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."

Today We Celebrate A New Baptist Covenant

The New Baptist Covenant Celebration opened up earlier tonight. According to Lance Wallace of CBF Communications, the World Congress Center seats 15,000. The place was near capacity.

Bill Underwood, President of Mercer University opened up the Celebration with a powerful message. The website of the New Baptist Covenant (www.newbaptistcovenant.com – click on Videos) will be showing the plenary sessions. Watch Underwood’s WELCOME there.

Here are a few snippets from President Underwood:

"After generations of cleaning up wrongs between us. After generations of separation. After generations of division. Divisions by geography. Divisions by theology. But most of all divisions by race. A new day has dawned. Today in this place from the North and the South, from Canada, from Mexico, from throughout the United States and around the World - Baptists who are Black and Baptists who are White, Baptists Who Are Brown, Baptists who are Conservative, Baptists who are Moderate, Baptists who are Progressive. Today we all sit down together at the table of Christian brother and sisterhood. By coming together here in Atlanta, we acknowledge that the things that have divided us should not and these thigs must not obscure what we share in common...and that is our commitment to follow Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior. Today we Celebrate a New Day. We Celebrate A New Baptist Covenant. A Covenant that We Will United Together To Create An Authentic and Genuine Baptist Voice in These troubled Times. A Covenant that we will Unite In Our Commitment to Traditional Baptist Values including sharing the gospel of Jesus Christ and its implications for public and private morality. We will unite and honor the commandment of our Lord and Savior that we will love our neighbor as God has loved us."

Now, that's some good stuff!

After President Underwood began the Celebration by reading Luke 4, Sonny Perdue, the Republican Governor of the State of Georgia and a Southern Baptist Sunday School Teacher, addressed the crowd. Representing the “Bald Baptists” (his joke), Perdue proclaimed to the audience his “joy to stand up in front of you as a Baptist.”

Dr. David Goatley who serves as the President of the North American Baptist Fellowship of the Baptist World Alliance offered a few encouraging words. He said, “never before have Baptists...sought to explore possibilities of cooperation for missions and ministries - something that has never happened before. We're glad you're here.

Babs Baugh of the Baugh Foundation (Texas) was also recognized for her contribution of over 500,000 dollars to make the Celebration possible! So, thebigdaddyweave.com gives a big thank you to the Baugh family who is always generous especially in the arena of religious liberty!

Shirley Franklin the mayor of Atlanta also spoke. Franklin who I had the privilege of meeting a few times during my time with Congressman John Lewis is in her second term and is considered by TIME Magazine as one of the five most effective big city mayors in the United States. She was the first woman elected mayor of Atlanta and the irst African-American woman elected as mayor in any major city in the South.

The Scripture readings were:
Isaiah 9:6-7
Micah 4:3-4
Romans 14:17-19

Charles Wade, the outgoing Executive Director of the Baptist General Convention of Texas, gave a stirring prayer that really excited the audience. Amens were heard from every corner of auditorium. Wade denounced "evil men and women who exploit children" and "religious leaders who suppress conscience and the soul as though they are not aware that you God are Lord of the soul."

See my next post for commentary and snippets from Dr. William Shaw and President Jimmy Carter.