NEWS STORY: Black Baptists, in Newfound Unity, Declare Opposition to Iraq War

c. 2005 Religion News Service NASHVILLE, Tenn. _ After a historic gathering, leaders of four black Baptist denominations numbering more than 15 million members moved from celebrating their newfound unity to a future battling social problems with one voice. They issued their first joint statement on Friday (Jan. 28), declaring their stances on a number […]

c. 2005 Religion News Service

NASHVILLE, Tenn. _ After a historic gathering, leaders of four black Baptist denominations numbering more than 15 million members moved from celebrating their newfound unity to a future battling social problems with one voice.

They issued their first joint statement on Friday (Jan. 28), declaring their stances on a number of social issues, most prominently their opposition to the war in Iraq.


The statement said that like the late Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., a black Baptist who opposed the Vietnam War, they “look upon the sorrow, suffering and financial cost” of this war in Iraq.

“King’s call that we admit the wicked and tragic folly about our self-righteous choice for war rather than peace and nonviolent change reminds us that preference for war always reflects wrong values,” the statement said.

The leaders emerged from a four-day meeting with more in common than just opposition to the war.

They left determined to wield more effective political power to fight what they see as a host of injustices faced by African-Americans. Some of the estimated 10,000 people in attendance wondered if a merger may be an eventual outcome for groups that began splitting from one another in the early 1900s.

Whatever the next steps may be, Baptist leaders agreed they have experienced a memorable new beginning at the meeting, which ended Thursday (Jan. 27) with a joyous communion service.

“The master surgeon has operated on us and the cancer is out,” said the Rev. Gardner C. Taylor, past president of the Progressive National Baptist Convention, in the meeting’s concluding sermon. “There will be people who would ask, `What is the program? What are you going to do?’ Well, the patient is healthy and will go on to the responsibilities that health enables.”

The leaders found common ground in seeking an extension of the Voting Rights Act of 1965, reinvestment in public education and elimination of mandatory minimum sentencing. They also opposed the confirmation of Alberto Gonzales, President Bush’s nominee for attorney general, on grounds that he had a “double standard concerning decent treatment for captured persons in the war on terror.”


The leaders said working together on social issues is more important than dwelling on past divisions. Those divisions began nearly a century ago.

The National Baptist Convention, USA, formed in 1895 but in 1915, the National Baptist Convention of America split off after a disagreement about control of a publishing house.

In 1961, the Progressive National Baptist Convention split from the NBCUSA due to differences over leadership and civil rights and gave King a platform at annual meetings. Lastly, in 1988, the National Missionary Baptist Convention of America began after additional squabbles.

Vivian Lee, a member of the National Baptist Convention of America, now sees the four denominations becoming one.

“I truly see a merger,” said Lee, a 63-year-old Sunday school teacher and U.S. Defense Department employee who traveled to the meeting from Berkeley, Calif.

Asked about the chance of merger, the Rev. William J. Shaw, president of the National Baptist Convention, USA, wouldn’t rule it out.


“That’s a possibility,” he said in an interview. “I’m completely open to what the Spirit might do with this.”

Other denominational leaders said thoughts of structural merger may be premature, but merged agendas are not. Another joint meeting, before the 2008 election, is being considered.

“We believe the numbers show that we have the power in terms of black registered voters across the country to make a tremendous impact and a decisive impact in terms of who sits in the White House,” said the Rev. Stephen J. Thurston, president of the National Baptist Convention of America, at a Friday news conference.

The Rev. Jesse Jackson, president of the Chicago-based Rainbow/PUSH Coalition, took an informal poll of his audience Thursday to find out the greatest social and political concerns. Dozens of people raised their hands when he asked if they had relatives in prison. More said they had a loved one with cancer. And the vast majority said they wanted the war in Iraq to end.

But few hands were raised when Jackson asked whether their churches had to address same-sex marriage, an issue Republicans used to attract black voters in the November elections.

“Well then, how did that get in the middle of our agenda?”’ he asked them. “You said our agenda is minimum wage, cancer treatment and Social Security.”


In an interview Friday, Jackson said there was a message in that show of hands.

“It says that in the ministers’ reticence to engage in public policy debate, a vacuum has developed,” he said. “In that vacuum, the right wing has imposed agendas on us that’s not our priority issues.”

(OPTIONAL TRIM FOLLOWS)

On the economic front, proposals ranged from addressing the problem of personal debt and bad credit to considering a major development, such as a black-owned hotel, convention and retirement complex _ perhaps similar to the massive Gaylord Opryland Resort Convention Center where their meeting was held.

A joint offering was taken _ deposited in an account the four groups will share _ that will address the global AIDS crisis, tsunami victims in East Africa and help two historically black colleges.

Many participants seemed ready to partner in ways they had not before.

The Rev. Brenda Girton-Mitchell, associate general secretary for justice and advocacy of the National Council of Churches, said she prays the “absolutely unbelievable” energy that filled the hotel ballroom will translate into changed attitudes and more action as Baptists return to their local churches.

“We won’t allow them to go home and just go back into worrying about what I’m going to preach on Sunday,” said Girton-Mitchell, a member of the Progressive National Baptist Convention. “They’ll go back home worrying about how we change the world.”


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