c. 1997 Religion News Service
UNDATED _ The State Convention of Baptists in Indiana _ in what appears to be a first for Southern Baptists _ has voted to require that its executive board be racially and ethnically inclusive.
At their annual meeting Oct. 29, about 300 Indiana convention delegates overwhelmingly voted to add the phrase”three persons from a racial and/or language minority”to a list that already requires that women, laymen and ordained ministers be part of the board’s makeup.
The state convention had previously approved the bylaw change in May.”The board made a positive decision, a right decision and it has nothing to do with fixing a problem,”said the Rev. John Rogers, president of the state convention.”It had everything to do with getting in place representation as we continue to reach churches of all different backgrounds. What we’ve done this year is we’ve acted instead of reacted.” The first ethnic and minority appointees made under the change were Hispanic, Korean and African-American.
Rogers, pastor of Eastlake Baptist Church in Crown Point, Ind., said he hoped the vote might influence other state Baptist conventions.
The decision follows the passage two years ago of a racial reconciliation resolution by delegates to the annual meeting of the Southern Baptist Convention, the predominantly white denomination’s national group. At the 1995 meeting, Southern Baptists officially apologized for the denomination’s past defense of slavery. Part of the resolution said:”We hereby commit ourselves to eradicate racism in all its forms from Southern Baptist life and ministry.” But Rogers said that resolution did not even come up in his board’s discussion of the bylaw change. Rather, the change related more to the fact that 17 percent of the Southern Baptist congregations in Indiana have predominantly minority membership.”Obviously we didn’t want our Afro-Americans or Koreans or Hispanics to feel like … we were slighting them,”he said.”If we want them to help us support the mission causes of the world, then we want them to help us at all levels of our ministry and that includes board decisions.” Herb Hollinger, a spokesman for the Southern Baptist Convention, said the Indiana action may be the first public statement of its sort by a regional Southern Baptist jurisdiction.”My suspicion is that it’s the first time a state (convention) has explicitly said that that is what they’re going to do and even have their convention vote to do it,”he said.
Hollinger said members of nominating committees may have decided verbally in the past to include representatives of minority groups on Baptist boards.
Other denominations already have made decisions about inclusiveness. The Book of Discipline, or rule book, of the United Methodist Church states that”special attention shall be given to the inclusion of … racial and ethnic persons”on boards of the annual conference, the denomination’s regional decision-making body.
The Evangelical Lutheran Church in America is even more specific in its constitution concerning its regional bodies, which are called synods. It reads:”Each synod shall establish processes that will enable it to reach a minimum goal that 10 percent of the membership of its assemblies, councils, committees, boards, or other organizational units be persons of color and/or persons whose primary language is other than English.” The decision by the Indiana Baptists comes at a time when affirmative action programs are under widespread attack.
The recently passed Proposition 209 in California called for dismantling that state’s affirmative action programs. And the nomination by the White House of Bill Lann Lee for the nation’s top civil rights post is in limbo after Republican senators opposed him because of his support for affirmative action.
The Rev. Leonard Dowdell, the Indiana convention’s black-church strategist, said there was widespread support for the bylaw change well before the national convention passed its resolution on racial reconciliation.”I think it’s great,”he said.”It’s about time, especially with the … missionary thrust that the state convention has taken here in Indiana.” The convention has employees specifically designated to start churches in the African-American, Korean and Hispanic communities.”In order to get the gospel out to all ethnic groups, we need to reflect the cooperation of all people to make sure that we’re presenting the proper picture for the right message,”said Dowdell.
Dowdell said the decision will assist him in his work to start more African-American churches.”It’s going to give us as African-Americans more input into budgetary matters and ministry matters,”he said.”I think it’s the right step for Southern Baptists.” Rogers, the Indiana convention president, said the decision was also a matter of continuing a process that began years ago when the state convention decided the board should include laymen and women, in addition to clergy.”We really feel good about it because this was not a racial issue,”said Rogers.”This was an issue of having total representation of our congregational makeup in the state.”
MJP END BANKS
