EVEN THE BAPTISTS ARE CHANGING!

The NY Times reported on 1/27/08, "A Baptist Coalition Aims for Moderate Image," that more than 30 Baptist groups will be meeting to find a covenant that will differentiates themselves from the radical right-wing Southern Baptists.

The meeting’s statement of shared purpose, known as its covenant, calls for Baptists to focus on their traditional values, like “sharing the gospel of Jesus Christ,” and to work together on social issues like fighting poverty.

...for other Baptists and experts on the faith, a central aim of the gathering seems to be to create a theological and political counterweight to the Southern Baptist Convention, which many of the groups that plan to attend have left.

Lying whore Richard Land doesn't think much of this effort:

The covenant’s association with Mr. Carter and Mr. Clinton, who are unpopular with many Southern Baptists, is also keeping many away, said Richard Land, the top public policy official of the Southern Baptist Convention.

“This is part of the continuing search for significance by those who lost in the struggle for control of the Southern Baptist Convention,” Mr. Land said.

And once again we see the racism "hidden" in the Rove/Reagan Coalition (from the Christian Science Monitor, 1/30/08, "Spurred by Carter, some Baptists meet to build bigger tent.")

The four major black Baptist conventions are key players in the gathering, along with Latinos and whites. "This will be the first time in 160 years that black and white Baptists have met in a major meeting in harmony," Carter says.

There is also an angle that fits in well with Obama's call for an end to the divisiveness:

"This is an opportunity to reenvision what it means to be Baptist, and especially to build bridges across racial and denominational divides in a way that has never been done before," says David Gushee of Mercer University's school of theology. "It's really a vision of the Christian faith that is driving this."

With the theme of Unity in Christ, one aim is to forge local partnerships among Baptist groups based on Jesus' message on his ministry as found in Luke 4:18. Special workshops will deal with Christian obligations not only to spread the gospel, but also to promote peace with justice, feed the hungry, clothe the naked, shelter the homeless, care for the sick, and welcome the stranger.

"In this country saturated with religion, there's a great struggle over what it means to be religious and particularly to be Christian," says Dr. Gushee, who teaches Christian ethics. "There's a clash in visions between what the SBC leadership says it means to be Baptist and what this large group of other Baptists is projecting it to mean."

Many students even in Baptist colleges find the Baptist label problematic because they associate it with hard-right politics and intolerance, Gushee says. "We need a Christ-centered vision ... that is full of love; that's about what we are for, not what we are against."