Wake Forest To Host New Baptist Covenant Gathering

4 Regional Gatherings of the New Baptist Covenant have now been announced for 2009.

2009 marks the 400th Anniversary of Baptists.

Here they are:

1. Wake Forest University (April 24-25, Press Release, Southeast Region)

Wake Forest University School of Divinity will host the Southeast regional gathering of the New Baptist Covenant, April 24-25, 2009. Maya Angelou, Reynolds Professor of American Studies at Wake Forest, will deliver the opening address and President Jimmy Carter will present the closing address. The theme of the conference is “This is God’s Year to Act: Responding to a Society in Crisis.” The conference is free and open to the public....A Friday evening dinner sponsored by Baptists Today magazine will honor James Dunn, Resident Professor of Christianity and Public Policy at the School of Divinity, with a lifetime achievement award.

2. Norman, Oklahoma (August 6-7, Press Release, Midwest Region)

The Steering Committee for the New Baptist Covenant Midwest Region is pleased to announce that the New Convention Center in Norman, Oklahoma has been selected for the first ever meeting of the Midwest Region of the New Baptist Covenant. The meeting will be held on August 6-7, 2009. Former President Jimmy Carter has agreed to speak at our meeting. We will be celebrating the 400th anniversary of the founding of the Baptist denomination.

3. Kansas City, KS (April 2-4, Press Release, Midwest Region)

In June representatives from Kansas City area Baptist groups, including the National Baptist Convention USA, the National Baptist Convention of America, the Progressive National Baptist Convention, American Baptist Churches USA, the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship, the Southern Baptist Convention, the Baptist General Convention of Missouri, the General Baptist Convention, met for conversation about how to further the efforts begun by the New Baptist Covenant movement in Atlanta earlier this year. The New Baptist Covenant movement, initiated by former President Jimmy Carter, has encouraged regional groups to pursue similar efforts. As a result of the June conversation, the Baptist Border Crossing Network has been formed. A task force made up of representatives of the various Baptist groups is planning a Midwest regional gathering of the Baptist family. The Baptist Border Crossing event will be April 2-4, 2009, at Pleasant Valley Baptist Church in Liberty, Missouri. Participants from all Baptist groups in Kansas, Missouri, Iowa, Illinois, Arkansas, and Nebraska are invited to participate in this historic event.

Plenary speakers for the Baptist Border Crossing event include Tony Campolo, David Coffey, David Goatley, and Carolyn Ann Knight. The task force is pleased to announce that President Jimmy Carter will also participate in the event. Breakout Sessions will be led by facilitators from the various Baptist groups and will deal with issues such as poverty, peacemaking, religious liberty, and diversity.

4. Birmingham, Alabama (January 31, Press Release)

BIRMINGHAM - Birmingham will host a regional gathering of the New Baptist Covenant on Saturday, January 31^st, 2009. The event will be held at 16^th Street Baptist Church and the Birmingham Civil Rights Institute. Former President Jimmy Carter will be present to teach a Bible study and provide a keynote address in the sanctuary of 16^th Street Baptist Church.

See also Brian Kaylor, "Regional New Baptist Covenant Meetings Planned," EthicsDaily.com.

2009 Regional Gathering of the New Baptist Covenant

Here's a snippet from the Birmingham News:

Former President Jimmy Carter plans to teach a Bible study class and be the keynote speaker on Jan. 31 at a regional gathering in Birmingham of the New Baptist Covenant.

The New Baptist Covenant, an informal alliance of more than 30 Baptist groups from throughout North America with a combined membership of more than 20 million, will meet at Sixteenth Street Baptist Church and the Birmingham Civil Rights Institute.

The Rev. Arthur Price, pastor of Sixteenth Street Baptist, and the Rev. Gary Furr, pastor of Vestavia Hills Baptist Church, will serve as co-chairmen of the event's steering committee.

And the Press Release announcing the 2009 Midwest Regional Meeting:

Announcing the New Baptist Covenant Midwest Regional Meeting
At the Norman Convention Center on August 6-7, 2009

In January 2008 more than 15,000 Baptists from across the United States, Canada and Mexico met for the first ever meeting to celebrate a New Baptist Covenant. The covenant represented the commitment of more than 20 million Baptists in North America to fulfill our “obligations as Christians to promote peace with justice, to feed the hungry, to clothe the naked, to shelter the homeless, to care for the sick and the marginalized, welcome the strangers among us, and promote religious liberty and respect for religious diversity.” The covenant also reaffirmed our “commitment to traditional Baptist values, including sharing the gospel of Jesus Christ and its implications for public and private morality.”

The leaders of the New Baptist Covenant, representing more than 80 Baptist Conventions, fellowships and organizations in North America, agreed to meet collectively every three years to renew this commitment. Between these triennial meetings, the leaders of the New Baptist Covenant called for regional meetings that would gather to unite Baptists from our various Conventions, fellowships and organizations to celebrate, exhort, network and encourage one another in fulfilling the obligations of our new Baptist Covenant.

The Steering Committee for the New Baptist Covenant Midwest Region is pleased to announce that the New Convention Center in Norman, Oklahoma has been selected for the first ever meeting of the Midwest Region of the New Baptist Covenant. The meeting will be held on August 6-7, 2009. Former President Jimmy Carter has agreed to speak at our meeting. We will be celebrating the 400th anniversary of the founding of the Baptist denomination.

The New Baptist Covenant Followup Meeting

Statement on March 12 New Baptist Covenant Followup Meeting

About 70 Baptists assembled at The Carter Center on March 12 to assess the hundreds of comments and suggestions that poured in following the New Baptist Covenant assembly in Atlanta. Almost of all of the participants represented conventions, associations, universities, or other organizations. They divided into 10 groups to discuss issues related to evangelism and nine other subjects.

After sharing their reports, there was a more general forum that addressed the long term status of the New Baptist Covenant. An earlier decision was reconfirmed that we would not form a separate official organization, but would continue to build upon the excitement and inspiration that was shared by more than 15,000 of us who attended the Atlanta assembly, and work harmoniously with other Baptists. There was a consensus that we would reconvene the New Baptist Covenant in 2011, in the historic Baptist pattern of triennial meetings. We will be as active as possible during the intervening years. To allow for more diversity, including women and young people, our original steering committee will be expanded from five to about a dozen members.

The possibility of convening at least five regional meetings in the next year as we expand participation in the New Baptist Covenant was explored, including special efforts to encourage participation among young people. Other local New Baptist Covenant gatherings are encouraged.

Expert counseling will be sought concerning how we can assist actively in such major social issues as global warming, health care, poverty, criminal justice, human rights, religious liberty, elimination of nuclear weapons, and peace in the Middle East and elsewhere. Representatives of other Baptist organizations that deploy domestic and foreign missionaries also will be invited for advice on expanded personal participation by individuals, church congregations, and with financial contributions.

In addition to suggestions for our group as a whole, an extensive list of specific recommendations is included below and published on our Website, www.NewBaptistCovenant.org, for church congregations and individual Baptists who desire to expand their Christian ministry by reaching out in their own immediate neighborhoods to other ethnic congregations ministering, in Jesus’ name, to the “poor, the brokenhearted, the captives, the blind, and those who are bruised.”

POSSIBLE ACTIONS, PROJECTS

Over the ensuing weeks following the Celebration of a New Baptist Covenant, hundreds of suggestions and ideas for future action have been generated through feedback from participants. Additional ideas and suggestions were generated during the March 12 follow-up meeting of more than 70 Baptist leaders at the Carter Center.

A sampling of that feedback has been organized into broad categories and is presented here for consideration by individuals, churches and Baptist organizations that have participated in the New Baptist Covenant.

1. Evangelism

• The preeminent commitment of the New Baptist Covenant should always be winning souls to Christ – by word and example – locally and globally. This evangelistic effort should be persistent and well coordinated.
  
  
• Be especially generous, individually and as congregations, in enhancing and supporting the ongoing mission work of Cooperative Baptist Fellowship, African-American conventions, & other Baptist groups
  
  
• Seek domestic and foreign mission projects suitable for individuals, such as providing health and dental care, immunizing the poor, building churches, and giving requested aid to missionary families.

2. Criminal justice

• Enhance prisoner rehabilitation and work to reduce America’s extraordinary prison population – mostly poor, mentally ill, and minorities.

• Individuals and local congregations make regular visits to local prisons. Work with probationers and newly released prisoners, get to know their families, help with employment.

• For some: oppose the death penalty, based on alternative sentences of life without parole and restitution. For others: help guarantee that no more innocent people are executed.

3. Poverty

• Promote/support Baptist World Aid, CARE, and other groups that alleviate suffering from poverty.

• Promote tax policies that help the poor and working class, and support a minimum wage level so that the salary of one fulltime worker raises the family above the poverty level.

• Personally and as a congregation, visit neighborhood persons who are homeless, ill, or extremely poor. Every church should have a fund and an organized schedule for this purpose.

• Each person volunteer one week per year to Habitat for Humanity or other similar organization that serves the poor.

• Join together to clean up neighborhoods, work at shelters, repair homes, clear vacant lots for garden plots, etc.

4. Other faiths

• Support international efforts for reconciliation among Christians and other major religions.

• Locally, reach out to nearby congregations of different ethnic character. Cooperate as “sister churches” with joint worship services, exchanging pastors, combining choirs, etc.

5. Youth

• Encourage formation of New Baptist Covenant organizations among young people, within churches and in nearby colleges and seminaries.

• Encourage young Christians to participate in making church decisions.

7. Peacemaking

• Study and follow Biblical principles of resolving disputes among local people.

8. Discrimination

• Promote compliance with the Universal Declaration of human rights and provisions of the Geneva Convention. Condemn torture & support closing of Guantanamo prison. Combat all forms of human slavery. Publicly support oppressed people, i.e., Darfur, Burma, Palestine.

• Protect and minister to the “strangers among you,” especially illegal & legal immigrants, both in local communities and in public policy.

• Espouse full equality for women, who suffer almost universal discrimination, often supported by religious organizations.

• Protect civil rights of gays and lesbians.

• Break down barriers of race in all walks of life. Personally and as congregations, find ways to reach out to other ethnic groups.

9. Faith, Public policy

• Work toward eliminating abortions; nurture pregnant mothers and babies.

• Condemn filth and racism in public media.

10. Religious liberty, Church and state

• Restore and strengthen the wall between church and state.

• Support the work of the Baptist Joint Committee in promoting religious liberty.

• Report all cases of abused Christians in other nations, and help protect them.

11. Environment, Global warming

• Protect the environment, & support Al Gore’s climate change crusade, joining the New Baptist Covenant’s public endorsement of the Kyoto or Bali treaties and encouragement of the U.S. government to approve.

• In homes and churches, take steps to save energy, shift to renewable sources, use recycle bins, and promote environmental quality. Churches become partners with the U.S. Department of Energy’s Energy Star Program.

12. Suggestions for Enhancing NBC effectiveness

• Refrain from forming an official organization or convention. Never derogate other Christians, and continue reaching out to all other Baptists in a spirit of unity and love.

• Widely publicize our statement of purpose, general goals, and specific commitments adopted at 3/12 meeting, and subsequently issue regular reports of progress. Continue seeking new ideas.

• Utilize existing periodicals to promote our information and ideas, (such as Mainstream Baptists, Baptist World Alliance, the North American Baptist Fellowship, the Baptist Joint Committee on Religious Liberty, Baptists Today, the Ministers & Missionaries Benefit Board, Baptist publishing houses and historical societies, Baptist colleges and seminaries, and Associated Baptist Press.)

• Maintain a high quality and current Website and encourage Internet communication among our supporters.

• Encourage local and regional NBC meetings.

• Provide a list of churches that include supporters of the New Baptist Covenant.

• Utilize specialists at seminaries to guide individual programs/projects adopted by NBC.

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!

Charles G. Adams @ New Baptist Covenant

The Rev. Charles G. Adams of Hartford Baptist Church in Detroit and now Harvard Divinity preached during last night's concluding plenary session of the New Baptist Covenant Celebration.

Adams was impressive - most likely the best sermon that I have ever heard. However, it was impossible to take notes. Adams is a speed-talker. He reads from a manuscript and reads very fast.

Watch the Video.

Below are a few quotes:

"Baptists that sit in our churches have not yet learned that to be a Baptist is to be free in Christ. By definition, we believe in the local autonomy of the church; we believe that the Bible is the only rule of faith and action; we believer in the priesthood of all believers; we believe in believers' baptism; we believe in the liberty of conscience, and we believe in the separation of church and state so that neither will dictate to the other. "

"Once you are in Christ, you are more than a new Creature, you are the beginning of a new Creation. A wide door has been opened. A great eschatlogical freedom has been given to lift us above walls. Towering walls. Social, racial, cultural, political, economic, academic, ideological walls that separate people from people for in fact we need all people. For it isn't enough to be liberal without embracing conservatives because if you're just liberal and not somewhat conservative - you be too loose. And if you're all conservative and not somewhat liberal - you be too rigid. But if any one is in Christ, the walls are down and the doors are open, the highway is clear, the barriers are gone, the restrictions are removed, the shackles are dissolved, the dungeons are shaken and the chains are broken - and there is a new Creation. Just be in Christ. And you become a bona fide citizen of the whole world with Calvary's certified passport and visa stamped and sealed by the Holy Ghost. You can go anywhere, and speak in any language, tackle any problem, face any danger, love anybody and do anything that will bring Glory to God and freedom to people. Just be in Christ. And all things are yours. All people are your people. All churches are your church. All places are your home. And all problems are your challenge to solve them. Just be in Christ. And you are free from loneliness and free for love, free from futility, free for family, free from anxiety, and free for activity. And there are no walls of separation, segregation, isolation, castigation, stigmatization, intimidation - if you are free in Christ you are free indeed. You are totally free and totally obligated."

Transcript of Bill Clinton @ New Baptist Covenant

Click HERE to watch the video of President Clinton's 29 minute speech at the Celebration of a New Baptist Covenant.

I've transcribed Clinton's speech and posted it below. I hope you'll read and come back later for my thoughts on Clinton and the memorable Celebration.

Meanwhile, stop by the blog of Baptists Today editor John Pierce and read his thoughts on Clinton's speech.

Thank you. Thank you very much (APPLAUSE)

Thank you Dr. Smith, President Carter, Mrs. Carter, Distinguished Platform Guests.

First I want to thank the choir for putting me in the right frame of mind.

They were magnificent.

President Underwood, thank you for having me at Mercer a few days ago. I loved it.

Ladies and gentlemen, I met with President Carter and many of the organizers of this meeting some time ago and was asked to come here. I was profoundly honored to do so. And I have followed this meeting in my otherwise crowded schedule as a free campaign worker. I have followed very closely any news reports that I could get of the proceedings. Obviously, I have read with great admiration and great agreement the comments of Vice President Gore, of my great friend Tony Campolo, and my wife's first boss - Marian Wright Edelman about poverty. Of John Grisham who I was told when I became President was my 17th cousin and I might add as far as I can tell, the only relative I ever had worth any money - about the importance of inclusion in the church. I have followed all of this greatly and the people who work for me prepared some remarks for me which talked about the work that I do that I thought was consistent with my faith with the purposes of this covenant. But I have decided not to give them. But instead to try to describe as nearly as Ican how we might achieve the purposes of this meeting - which is to go beyond those of us in this crowd, not to find a solution to the deep rift that has occured in the Baptist family but to find a journey that we might begin together. APPLAUSE

Since never in my life was I as active in my church as President and Mrs. Carter have been, I may not have any observation worth noting but I think this is more important than have one more person say: "I'm trying to do what you guess are for." There's no point in preaching to the choir. The Baptist Church of my childhood, the one I joined in Hot Springs, Arkansas when I professed my faith in Jesus Christ was overwhelmingly concerned with personal salvation, with preaching the Gospel and mission work. It's community involvement was largely limited to doing things for poor people around Thanksgiving and Christmas. I suspect that's like the Baptist Church alot of you grew up in. I first became aware that there might be a connection between my religious convictions and my political beliefs as a child when I heard Martin Luther King preach. Like many people in there young adulthood, I drifted away from my church. But when I moved to Little Rock and became Governor, I joined Emmanuel Baptist Church. We had a great preacher named W. Ovault who has been dead for some time now. He started going to the Holy Land in 1938 and decided sometime in the late 1950s that he should trade in his hellfire and brimstone preachin' style for a serious study of the Scripture. So, every Sunday morning was like a joyous college seminar. As a man who could read the oldest known text in Greek would take us through book by book of the Bible, Scripture by Scripture and attempt to explain what the real meaning of the words were. He wrote a little book called "Belief Plus Nothing" which indicated his conviction that as most of us believe that a profession of faith is sufficient to insure salvation - which is way so many of us have yolks about death bed conversions. Or reverse yolks. When I started out in politics, I went to visit an 80 year old man who could still laugh about his life. Bill, I may not have long to live but I'm thinking about changing my party registration because I'd rather them lose one than us. (LAUGHTER)

In the 1970s and 1980s, it seemed to be that there was an awakening of Baptists of all political stripes to the admonition of the Book of James - that people would know our faith by our works. I think honest people drew different conclusions about what the admonitions of James required. The conservatives took over the Baptist Convention. They believe that to show their faith by their works they had to become more political on issues of abortion, NRS, women's role in the church, gay rights, and a whole host of other issues. Those of us who disagreed were horrified when President Carter was once asked to abandon his secular humanism. We thought he was a pretty good example of a devout Baptist and a faithful follower of Christ (APPLAUSE).

The theological basis on which these positions rested it seemed was the proposition taht the Bible was literally true and once you understood its literal meaning, it was possible to know what God intended us to do about every conceivable political question alive in the day. And in knowing God's well if we did not do it, we had committed not just a political error but a religious heresy.

Now when all this was going on - most people in my church went on just as before. And I think most Baptists did. They showed up for Sunday School. They showed up for Church. They tithed or they didn't (LAUGHTER). They were Republicans or Democrats. They cared about poverty or civil rights or economic growth or whatever else. But they thought they were being faithful to the traditional tenets of baptistry - the idea that salvation was personal and could only be ratified by baptism when one was old enough to know what one was doing. Which by definition implied that we accepted independence of thought and judgment. That churches should be independent. Our church did not assign pastors when vacancies occured, people were called to their churches by their congregations. And yet, those who read the book of James differently felt that the Bible being literally true required them to dictate the theology for all Baptists. And so the rift occurred.

In reaction, many progressive Baptists got more active than every before in the things that they had always believed in - but they were free-er somehow to belive that their reading of the Scripture impeled them to do more for poverty, to protect God's environment, to deal with problems like housing. Clearly, we have all cheered the work of President and Mrs. Carter in dealing with Habitat for Humanity as an expression of their Christian faith (APPLAUSE).

Indeed, I watched all this with a unique perspective because when I was a student in college, I went to a Cathlic university - Georgetown University - and I thought we were behaving, those of us who didn't agree with the drift of the church as if we believe in the periodic bishop statements of the Catholic mission. And I thought that was a good thing - that maybe Christianity beyond baptistry was coming together aroudn a new consensus.

After I became President, I continued to attend my local church whenever I was in Arkansas but I started to attend a Methodist church with Hillary and Chelsea whenever I was in Washington. They felt comfortable with the Methodist social mission of John Wesley. They always believed that they were supposed to do more for the poor. It was a wonderful experience for my daughter; she was sent to Appalachia with people from her youth group at church to work with desperately poor people. And she came back with a much finer appreciation for what life is like for many people who are unseen by the rest of us. She went to a Quaker school which provided as a condition of graduation that the children engage in community service. And again, she learned that working together, people weren't so different after all.

After I left the White House, I continued to support my local church in Arkansas but when in New York, I got to a tiny little Methodist church with Hillary when she's home where there are lots of poor people, not much money and because of my current good fortune I find that giving them what I thought was a modest contribution helps them to keep the doors open. Their very opening each Sunday is a social mission because poor people would have no place else to go.

Now, I say this because all of us have come here with high spirits and heavy hearts. We sense that there is something wrong when those of us were joined to the Baptist Church either out of birth or family or out of absolute conviction have drifted so far apart. Most of us here have found our feelings and our thoughts articulated more clearly than we otherwise could have in President Carter's book, Our Endangered Values. We believe that the most important thing is an individual's direct relationship with Christ. We believe in the independence of churches. We believe in baptism at the age of consent because we believe that people should be thinking.

It has been sad to me to see the reaction of this meeting to some people who have accused it of being a veiled agenda for liberals, whatever that is. I respect Rev. Page. I was glad when he was elected President of the Convention. And I've had some good conversations with him. And I don't think we ought to give up. I was sorry when Governor Huckabee didn't come here. We were born in the same town and I consider him my friend even though we have lots of political disagreements. I have found that he has a generosity of spirit which keeps him from being mad all the time when he's disagreeing with me. (LAUGHTER) And when he, as Governor, he did have the best program in the country for fighting childhood obesity and trying to save our children's lives and promoting the body as the temple of God.

I was delighted when I heard just on coming here that Senator Grassley had come because I have watched him on occasion defy the conventional wisdom of his party and his stated philosophy to reach to the human core of an issue. And, so I say this in all good conscience. I could talk to you about the work we do on six continents against Climate Change or the 750,000 people we keep alive with the world's least expensive high quality AIDS medicine or a number of things BUT that's not the point. We all do what we can. And we all believe we are fulfilling God's will in our lives. The point that I want to make is SO DO THEY.

They read the obligations of the Scripture in a different way. I almost feel like Rodney King sometimes - Can't we all just get along? But here is what I think the nub of the problem is and what our only chance of resolving it is. In my first or second year as President, I think it was the first year, when the conservatives were in full control of the Southern Baptist Convention, a remarkable minister named Ed Young as the President. He was then in Texas and I believe he's now in Nashville. I still watch him on Sunday's every chance I get. He's a great preacher. And a very nice man. And someone introduced a resolution in the Baptist convention to kick my church out of the convention unless they kick me out of the church. Not because I was a sinner, they conceded we all are, but because my positions were not correct. By then I confess, I had become quite alienated because it was no longer possible for me to join...most Baptists suggested ignoring this because we had an interim pastor in our church who was in his real life a professor at one of the seminary's and he was purged for political incorrectness. I respected him. I cared for him. And I knew he was a man of God and a follower of Christ. But Reverend Young reached out to me. And he asked if Al Gore and I would have breakfast with him. And if I would go jogging with him up and down the mall of Washington first. As I remember, he was a little younger and a little fitter than I was. But I managed to keep up.

And we had a remarkable breakfast on the Truman balcony at the White House, sitting outside and talking, and Al Gore was there, and Al engaged him in an issue he debate. He said, 'ya know I love my Baptist roots but I have three daughters and a son and I don't think it's right that only I could become a minister" - so they argued about that. It was a good argument - respectful and good. And I was trying to keep things from getting out of hand (LAUGHTER), trying to be a repairer of the bridge before the bridge needed to be repaired. And I remembered saying, you know, the main thing about our faith is that it takes away the sin of pain and imperfection. Ya know, the most beautiful words in the Old Testament are the words of Isaiah where God says - "I have redeemed you. I have called you by your name. You are mine. Therefore we need not be afraid."

We talked some more. And then we returned to the disputes. And this is I think the nub of our challenge. And remember, I like this man. I admire his sermons. I think he is a good man. But he looks at me and said: "I want to ask you a question, a simple question and I just want a yes or no answer. I don't want one of those slick political answers. Just answer me yes or no. Do you believe the Bible is literally true? Yes or No?"

I said, Reverend Young, I think it is completely true, but I do not believe you or I or any other living person is wise enough to understand it completely.(APPLAUSE) He said, "That's a political answer."

I said, No it's not. You asked a political question. I said, it is not. So we talked on. And I said, look I know you believe what you're saying. But let me explain why I answered the way that I did. To me, if you're looking for guidance on how to relate to other people in political or other matters beyond the affairs of the church, the most important verse in the New Testament for Christians to read is 1 Corinthians 13:12. 12, the verse before "And now abideth faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love."

Not romantic love but agape. Love for one's fellow human beings. Why could that be possibly more important than faith when the Baptists preach that belief in Jesus is the key to salvation, what could Paul have possibly been talking about. I'm not a minister. I just read and think. All I know is what I think. But in the King James Version, Paul is comparing life on earth today as it is with all of its warts as we find it with life after death in God. And you all know the verse. But think about it. But not as it's read at weddings - it almost doesn't belong there. Think about it as a guide for life, and politics and how we relate to one another. "For now I see through a glass darkly; but then face to face, now I know in part; but then I shall know even as I am known. And now abideth faith, hope and love but the greatest of these is love."

The reason why we have to put love above everything else is because we see through a glass darkly and know in part. Therefore, it almost doesn't matter whether the Bible is literally true. Because we see through a glass darkly. Humility is the order of the day. The reason we have to love each other is because we all might be wrong. (APPLAUSE) And so, I don't think Al Gore is wrong. I think he's right. And I was thrilled when he won the Nobel Prize. I love Tony Campolo as my own flesh and blood. I admire Marian Wright Edelman more than virtually any woman than I have ever known. And John Grisham is a good and wise human being.

But we did not come here to ratify each other's good deeds. We came here to seek a Covenant of reconciliation. Can we get it? I don't think so, not right away. Should we abandon what we're doing? Not on your life. Should we abandon what we believe? No, we should redouble our efforts to serve the poor, the sick, the needy, to reach across the world and bring a divided and broken world together. But we should not let our response to the people who disagree with us be dictated by what they say about us or even how they treat people that we care for (APPLAUSE). If there is any chance, any chance, that this Covenant can become an embracing one, that there could once again be a whole community then there has to be the chance of of Love, the chance that we might not give up our differences but find that our common humanity matters more. The fact that we can embrace our humanity one believing in a certain theological absolutism and the other saying "All I know is, I just know in part, I just know in part, I'm doing the very best I can, but I see through this glass darkly and this is what my conscience as a Baptist and as a Christian tells me to do."

Many evangelicals around America are caring more about AIDS and I applaud them. The Southern Baptist Convention apologized for slavery and for its segregation and discrimination. An I applaud them. Many people who think they are theological conservatives are doing more for the poor, care more about Africa, care about Climate change and I applaud it. I do not think the answer to this dillema that developed over decades and was in reaction to all kinds of developments which were way outside of the biblical sphere can be resolved in a day, week or year. It's a journey.

If we want them to take a journey with us we have to do two things. Find things we can do together. And we have to treat them with respect and honor and believe that they think they are right just as strongly as we do. When I was 13 years old, I had a science teacher who was an ex-coach. To put it charitably, he was not a handsome man. He wore coke-bottle glasses, clothes that were too tight for his heavy frame, and he smoked cheap cigars in an old cigar holder that caused his mouth to pucker all the time. But we was one wise rascal. But he told us now almost 50 years ago, "kids you're not going to learn anything in 8th grade science but if you don't remember anything I tell you, remember this, every morning I get up and I go into the bathroom, throw water on my face, put my shaving cream on, wipe my face and say Veron you're beautiful!"

Everybody believes that they are beautiful or right or good. We have to meet this schism with respectful disagreement. President Carter aided the search for reconciliation by writing that book. He did not impede it. Our Endangered Values helped us all to clarify what we think. But we must approach those with which we disagree with an outstretched hand and not a clenched fist.

And I will say again, no matter what condemnation is leveled at this movement - you must respond with the spirit of love. You must find something to do, surely there is something we can do together and we must say to them, we respect your view, but we can not accept it, not because we know whether the Bible is literally true but because its hard enough for us to find out who said what when the very first time. We're still giving Ph.D. to people trying to figure that out. But even if we knew we still would see through a glass darkly. We still would know in part. If we didn't see through a glass darkly and know in part, we'd be the sons and daughters of God. We would not need Jesus. We would not need salvation. We would not need anything.

So, I say to you, this is a wonderful beginning, I am thrilled every day to read the articles of what others have said here. But when you leave here, remember why you came. If we're going to form a Covenant which can embrace the whole body of the Baptist Church which every Christian can identify with and every good human being on Earth can applaud, it is the spirit with which we go forward and our determination to offer specific things that we can do as Children of God that will determine how it comes out in the end.

Thank you for trying. And God Bless You All

James Forbes On Healing @ New Baptist Covenant

I just heard Rev. James A. Forbes preach at the Prophetic Preaching conference here at the Celebration of a New Baptist Covenant.

Forbes is the President & Founder of Healing of the Nations Foundation and is the Senior Minister Emeritus of The Riverside Church in New York City. His sermon was entitled "Calling for the Elders of the Church" (Ezekiel 47:6-12; James 5:13-18)

Several years back, Baylor University called James A. Forbes one of the 12 Most Effective Preachers in the English-speaking World.

I've now heard Forbes preach twice. And he doesn't disappoint. He's loud. He twists. He turns. And sometimes Forbes breaks out and dances. He's also known to bust a rap. But all of his sermons have great content and are both intellectually stimulating and downright inspiring.

You can listen to his sermon here.

http://us.share.geocities.com/aaronweaver21/JamesForbes.mp3

Below are a few snippets:

I will bless the Lord at all times, God's praise shall continually be in my mouth. Behold, how good it is and pleasant it is for brothers and sisters to dwell together in Unity. Particularly for when many years they have served often in isolation from one another BUT by the mercy of God ave been convened to come into the same places and be nourished by the spirit and the spirit speaks in one another....

When barriers fall which have separated the people of God for a long time there is an excitement in heaven and actually the spirit shows up in a very special way. You can feel the heart warming presence of the spirit because Jesus’ last will and testament having been opened and probated.

On Baptists:

Why do all these people spend all their time and fuss fighting. SHAKE SHAKE SHAKE SHAKE IT OFF. Somebody need healing somewhere. If we could stop so much doctrinal fighting and fussing and shake some dust, and start some healing. Just make sure when they kick you out....APPLAUSE, DANCING..... From this experience I have understood that healing is such a central part that even when Peter was no longer in part of his youth, he no longer had to preach quite as hard but even if he believed in the presence of God, even his shadow would heal.

All I want you to do a remind folks that healing is still on God’s mind and furthermore that God is calling Christians to reconsider a real problem. The plan is that healing in the church has become a specialization of denomination, healing has become a professionalization, if you’re not Benny Hinn and some of these pastors that have their healing cloth. You don’t have become a professional healer, I got news for you if you are the child of God and you have been made in the image of god and if what God does that what you do. That means . You are a healer. You got healing power inside yourself and if you don’t use the power to heal someone else that same power will make you sick. That’s why you’re sick that’s why there's so much division, that’s why there is so much separation because we have forgotten the healing ministry that is at the heart of the Christian faith and everybody in here you got healing power in you.

Here is what the sermon was about (LAUGHTER): asking Baptists to repent for having turned healing over to Pentecostalism

Senator Chuck Grassley Speaks, Press Conference

Just returned from the press conference with Republican Senator Chuck Grassley of Iowa.

Senator Grassley spoke at this morning's plenary session of The New Baptist Covenant on the challenges of public policy and feeding the hungry world. Grassley discussed the need for the dissemination of scientific ideas towards increasing food production and the positive effects of trade liberalization on ending world hunger. You can watch that Video here. And please, watch these videos before you (non-NBC supporters) make sweeping accusations and unfounded claims.

Here's a quote from Grassley's speech:

"Each of us here today is unity by an even greater bond, our faith - here today we Celebrate Unity in Jesus Christ....Our faith can help bridge differences...As Baptists, we're committed to promoting equality, peace and justice in the world...The New Baptist Covenant offers a chance for us to bear witness for Jesus Christ's Love For All"

As most know (blogged about here and here), Senator Grassley has launched an investigation into the ministries of six prominent televangelists for possible financial misconduct. These six Prosperity Gospel peddlers include Paula White, Joyce Meyer, Creflo Dollar, Eddie Long, Kenneth Copeland and Benny Hinn. Grassley is trying to determine whether or not these ministers and their ministries are improperly using their tax-exempt status as churches to shield lavish lifestyles.

Thoughts and Notes from the Press Conference, Video here.

Frank Lockwood of the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette (and Bible Belt Blogger) asked Grassley how he - as a Christian - felt about political fundraisers being held in a church sanctuary. A good question and I hoped for Grassley to give a personal answer. As a graduate student in Church-State Studies and as a Baptist, I hoped Grassley would retort that such fundraisers are unethical and an inappropriate mix of religion and politics.

Grassley did not do that. Sounding more like a lawyer (which he isn’t), Grassley noted that whether said fundraiser violated non-profit status is a legal matter. True. Though, that’s not the type of response that the question was intended to produce. Although just a bit later in the press conference, Grassley declared that his rule of thumb on these type of important church-state issues is: “Any minister ought to {be able} to do anything that Jesse Jackson can do!”

On the subjection of the investigation, Grassley pointed out that except for Jack Abramoff (who is in prison), every single time that he has asked for info from non-profits, his request was granted. Currently, two of the six ministries have not complied with Grassley’s request for their financial records. The Rev. Creflo Dollar of Atlanta has stated that he will not comply with the request unless a subpoena is issued.

Grassley also claimed to have no personal grudge. He claimed to not even know the names of the televangelists targeted by his investigation. While that’s actually rather hard to believe, I believe the man. He called Creflo Dollar by the wrong name and didn’t seem to realize that Creflo’s World Changers ministry is located here in the ATL. Grassley also referred to Joyce Meyer as Patricia. He even claimed to have no understanding of the Prosperity Gospel. Either the Senator is accomplished at playing dumb or he really is no theologian and not the most informed person. However, Grassley is dead wrong on at least one point. His investigation is not simply an issue of tax law. If Grassley overreaches in his inquiry, there could be far-reaching consequences for church-state issues. All religious liberty advocates should continue to keep a close eye on Grassley’s investigation.

*Grassley grew up in a Baptist congregation aligned with the General Association of Regular Baptists. He is now a member of Prairie Lakes Church which until 1998 was affiliated with ABC-USA and is now affiliated with the Baptist General Conference. Grassley cracked that while some in his church saw fit to remove Baptist from the church sign out front, he was not embarrassed of being a Baptist.

Reflections On The Al Gore Luncheon

I saw an Inconvenient Truth when it first came out in 2005. I was inspired then – but left feeling like I hadn’t heard anything new from when I was an environmental studies major at Baylor University.

At the Stewardship of the Earth luncheon today with Al Gore at the Celebration of a New Baptist Covenant, I had a much stronger reaction – what I would term a response to the call to action, a renewing of my faith and my resolve that Creation Care is the appropriate response to the Gospel.

Gore told us that in Japanese, there are two characters for the word “crisis”: danger and opportunity. In the few years since the movie came out, the climate change has become a greater crisis.

We have the great opportunity, then, to do things better. Climate change is a moral and ethical issue. It is not a theory to debate philosophically.

I was an environmental studies major. I am an environmentalist. For two main reasons:

One) I believe that God created the heavens and the earth and said it was GOOD. And God created us to be stewards of the Creation.

Two) Stewardship of the earth, care of creation, means care of all creation: including those created in God’s OWN IMAGE.

This is what I was convicted of again through Al Gore’s presentation: Climate Change affects the poor and downtrodden the most significantly, and they are LEAST responsible for it.

If we are to love our neighbor, then we MUST be engaged in changing policies and attitudes towards the global climate. The world is waiting for us, the ONLY developed country not to join in the Kyoto Protocol, to be the world leader we claim to be. A new world compact on climate change is in the works, and the US can choose to be a partner to help reverse the impacts of global climate change. If you don’t think that policies on climate change matter, look at this picture of the border between Haiti and the Dominican Republic. You can see the complete devastation of deforestation in Haiti (where the per capita GDP is $713 and civil unrest due to poverty is rampant) on the left. On the right is the Dominican Republic where they have chosen to use their environmental resources as an economic asset, thus preserving their forests. This is an example of exposing the fallacy that protecting the environment and economic success are at odds (another theme Gore touched on).

Al Gore presented the scientific facts (you can look them up, watch the video, watch an Inconvenient Truth). But he also presented Biblical foundations and facts about the effect of climate change on humanity. Over 70% of the world gets its water supply from the 7 rivers whose source is the Himalayan glaciers. These are melting, changing the availability of water, creating alternate drought and flood events, and significantly impacting the ability of the poor of these areas to access water.

The earth is the Lord’s and the fullness thereof. The environment is not a singular issue that we can choose to avoid if it doesn’t fit our particular ‘mission’. Creation care affects every single other aspect of our lives and our ministries. To ignore the Creation and the effects of humanity on it (and on the rest of humanity), I believe significantly hinders the Gospel.

This is a problem that is solvable- the money, the technology, the commitment. Well, mostly on the commitment. We need the political will- as Americans we are responsible for 30% of the CO2 emissions in the world, which is more than the rest of the world except for Europe combined. Since we are part of the problem, we CERTAINLY must be part of the solution. We need to respond to this call—to be stewards of the Creation, entrusted to us by the Creator.

This guest commentary was written by Alexis Cooper, Young Adult Coordinator, Texas Baptist Young Professional Network, BGCT Christian Life Commission

Julie Pennington-Russell @ Covenant Celebration

Tonight’s sermon at the Celebration of a New Baptist Covenant was given by Julie Pennington-Russell, Senior Pastor of the historic First Baptist Church, Decatur, Georgia. Before coming to Decatur, Julie was my pastor at Calvary Baptist Church in Waco, Texas. Read my past posts about her here. The title of Pastor Julie’s sermon was “The Bible Speaks About Respecting Diversity.”

You can watch the Video HERE. Below are a few snippets from her sermon.

On Our Big Baptist Tent:

“Friends, that is no small accomplishment, we do have some diversity. At least this week we have racial diversity. Thank You Jesus!

We have other differences as well. Theological differences. We Baptists are People of the Book. We look to the pages of this Book, looking for guidance on every subject: War, Women in Church Leadership, Borrowing Money, Creation Care, Alcohol Consumption, Peacemaking, Speaking in Tongues, Role and authority of pastor in the church, miracles, interfaith relationships, abortion, immigration, death penalty, and human sexuality.

Some of our differences are small and some of our differences are substantial but as Baptists we agree to respect each other in our diversity.

A question jogging her mind:

Is this really the gift we came so far to give each other this week? Respecting diversity? Diversity. It’s a fine word. When we’re respectful of each other, God is in that. But truthfully, when you and I open the box and peel back the tissue, is respectfulness the gift we most wanted to find? Or is it something else?

Respect in the end has no power to change something that is fundamentally broken in you and me and between you and me. Only love can do that. Respectfulness is not a bad gift. It’s just that it runs out of steam at the 50 yard line. But love runs all the way down the field like Forest Gump – Out the Endzone and Into the Parking Lot!

The thing that gives me trouble is this. See I know, I have it in my power to be respectful of our differences and can keep you at arms length and even secretly harbor this prideful satisfaction that I am not like you. Love won’t do that. Love doesn’t give a hoot about propriety. And of course Jesus is the face of Love. And when He was here, didn’t he show us that?

It’s love y’all. Why is that so hard for us? And what they often find instead is pews full of people who seem to have figured out everything about Christianity except that it’s about Love. Above us, let’s not doubt that the love of Jesus Christ in Us and Throug Us has the power to change the world. We’re talking about real power.

Friends, there is power just as free and just as frightening running through your church and this room tonight. The power of love wants to blow a hole in our assumptions about each other. Love will uproot you. Love will dislodge you from the place you’ve been living. It’s love – that’s the gift!

Bill Self Preaches @ New Baptist Covenant

(Bill Self and Otis Moss Jr.)

Bill Self is the Senior Pastor of Johns Creek Baptist Church in Atlanta, GA. His message on the separation of church and state is one of the most powerful that I’ve heard in a long long long time. Check out this quote:

“When Church And State Go To Bed, They Don’t Make Love, They Don’t Create a Child, One Rapes The Other”

Click HERE to listen to Dr. Bill Self's sermon on keeping Church and State Separate.

UPDATE: If the link returns an error message, simply highlight the URL and press enter and it will work. Geocities is having a few glitches. Or try this URL:

http://us.share.geocities.com/aaronweaver21/BillSelf.mp3

Due to problems with Google Blog Searc, I am cross posting all of my posts here at WordPress. Please see www.thebigdaddyweave.com for full news and commentary from The New Baptist Covenant

Otis Moss On Prophetic Preaching, Conscience & Courage

(Bill Self and Otis Moss Jr.)

Otis Moss Jr. just preached at the Prophetic Preaching Conference here at the Celebration of a New Baptist Covenant. I've blogged about this preaching confab in the past. Read about it and the Rev. Otis Moss HERE.

Now, here's is a lengthy snippet from Moss's sermon:

Prophetic Preaching is dangerous. Prophetic preachin can get you killed. Prophetic preaching is not necessarily safe but it is saving. It will not keep you from being killed but it will keep you from being ailler. If we are to live our lives in the prophetic tradition, we must be prepared to struggle and in that struggle, we must be prepared to suffer. But when you have stood the storms of life and when you have been shaken , the ground around the roots of your life will be shaken and when the ground is shaken the roots will grow deeper and the limbs will grow wider and the top grows taller and you become warm and better than you are.

There are some testimonies that we will only make when we have been through the storm. So remember, if you have never been through the storm not to boast about it – it simply means you have no strength. No stones - no strength. No stones - deep roots. Howard Thurman said often in his teachings and preachins that God has placed not on our heads a crown for which we must spend the rest of our lives trying to grow tall enough to wear and I think that growth is enhanced by a special kind of suffering….

When we are committed to the Gospel of Jesus Christ, when we are anointed by God to preach and teach the Gospel – you don’t have to look for suffering, it will come to you in due time sometimes much sooner than we would desire. But that suffering that comes to us not because we were foolish and made some “out of joint” decisions but because we allowed God to use our lives to God’s own glory.

So, when I struggle, I grow. When I struggle, I become strong. If you would read the first paragraph of Dr. King’s major message at the Riverside Church in New York one year before his assassination when he gave that prophetic message against the war in Vietnam. In that opening paragraph, he makes the statement that often his ministry becomes a vocation of agony. And who is eager to sign up for a vocation of agony in an age of prosperity Gospel. Name it and claim it. How often have you named and claimed a vocation of agony.

Sometimes we can learn from certain traditions beyond where we stand in our own traditions. You know Gandhi talked about the great social sins, one of which was politics without principle. Another he named as wealth without work. Dr. King said on one occasion: vanity asked is it popular?, expediency asked is it safe?, politics asked is it expedient?, but conscience asked is it right? And there comes a time when we must do that which is neither popular nor expedient nor safe but that which is right.

One of the great tragedies of our nation today is found in both in Democratic and Republican parties. The Republican Party has lost its conscience. The Democratic Party has lots its courage. And there is a cry, a cry for the Church to bring back conscience and courage into our public policy and political life. But we cannot bring back conscience and courage if we are waiting for a faith based grant from those who we have followed with a certain kind of strange expectation, not an expectation for justice, but an expectation for charity and a handout and our great teacher both from Yale and Riverside who now rests in eternity said that we should never accept charity as a substitute for justice. Sometimes there is a temptation and not struggle for justice.

Al Gore Speaks To New Baptist Covenant

Today’s luncheon with former Vice-President Al Gore began with a presentation to Gore from Robert Parham, Executive-Director of the Baptist Center for Ethics also known as EthicsDaily.com. Parham presented Gore with a GREEN BIBLE! (Watch Video HERE)

Gore thanked President Carter & Mrs. Carter for “being the spirit” behind the Celebration of a New Baptist Covenant. He then introduced himself:

I am Al Gore and I used to be the next President of the United States of America. That’s not funny to me. I flew on Air Force 2 for 8 years and now I have to take off my shoes to get on an airplane!

Gore on the Climate Crisis:

“Here we are the beginning of the 21^st century facing a Climate Crisis, a word that conveys a sense of alarm. In every crisis, there is an opportunity for a new awakening and a reassessment and change of course and an opportunity to do things better. That’s what the Climate Crisis is all about.”

“I think there is a distinct possibility of one of the messages coming out of this gathering and this New Baptist Covenant is Creation Care - that we who are Baptists of like mind in attempting to glorify God are not going to countenance the contempt on God’s Creation.”

“This is not a political issue. It is a moral issue. It is a spiritual issue. It is about our duty to our planet and our children. What about the rest of us? Do we have what it takes to do difficult things?...We brought forth freedom in this world. If we make up our minds to do it – WE CAN DO IT!”

Don’t tell me we can’t solve this Climate Crisis. If we had just one weeks worth of the money spend on the War in Iraq, we’d be well on our way to solving it!... Come let us reason together, inconvenient it may be!"

We’ll have more on the Al Gore luncheon later with guest commentary from Alexis Cooper of the Christian Life Commission of the Baptist General Convention of Texas.

Marian Wright Edelman & Tony Campolo Videos

You can watch the videos of this morning's sermons with Tony Campolo and Marian Wright Edelman below:


Tony Campolo

Marian Wright Edelman

Snippets from Sam Hodges of the Dallas Morning News Religion blog:

Evangelist Tony Campolo gave a full-throated call for gospel-based social action this morning to several thousand Baptists gathered in Atlanta for the Celebration of New Baptist Covenant.

"We're losing this generation of young people because we've made Christianity too easy for them," he said, arguing that youth will respond to a faith that challenges them to tackle issues of poverty, insufficient health care, and peace making. "We've let them off the hook."

He also told retired people in the crowd that they should give up golf in favor of Christian service. "Rise up, you suckers, and go out and do the work of Jesus."

Marian Wright Edelman, founder of the Children's Defense Fund, spoke later in the morning and called on the crowd to join in the cause of providing health insurance for all children.

"God did not make two classes of children .... "We do not have a money problem ... We have a priority and values problem."

New Baptist Covenant and President Jimmy Carter

Here’s my Recap of President Carter’s speech which you should watch HERE.

Carter was introduced as the husband of the most famous Baptist deacon in the world; President Carter cracked a smile and commented on it. He looked at the crowd and said that earlier in the day he was worried when he saw the big auditorium and its empty seats but he looked out tonight and thanked the crowd for filling the seats.

Carter proclaimed that this even, the Celebration of a New Baptist Covenant was the most important of his religious life. After recounting an effort to unite Southern Baptists in the early 1990s that did not work, President Carter asked the crowd to please focus on unity and not criticize others

President Carter asked a series of questions and said that they had been used to divide Baptists. He asked the crowd to refrain from answering them as he asked them. They included: do you believe that women should be given equal opportunity in the church, including opportunities to be a deacon or pastor? Do you believe that women should be submissive? Do you believe that the world was created in 4004 BC? Do you believe that the world was created 15 million years ago? Do you believe that gays and lesbians should be allowed to participate in the life of the Church? Do you believe that homosexual sin is so horrible that gays and lesbians should be excluded from the church?

Then Carter asked people to answer the next question? Do you believe that we are saved by the grace of God through faith in Jesus Christ? The crowd said “yes.”

Carter’s point was that while he recognized that the first set of questions were important, that they were not as important as the question of our common salvation that unites us. We shouldn’t allow different interpretations of individual Scripture passages to divide us.

Carter said that the world’s picture of Christians is one of division. We need to change that and present a picture of unity around the gospel of Jesus Christ.

And now a few thoughts from my pops, Dr. Doug Weaver, Baptist Historian and professor of religion at Baylor University. BDW Sr. is the author of the upcoming book being released by Mercer University Press entitled In Search of The New Testament Church: A History of Baptists.

Each of the early speakers referred to the fact that this type Baptist wide meeting (different races, different geographical regions) had never occurred before. This is simply the most important reason for being here. To be part of a meeting that combines white and black Baptists, Baptists from the north and the south, and to see representatives from Baptist groups worldwide (Mexico, European Baptist Federation, BWA) was simply awe inspiring. To be a “child of the South” and not understand and not appreciate the significance of this kind event for the future is beyond my comprehension.

This meeting easily shows that being Baptist still has relevance in the 21^st century. New types of cooperation are being developed; groundbreaking and barrier breaking progress is possible when the best of the Baptist tradition flourishes– freedom for the individual conscience, freedom for the local church to practice autonomy AND cooperation, freedom to affirm soul competency without being charged with hyper-individualism, freedom to practice community in a congregational worship setting that values the voice of each person and the corporate voice of the group as a body of Christ, freedom to advocate for religious liberty and the separation of church and state, freedom to be a Bible believing people who regard Jesus Christ as the ultimate criterion for interpreting Scripture, and freedom to accept the grace of God and receive salvation through Jesus Christ.

And All The Baptists Said? Amen.

For more commentary, see also:
New Baptist Covenant - Day 1
For God's Sakes Shut Up! - Recap
Bold Confessor - NBC, Day 1 (Check him out)
Mainstream Baptist - Strong Beginnings

Also, if you enjoy the quality of the pictures on my blog post - know that they did not come from my camera. I had the privilege of "borrowing" them from a girl taking pictures for BAPTIST PRESS!

New Baptist Covenant & Dr. William Shaw

Dr. William Shaw, Pastor of White Rock Baptist Church in Philadelphia, PA and President of the National Baptist Conventi USA, Inc. delivered a powerful message entitled "The Bible Speaks About Peace With Justice."

Watch Shaw's message HERE.

But here are a few snippets:

"Because we're Baptists, we read the Bible"

"What Jesus was about was not just bringing relief to the poor, not just shades to the blind, but sight to the blind. And each of the instances that he concretizes his mission, he expresses the work of reversal not relief - even the issue of justice is tied up to Jesus' definition of his ministry because if you read in Isaiah where he read from the Book, he says because I LOVE JUSTICE and I HATE INEQUITY. So that justice itself is ooted in the raelity of the incarnation and is rooted in the reality of creation; for when God made mankind, he made us male and female in HIS image."

"To do injustice to anybody is to do injustice to the reality of God because we are in HIS image and HIS image is not to be demeaned. You really can't embrace the mission of Jesus and not be confronted with the reality of the claims of justice and that reality is deeply challenging because when Jesus came he came not with actions of charity, he came to change"

"One of the tragedies of injustice is that it dims people's idea and visions of what's possible"

"Peace is not just the absence of disturbance. Calm without justice is an allusion to peace. It is disguised oppression. One looks at Kenya now. One sees the breakout of warfare there and the warfare was not stimulated just by contested election results but grew out of inequities between the tribes and perpetrated in the democratic governmantal set up in the country. …it might have looked like Kenya was at peace but what they had was a simmering volcano because justice had not been done. one looks in the middle east and we look for calm there but calmness will not come and will not mean justice until justice is done for those who have been displaced and for those whose lives are threatened now because of the imbalance now." One looks at our own history in America. It has been calm but no justice in it. The native population has been displaced; they have been calm on the reservation but no peace, enslaved imported into this country and for a long time there was calm but not peace and in the days of segregations there is someone who has come in to disturb the peace ofour communities, it was the denial of dignity in the name of segregation and that finally exploded; there is no peace without justice...there is no morality without justice"

"If it is right that children who are conceived should be brought to birth (and it is); then it is also right that children born should have the right to life, and if there is no right to life and if there is no right to live and the right to be born becomes a tool of injustice."

"Because God loved us enough that he didn’t stay in heaven waiting for us to get to him, hecame to earth and subjected himself to the thigns of which he is exposed."

"Baptists are people of the Book and we are people who can read the word for itself and then there is nobody who can correct my individual belief because we are directly tied to God ourselves."