Meeting in a city known for both racism and reconciliation, the Alliance of Baptists pledged to remake itself into “an anti-racist organization.”
The action came at the Alliance's annual convocation April 21-23 in Birmingham, Ala.
While the three-day meeting focused primarily on confronting racism and forging reconciliation, the estimated 500 participants also agreed to boycott oil giant Exxon-Mobil and to renew their protest of U.S. government restrictions on travel to and from Cuba.
Meanwhile, Alliance members elected new officers and lamented budget woes.
The statement on racism recalled a similar step taken in 1990, when the Alliance repented for the racism that mars Southern Baptist history. That action was followed by a series of confessional pronouncements from several other religious groups from the old South, eventually including the Southern Baptist Convention.
In its latest statement, which passed without opposition, the Alliance noted: “We have come to understand that repenting of racism is not a one-time event but a long and demanding process.”
The resolution targeting Exxon-Mobil, now the world's largest company, criticized its record 2005 profits of more than $36 billion. The high price of oil and gas deepens worldwide poverty, the Alliance said, and dependence on fossil fuels threatens “God's creation.”
During a business session, members were told the Alliance surpassed its goal for the annual missions offering last year but, for the second year in a row, finished the year with a deficit, which was paid out of reserves.
Members elected Jim Hoskins, pastor of Lakeshore Avenue Baptist Church in Oakland, Calif., as Alliance president for the coming year.
Kristy Arnesen Pullen, a laywoman from Reston, Va., was elected vice president.
Associated Baptist Press