphs above. But I’m not going to do that. What happened last night was very real. I wouldn’t want to make it into more than it actually was, and there are some “youth-camp invitation” aspects to it. But for the first time in a very long time, I was actually proud to be a Baptist. For the first time, maybe ever, I was looking forward to reading the papers and seeing what they might write about a group of gathered Baptist Christians. And for the first time in quite a while, I think I actually worshiped. It was a good night.

Joe Phelps, Pastor, Highland Park Baptist, Louisville, Kentucky:

What we are discovering is that there is a profound difference between sectarian partisan politics that seeks power, and politics that selflessly focuses on the common good of all people regardless or religion or practice. The New Baptist Covenant was political but not partisan. It talked about Jesus’ concerns for poverty, child welfare, equality, the environment, and other issues that affect the common good. It never once came close to promoting one candidate or party over the other, but rather held up those concerns that we believe Jesus would champion. This felt faithful to our Baptist heritage and to the people of our communities who need us to be our best.

Peggy Hester:

Finally we decided the only way to save the experience was to share it with as many as we could, to testify to the power of the Love that had held us close as strangers and angels unaware in Atlanta, Georgia for a short time. We were being redeemed and we knew it.

Thanks be to God for all that has been in Baptist history, for Roger Williams and his commitment to religious freedom, for all the Aunt Thelma’s and Lottie Moon’s who found ways to be ministers even when men denied them their call, for our wandering in the wilderness of disintegration and despair as a people, for the new generation that has raised up untouched by the tar brush of anger and loss, for all who showed up for this new Baptist covenant. Our future is held in the loving arms of Jesus and I give thanks. Don’t let my feet touch ground anytime soon, Lord.

Tony Cartledge, Professor, Campbell University Divinity School:

It was, I think, the finest Baptist meeting I've ever attended in America. The spirit of hopefulness, the desire to forge new relationships, and the determination to celebrate an inclusive understanding of "Baptist" were all invigorating, reminiscent in some ways of the first two or three gatherings of the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship.

And David Lowrie, Southern Baptist blogger and Texas Baptist pastor who did not attend the Celebration had this to say:

As the NBC closed, the question of the day revolved around whether we witness a wonderful “moment” in Baptist history or the beginning of a “movement”. I hope and pray we witnessed the birth of a movement that will inspire us to lay aside our differences and rally together for the sake of the Kingdom of God on earth.

I have more than a few thoughts of my own. I'm going to sit on those for a few days so that I can catch up on all my school work!