By Bob Allen
Race, sexuality and politics emerged as recurring themes in daily news coverage by Baptist News Global in 2015.
Raphael Warnock, senior pastor of Atlanta’s historic Ebenezer Baptist Church, challenged black and white Baptists to move beyond comfort zones of race and theology toward a “covenant community” characterized by “creative and redemptive agitation” at the Jan. 14-15 New Baptist Covenant Summit in Atlanta. In July someone left four Confederate flags on Ebenezer Baptist Church’s church property.
Russell Moore, president of the SBC Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission, denounced segregated churches as “blasphemy” during a two-day summit in March in Nashville, Tenn., titled “The Gospel and Racial Reconciliation.”
The Cooperative Baptist Fellowship made it a first order of business at the June 15-19 General Assembly in Dallas to pray for victims in a deadly shooting at Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Charleston, S.C. Virginia pastor Jim Somerville called on Cooperative Baptists to help bridge a “gaping wound of racism.”
The New Baptist Covenant joined other groups to sponsor “Freedom from Racism Sunday” on July 5, which many churches devote to a service marking Independence Day.
Four of the 57 people arrested Aug. 10 in a peaceful protest outside a federal courthouse in St. Louis were part of an eight-member Baptist Peace Fellowship of North America delegation in Ferguson, Mo., there to observe the one-year anniversary of the Aug. 9, 2014, police shooting of 18-year-old Michael Brown.
In March the Kentucky Baptist Fellowship announced a partnership with historically black Simmons College of Kentucky. In September Simmons College and the KBF led a coalition of urban and suburban congregations called Empower West Louisville aimed at tackling urban poverty.
Students from historically black colleges and universities protested a meeting near James Madison University in Harrisonburg, Va., Nov. 18, claiming despite the talk about racial reconciliation the convention is indifferent to the spiritual needs of African-Americans when it comes to campus outreach.
Historic black and white congregations in Murfreesboro, Tenn., that both identify as “First Baptist Church” worshipped together Nov. 29 in a service celebrating both common history and distinctiveness of the two fellowships that went separate ways 150 years ago following the Civil War.
Gay marriage divides Baptists
Maurice “Bojangles” Blanchard, a gay-rights activist ordained to the gospel ministry by Highland Baptist Church in Louisville, Ky., was a plaintiff in one of four cases taken up by the U.S. Supreme Court challenging state bans on marriage between same-sex couples.
While Blanchard traveled to Washington for oral arguments April 28, the Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission of the Southern Baptist Convention organized a social media campaign entreating Southern Baptists to pray the Supreme Court would uphold traditional marriage.
An SBC resolution adopted June 16 in Columbus, Ohio, called on the U.S. Supreme Court to leave it up to the states to decide whether or not to permit gay marriage. The Cooperative Baptist Fellowship, which bans the hiring of openly gay missionaries but leaves church membership up to each congregation, urged churches with conflicting views to model unity.
The U.S. Supreme Court ruled by a thin margin June 26 that the Constitution does not permit the government to deny marriage benefits to gay couples that are available to married couples of the opposite sex. Seventeen months after being arrested for trespassing when they refused to leave a county clerk’s office that refused to issue them one, Blanchard and his partner, Dominique James, obtained their marriage license June 29.
Moderate and conservative Baptists in Georgia lined up on opposite sides debating a new “religious freedom” bill proposed after Atlanta fire chief Kelvin Cochran was fired for giving employees a book he wrote denouncing homosexuality. Similar laws sparked controversy in Indiana and Arkansas, with critics calling them a license to discriminate. The Missouri Baptist Convention spearheaded a coalition asking lawmakers to enact legislation or propose a constitutional amendment that “explicitly secures” freedom of conscience in conflicts over same-sex marriage.
Some Baptists joined efforts to oppose anti-discrimination ordinances in Charlotte, N.C., Houston and Fayetteville, Ark., nicknamed “bathroom bills” by critics who say they would allow transgender persons to use public restrooms opposite from their biological sex.
In March Madison Baptist Association voted 74-5 to withdraw fellowship from Weatherly Heights Baptist Church in Huntsville, Ala., over its pastor’s support of same-sex marriage. Baptist officials investigated the church after news reports that an unpaid staff member officiated at one of the state’s first legal same-sex weddings. The SBC Executive Committee followed suit June 15, finding the congregation in non-compliance with a ban on churches “which act to affirm, approve, or endorse homosexual behavior.”
In May First Baptist Church in Greenville, S.C., approved an affirmation that in “all facets of the life and ministry of our church, including but not limited to membership, baptism, ordination, marriage, teaching and committee/organizational leadership, First Baptist, Greenville, will not discriminate based on sexual orientation or gender identity.”
The South Carolina Baptist Convention wrote a letter asking First Baptist Church of Greenville to either recant its decision or withdraw from the 2,000-church state affiliate of the Southern Baptist Convention. The church voted to withdraw in September.
The South Carolina Baptist Convention voted Nov. 10 to withdraw fellowship from another church, Augusta Heights Baptist Church in Greenville, S.C., for allowing the pastor to perform a same-sex wedding outside of the church.
The Pine Belt Baptist Association voted Oct. 20 to withdraw fellowship from University Baptist Church in Hattiesburg, Miss., after a church billboard message, “Jesus welcomed everyone. So do we,” was interpreted as “affirming the homosexual lifestyle.”
Associations in Tennessee and Kentucky withdrew fellowship from churches after they called a woman as pastor.
Tony Campolo, a leader of the evangelical left who for years has famously disagreed with his wife about homosexuality, announced June 8 he now supports the full acceptance of Christian gay couples into the church.
Former President Jimmy Carter said in a Huffington Post interview he thinks Jesus would approve of same-sex marriage.
Baylor University quietly dropped a ban on “homosexual acts” from its sexual conduct code.
Woman on death row personalizes capital punishment
Cooperative Baptist Fellowship leaders joined hundreds of clergy seeking reprieve for a Georgia woman sentenced to death for plotting to murder her husband in 1997.
Kelly Renee Gissendaner was a model prisoner. After exceling in a prison theological studies program offered by a consortium of area theology schools, she counseled other women in prison, reportedly talking some out of thoughts of suicide. Her March 2 execution was postponed due to problems with the drugs to be used for her lethal injection.
The Georgia Board of Pardons and Paroles denied a clemency petition Sept. 29. Gissendaner died by lethal injection Sept. 30.
A member of CBF-related Park Avenue Baptist Church in Atlanta and one of a group of female ex-cons calling themselves the Struggle Sisters credited Gissendaner with helping her turn her life around.
GOP race blurs line between preachers and politicans
In April the Southern Baptist Convention Pastors Conference withdrew an invitation to neurosurgeon Ben Carson, who at that point had not officially announced his candidacy, after criticism it could be viewed as an endorsement not only of his campaign but of his Seventh-day Adventist religion.
Russell Moore, president of the SBC Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission, interviewed former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush and Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) during the Send North America Conference Aug. 3-4 in Nashville, Tenn. Bush later apologized for telling Moore that the government spends too much on women’s health, saying he misspoke.
A Southern Baptist pastor asked God’s blessing on Republican presidential frontrunner Donald Trump in an invocation at a Sept. 14 campaign rally in Dallas. Trump, addressing a crowd estimated at 17,000 at the American Airlines Center, thanked Robert Jeffress, pastor of First Baptist Church in Dallas, for his support.
Jeffress later joined about three dozen religious leaders on the 26th floor of Trump Tower in New York, where cell-phone video showed them laying hands on Trump and surrounding him with prayer.
Jeffress said Oct. 26 he believed Trump was buoyed in the polls by “closeted” evangelicals who think electing a strong leader is more important than whether a candidate has a deep personal faith.
Presidential candidate Ted Cruz received endorsements from both his current pastor at First Baptist Church in Houston and a semi-retired Southern Baptist preacher who baptized him when he was 8 years old.
Russell Moore slammed Trump’s idea to close U.S. borders to Muslim immigrants in a Washington Post commentary, saying, “Anyone who cares an iota about religious liberty should denounce this reckless, demagogic rhetoric.”
Moore joined Sen. Marco Rubio in a penning another article that appeared in the Washington Post Christmas Eve claiming the Obama administration isn’t doing enough about persecution of Christians around the globe. Moore clarified on his blog that he does not endorse candidates for president, and said there “are several candidates who are very good on the plight of persecuted Christians.”
“Senator Rubio is a friend and he and I have worked closely together for several years on issues of international religious freedom,” Moore said. “I don’t think there’s been a stronger voice on these issues in the United States Congress since our beloved co-laborer Frank Wolf of Virginia retired from the House.”
Current and former leaders of the Southern Baptist Convention were reportedly in attendance for a two-day meeting in Texas to galvanize the Religious Right behind Texas Sen. Ted Cruz in the 2016 presidential election.
IMB cuts back missionary force
Citing budget shortfalls since 2010, the Southern Baptist Convention’s International Mission Board offered voluntary incentive for early retirement in an attempt to cut between 600 and 800 jobs from the agency’s missionary force and staff.
CBF Global Missions Coordinator Steven Porter called the IMB cutbacks “a terrible loss for the Kingdom of God.” A new CBF global missions structure is in the works for approval in 2016.
SBC President Ronnie Floyd suggested during a symposium on the denomination’s future Sept. 28-29 at Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in Kansas City, Mo., that it may be time to consider merging the International and North American mission boards into a single “Global Mission Board” overseeing the entire SBC mission enterprise.
Southern Baptists vs. Obamacare
The U.S. Supreme Court agreed Nov. 6 to hear appeals from religious nonprofits including Baptist universities and the Southern Baptist Convention’s insurance provider challenging required coverage of contraceptives under Obamacare.
The high court combined seven cases to resolve once and for all whether an accommodation written by the Obama administration allowing institutions like religious hospitals and universities to opt out of the contraceptive mandate significantly burdens their religious freedom.
GuideStone Financial Resources, the Southern Baptist Convention’s insurance provider, is exempt from the contraceptive mandate but filed one of the lawsuits on behalf of clients that would be affected by the rules.
Jimmy Carter bounces back from cancer.
Condolences and well-wishes worldwide followed an Aug. 12 announcement by former U.S. President Jimmy Carter that he has cancer.
In August Carter said on hearing the diagnosis he thought he had only weeks to live but felt “surprisingly at ease.”
“Now I feel it’s in the hands of God, whom I worship, and I’ll be prepared for anything that comes,” he said.
Carter turned 91 on Oct. 1 showing no signs of slowing down.
On Dec. 6 Carter announced that he is cancer-free.
Church discipline gone awry
Elders at a Calvinist Southern Baptist megachurch in Texas made headlines after forgiving a member who confessed to viewing child pornography while subjecting his wife to church discipline for having the marriage annulled without church permission. Village Church Pastor Matt Chandler later apologized to the woman.