When Church and State Play Footsie Under the Table
Written by Mark Van Steenwyk : January 29, 2008
The Minneapolis Star Tribune reports on an upcoming gathering of progressive Baptists:
Weary of Southern Baptists’ dominance in American Protestantism, a new push is starting by other Baptist groups aimed at working on social justice issues, and showing their religious tradition is broader than the conservative SBC. Former President Jimmy Carter is leading the effort.
…The meeting is taking place just days before Feb. 5, when 24 states hold delegate-rich presidential primaries and caucuses. Baptists organizers say the timing is coincidental; they began planning the Atlanta event about two years ago before the primary schedule was set.
“This has not anything to do with Super Tuesday,” Carter said.
Yet the biggest Baptist names at the event are prominent Democrats. Along with Carter, major speakers include former Vice President Al Gore and former President Bill Clinton, who has played a leading and provocative role in the presidential race of his wife, Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton.
Republican Sens. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina and Charles Grassley of Iowa will also address the meeting. Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, a Southern Baptist minister and GOP candidate for president, had agreed last year to participate, then canceled.
The large gathering of some 10,000 progressive Baptists isn’t an attempt, they say, to start a new denomination but to help “develop common ministries that would have a big impact.” Hmm. Right.
This “Celebration of a New Baptist Covenant” seems like a page out of the Religious Right play book. I’m never a fan of a group of high-profile politicians meeting with high-profile pastors. This looks like a pep rally for the Religious Left. And I do not believe for one moment that Carter’s assertion that “this has not anything to do with Super Tuesday.”
for further reading . . .
- None Found
Amen! This is a double-standard I’ve heard many people take, and while I’ve appreciated the doxis of Jim Wallis and Sojourners, their practice, while claiming a ‘moral center’ appears to be far more an attempt at a counter-balancing religious left.
No thank you.
PS - while Sojourners and Wallis were not mentioned explicitly in the above article, they’ve been discussing the above on their blog at http://blog.beliefnet.com/.
Again; they seem to be great, and the ideas put forth seem right along the lines of many of the concepts of this site, but the practical outworking of their ideas appears like a rubber-stamping of the Democrats.
no, i agree jordan. we dont have to tip the scales left to balance them. i am looking for transcendance. how do we transcend political parties and look to Christ for our leanings. i have seen people try to “evangelize” the right with “God’sPolitics”. Obviously to no avail. This seems to be another attempt at something similiar.
like tony campolo says, “how can you be a prophetic voice to your nation when you are in bed with it?”
Tony Campolo is speaking at this thing.
There may be political reasons for the scheduling of the New Baptist Covenant this week before Super Tuesday, but there are other legitimate reasons for its timing. The National Baptist Convention USA, the Progressive National Baptist Convention, the National Baptist Convention of America and the National Missionary Baptist Convention of America already had a meeting scheduled for the first half of this week in Atlanta (http://www.nationalbaptist.com/index.cfm?FuseAction=Page&PageID=1000233&ArticleID=1153). Since the big African-American Baptist groups were already in town, the New Baptist Covenant was scheduled to start right after that meeting ended.
Fair enough.
We Christians spend too much time throwing conventions and not enough time throwing parties.
haha mark.i have no idea. i always liked the quote. it was just funny coming from him.
casey you could throw me a party
Then again,not asmany people would show up and you wouldnt make as much money if you threw me a convention.lol.
The first words out of carters mouth are a lie. This guy doesn’t even know that lying is not a Christian thing to do. Then there is slick willy who we all know never lies. Holy Crap!!!
well jeeze, i think that insight travels across party lines. it is a product of the machine.
when I first read about this in the news I felt sick to my stomach. It doesn’t seem like they are playing footsie under the table though. It’s more like they are climbing on top of the table.