Most Virginia Baptists respect the office of the U.S. presidency, so it comes as no surprise that when John Upton received a phone call from former president Jimmy Carter inviting him to attend a meeting of Baptists in April of last year, he went.
Upton, executive director of the Baptist General Association of Virginia, joined representatives of nearly 40 different Baptist organizations gathered at the Carter Center in Atlanta to hear Carter's plea for unity and cooperation among Baptists.
A subsequent meeting also at the Carter Center, this one including former president Bill Clinton among many others, was held Jan. 9. A photograph from that meeting reveals Upton standing just behind the two former presidents as they answered questions posed by the media. Predictably, Upton has received a fair amount of good-natured ribbing as a result.
Participants at the meeting envision a Celebration of a New Baptist Covenant in a convocation called for Jan. 30 to Feb. 1, 2008, in Atlanta. The celebration stems from a covenant written last April that reaffirmed commitment to traditional Baptist values—evangelism, helping the needy and promoting Baptist independence from government entanglements.
“We decided that day in April that the most important things are things that we agreed on, and we also decided that we could accomplish more on these imperatives working together than any one of us could alone,” said Bill Underwood, president of the Baptist-affiliated Mercer University in Macon, Ga.
Carter and Underwood, who came to Mercer last year from Baylor University where he was a law professor and served briefly as the interim president, are the chief architects of this effort to unify Baptists.
Some, however, have expressed concern that the gathering might be construed as having political overtones. Indeed, even most participants concede that the presence of two former Democratic presidents made the appearance of partisanship almost inevitable despite their intentions. High profile Republican Baptists will also be included in the future, however. Among those expected to be invited are former Arkansas governor and Baptist minister Mike Huckabee who is seeking the Republican presidential nomination in 2008, and Trent Lott, minority whip in the Senate.
Aside from the appearance of partisanship, however, many Virginia Baptists bristle at the thought of Bill Clinton's front-and-center participation in a Baptist event. It is doubtful, however, that given the unique presence of a former president that he could participate without being the center of attention.
His well documented contrition notwithstanding, many Baptists are suspicious of a spiritual side they have heard little about. Darrell Fletcher, a Virginia Baptist Mission Board field strategist in the western part of the state, emphasizes this. “A lot of folks out in our part of the state have nothing good to say about Bill Clinton and question why he would even be there.”
Apparently they aren't the only ones wondering. Upton reports that at the meeting a reporter addressed the former president. She understood Carter's reason for being involved in the meeting, but she wondered aloud what President Clinton was doing there. According to Upton, President Clinton stepped to the microphone and gave one of the best witnessing testimonies he had heard anyone give.
Clinton told how as a 12-year-old boy he gave his heart to Jesus Christ and was baptized into a Baptist church. He affirmed that he is a Christian and that he was there at the invitation of President Carter to lend his voice to the process of bringing Baptists together.
“This is an attempt to bring people together and say, ‘what would our Christian witness require of us in the 21st century?' ” he was quoted as saying.
Clinton has admitted his moral lapses and, according to Christian ministers who were asked by him to serve as his spiritual guides after the Lewinski scandal, his repentance gave every indication of being sincere. After sharing his faith with the reporters present, he stepped away from the podium and, taking a position beside Upton, asked “Do you think that was O.K.?” Upton assured him it was.
For his part, Upton is careful to point out that no new entity is being formed and that Virginia Baptists have taken no official action with respect to participation. He does expect, however, that ministries of various kinds conducted in concert with other Baptist bodies will be a likely outgrowth of their coming together. The North American Baptist Fellowship of the Baptist World Alliance is a likely vehicle of providing ministry assistance.
“We are not going to focus on things we disagree on but on the things we all can agree on. Some needs like poverty, education and health around the world are so obvious that we can't ignore them,” he said. “These are issues that our unity can address.”
“We are very appreciative of President Carter for his vision of unity and we could wish that all Baptist bodies would participate,” stated the Virginia Baptist executive director. “The spirit of the meeting is simply Baptists coming together to speak a unified voice of hope and not of division. This is about the ministry of reconciliation—being reconciled with each other and helping the world become reconciled to God through Christ.”