BIRMINGHAM, Ala. (ABP) — Former President Jimmy Carter went to a shrine of the Civil Rights Movement Jan. 31 to drive home a point about racial reconciliation among Baptists, stepping up into the pulpit of the Birmingham, Ala., church where four African-American girls died in a 1963 bombing.
 Former President Jimmy Carter joins others in prayer at the 16th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, Ala., where he spoke Jan. 31 during the New Baptist Covenant southeastern regional meeting. (PHOTO: Bernard Troncale/Courtesy of the Birmingham News) |
With a racially mixed crowd of about 1,200 people packing the sanctuary, filling the balcony and lining the walls, Carter preached against separation among Christians.
“There is no way for us to ignore Jesus’ emphasis on the poor, the brokenhearted,” Carter told the southeast regional meeting of the New Baptist Covenant. The gathering was the second phase in an movement that Carter helped found last year with an interracial, interdenominational convocation that drew an estimated 15,000 Baptists from a variety of denominations to Atlanta.
The meetings have emphasized racial reconciliation and cooperation on social-justice issues, especially among groups of black and white Baptists.
“I have found this evolution of the New Baptist Covenant to be the highlight of my religious life,” Carter said.
The Baptist former president spoke at a worship service that was followed by smaller workshops on poverty and racism.
“It’s not an accident that God led us to Birmingham and this institute,” Carter said earlier during a
 Jimmy Carter speaks at the first regional New Baptist Covenant event at 16th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, Ala. (PHOTO/Caroline Davis) |
“The Baptist church was a stalwart defender of segregation,” he said. “It was ingrained in our conscience.”
Carter said he hoped the meeting would help churches work better together.
“I would like to see a complete breakdown in separation of people,” Carter said.
In his message, Carter focused on ways to achieve Christian unity.
“To redefine or change the gospel is a constant temptation for us, either to dilute its message or its meaning, or to mandate human interpretation of specially chosen texts,” Carter said.
He recalled growing up in rural Georgia, where his childhood playmates were mostly black. “My family was the only white family there; all my neighbors were African American, all my playmates,” Carter said. “They were the ones I loved. They were the ones who loved me.”
Of the five most influential people in his childhood besides his parents, only two were white, he said. Yet when it came to worship, he was told that togetherness was wrong.
“In those days distinguished scholars, biblical scholars, would come to our church and prove to us that it was improper in the eyes of God for people of two different races to worship together.”
Carter said issues of biblical interpretation are still causing serious and debilitating problems and schism among Baptists and other denominations, such as the Episcopal Church, which he said “is about to come apart at the seams.”
Carter said that abortion, homosexuality, women’s role in ministry and other divisive issues should be put aside for a focus on the gospel message of unity in Christ.
“There’s nothing wrong with believing in fundamentals,” he said. “I’m a fundamentalist myself in many ways. The most important fundamental belief is the basic gospel message that we’ve already mentioned. We are saved by the grace of God through faith in Jesus Christ.”
He encouraged Baptists of different races to share worship experiences. “I hope in the future the barriers will be broken down,” he said.
“Despite our inevitable human differences, under this simple but profound banner, we Christians can and must reach out to each other,” Carter said. “Let us, Baptists and all other Christians, be bound together in unity.”
Leaders representing a variety of mostly white or mostly black churches also took part in the event.
“The people of God are not going to be dragged kicking and screaming” into racial reconciliation, said Gary Furr, pastor of Vestavia Hills Baptist Church in suburban Birmingham and a co-chairman of the regional event. “We want to lead the way.”
Furr said he and Sixteenth Street Baptist Church Pastor Arthur Price, the other co-chairman, had been working on strengthening relationships between their congregations.
“We don’t know whether we have a meeting or a movement,” said Jimmy Allen, a former president of the Southern Baptist Convention and co-organizer of the New Baptist Covenant. “What we’re after is a movement.”
By the afternoon plenary session, the attendance had thinned to half of those who listened to Carter in the morning.
Another featured speaker, Children’s Defense Fund founder Marian Wright Edelman, urged churches to reach out to children who are not members of their congregations to stop the spiral of violence and poverty.
“Incarceration is becoming the new American apartheid,” she said. “We’re the world’s leading jailer.”
Edelman recalled the four girls killed in the 1963 bombing.
“Four young women gave their lives so that we might have freedom,” she said.
She also noted the children who took part in marches against segregation in downtown Birmingham in 1963. “We owe the children of Birmingham, [who marched] in that park across the street, a great debt.”
She urged the passage of legislation to extend health care to all children, including illegal immigrants. “We have children falling through the cracks,” she said. “It’s time for us to speak up for the sacredness of all children.”
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Greg Garrison is a staff writer for the Birmingham News.
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New Baptist Covenant leaders OK repeat but no permanent structure (3/26/2008)