ATLANTA (ABP) — Former President Jimmy Carter met with several well-known Southern Baptist bloggers May 17 in Atlanta to solicit support for an unprecedented gathering of Baptists in North America.
Carter, perhaps the world's most prominent Baptist layman, invited the bloggers and other Southern Baptist leaders to become part of the planning for the “Celebration of a New Baptist Covenant,” scheduled for next January in the Georgia capital.
The invitation comes even though some SBC denominational leaders have rejected official participation in the event.
“I think it was extremely constructive,” said Dan Malone, an attorney from El Paso, Texas, who helped facilitate the meeting. He added that there was “a good spirit among everyone and a recognition that you don't have to agree on every single theological issue or doctrinal issue that's out there to agree to cooperate in evangelism and missions with other Baptists, with like-minded Baptists.”
Malone sits on the board of directors for the Baptist Standard, the newspaper of the Baptist General Convention of Texas. He is also a member of a joint committee charged with implementing a partnership between the Standard and Associated Baptist Press.
The Atlanta meeting included Oklahoma pastor Wade Burleson, Texas pastor Benjamin Cole, Georgia pastor Marty Duren, and Alabama pastor C.B. Scott. Organizers said other non-blogger Southern Baptist leaders had been invited but were unable to attend.
The leaders of the New Baptist Covenant effort have said they hope to draw as many as 20,000 Baptists from various denominations to Atlanta. They plan to discuss ways of working on a “compassion agenda” to address social justice and human rights rather than squabbling over doctrinal or political differences.
When Carter and former President Bill Clinton announced the effort in January, some Southern Baptist leaders denounced it as an attempt to advance Democratic hopes among Baptist voters in the 2008 elections.
But some bloggers — including Cole and Burleson — who are popular among younger SBC leaders have criticized the dismissal.
According to Malone, the most recent meeting was an attempt to bring as many Southern Baptists into participation in the 2008 gathering as possible. It came on the same day that Carter announced the line-up of speakers for the gathering, which will include several well-known Baptist Republicans. Among them are former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, who is running for the GOP presidential nomination; South Carolina Sen. Linsdey Graham; and Iowa Sen. Chuck Grassley.
According to Cole, Carter's overtures were well-received.
“…Southern Baptists will do ourselves and the world a great disservice if we continue down a path of provincialism and evangelical megalomania whereby we dismiss providential moments for collaborative efforts…,” he said in an e-mail shortly after the meeting ended. “I am thankful for the way that President Carter understands and appreciates the tightrope that younger conservative Southern Baptists must walk in these difficult days of self-definition, and I look forward to participating in a new forum to explore our shared commitments with Baptists across the racial, political, and ecclesial divides in North America.”
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