WASHINGTON, D.C. (ABP) — Baptists have a unique, historic calling to “speak truth to power” when society tries to merge the forces of church and state, legendary African-American minister Gardner Taylor said March 5.
“This is the Baptists' gift from God,” Taylor, retired pastor of Concord Baptist Church in Brooklyn, N.Y., told an overflow audience at the annual “Window on the World” banquet of the Baptist World Alliance in Washington, D.C.
“Baptists have this gift to bear witness to the need of independent religious witness,” said Taylor, a Louisiana native and a founder of the Progressive National Baptist Convention. Much of Baptist history, he said, strikes a warning against merging the agencies of state and the resources of religion, often for “nefarious purposes.”
Taylor also spoke out against the assault of secularism on religious life — “those who use the name of Jesus Christ for the ugliest and most sinister purposes.” It is a danger that arises in every society, he said. “This particular brand of secularism teaches that naked power is sufficient.”
“We stand in the living legacy of the one who confronted all of the powers of darkness with the power of love,” Taylor countered.
Taylor was keynote speaker for the banquet, which also included comments from retired Southern Baptist executive Duke McCall, president of BWA from 1980 to 1985. McCall recounted his first experience of attending a BWA meeting — the BWA Youth Conference in Prague, in what is now the Czech Republic. He had not planned to go but filled in for someone else at the last minute.
“God did something to my heart and life that I cannot describe, and I became a global Baptist,” McCall said. “It so transformed my life that I have never been the same since.”
The approximately 400 people who attended the banquet heard a firsthand report of the post-tsunami rebuilding effort in Sri Lanka. Baptist World Aid has raised $1.6 million for tsunami relief, which is being used to rebuild or replace houses, fishing boats and a school.
Bonny Resu, regional secretary for the Asian Baptist Federation, thanked Baptists for their help after the tsunami disaster.
While Asian Baptists are increasingly active in the evangelization in Asia, particularly China, Resu reported, there is also a resurgence of religious fanaticism and indigenous religions. In some areas, Christianity is being excluded as a Western religion and an outside influence, he said. In some countries, there are demands for police authentication and a special permit if a resident converts to Christianity he said. “And yet, in spite of all of this,” Resu said, “the church is growing.
— Based on reporting by Wendy Ryan