racial reconciliation Archives - Baptist & Reflector

VICE PRESIDENT ADDRESSES SBC MESSENGERS IN DALLAS

June 26, 2018

Pence appearance, Greear election were among top storylines at this year’s annual meeting

Editor’s Note: Visit baptistandreflector.org for complete coverage of the SBC annual meeting.

By Lonnie Wilkey
Editor, Baptist and Reflector
lwilkey@tnbaptist.org

Messengers at the SBC annual meeting raise their ballots while voting on one of the 20 proposed motions on June 12. — Photo by Matt Miller/Baptist Press

DALLAS — Though an attempt was made to exclude the vice president of the United States from speaking to Southern Baptist Convention messengers, Mike Pence addressed the convention in the June 13 morning session.

Pence’s appearance was one of several highlights during the annual meeting held June 12-13 in Dallas. The meeting drew 9,637 messengers, including 615 from Tennessee. Tennessee trailed only Texas (2,036) and Louisiana (718) in number of messengers. It was the largest attended convention since 2010. [Read more…]

THE PAST IS PAST: LET’S FOCUS ON THE NOW

May 16, 2018

By Lonnie Wilkey
Editor, Baptist and Reflector

I received a press release recently from Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, Ky., about an address President R. Albert Mohler made during a “Leadership Briefing” on campus. His topic: George Washington.

Mohler had several kind things to say about our nation’s first president. Then he added the “but.” He referred to the fact that Washington owned slaves and observed that his legacy “is polluted by his short-sighted views on slavery and race.” Mohler may be right, but do we need to keep dwelling on our past? It’s not news. Washington and several of our nation’s founders owned slaves. It’s documented. It was part of the culture of the country at that time.

Did that make it right? No. Slavery is wrong in any era, including today when human trafficking is running amuck in our society. [Read more…]

GAINES ADDRESSES PATTERSON, RACIAL DIVERSITY, SBC

May 11, 2018

Baptist Press

Southern Baptist Convention President Steve Gaines.
-Photo by Morris Abernathy

CORDOVA — Responding to questions about his committee appointments and controversy involving a Southern Baptist seminary leader, SBC President Steve Gaines released a statement today (May 11) to Baptist Press.

Gaines, pastor of Memphis-area Bellevue Baptist Church in Cordova, Tenn., specifically addresses the controversy involving past statements by Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary President Paige Patterson on women, divorce and domestic violence. Gaines’ statement also touched on racial diversity and ways Southern Baptists can pray for the SBC leading up to its annual meeting in Dallas, June 12-13. [Read more…]

GAINES ANSWERS QUESTIONS ON SEVERAL TOUGH TOPICS

March 20, 2018

By Diana Chandler
Baptist Press

MEMPHIS — Loving your neighbor as yourself is a sure path to overcoming racial prejudice, Southern Baptist women’s minister Donna Gaines said in the March cover article of Today’s Christian Living magazine.

“When we love our neighbor, that erases racial prejudice,” Gaines said in the cover story. “If we were all actually doing that, we’d be able to turn the world upside down just like the early disciples.”

Expounding on what Jesus described as one of the two greatest commandments, the wife of Southern Baptist Convention President Steve Gaines gave an example from her own life in an interview with Baptist Press on March 21.

In 2017, she befriended a 32-year-old African American mother of eight who is now a baptized believer and every Sunday attends Bellevue Baptist Church, where Gaines’ husband is pastor. She and her ARISE2Read ministry have helped the mother find housing and secure a van large enough to transport the mother’s children ranging in age from three months to 14 years. The mother and her oldest child made professions of faith in February after Gaines began influencing their lives. [Read more…]

TENNESSEE PASTORS ‘PAID A BIG PRICE’

February 6, 2018

By David Roach
Baptist Press

Pastor Paul Turner of First Baptist Church in Clinton, Tenn., told the congregation Scripture “never compromises with sin” the week after he was beaten by segregationists.
– Screen capture from YouTube.

NASHVILLE — Striving for racial reconciliation was costly for some Southern Baptist pastors, (including two who served in Tennessee) in the 1950s through the 1970s. It cost Jack Kwok his property and Paul Turner a beating by angry segregationists.

But Kwok, who has served as executive director of the State Convention of Baptists in Ohio since 1996, says the price pastors and other ministers paid was worth the result. Today, though more progress is needed, nearly one in five Southern Baptist churches is non-Anglo, and about half of North American Mission Board church plants are predominantly non-Anglo. [Read more…]

CHANGING CULTURE PROVIDES NEW OPPORTUNITIES

January 16, 2018

By Benjie Shaw,
BCM Director, University Of Tennessee Health Science Center

Stop me if you’ve heard this before: America’s religious landscape has undergone large shifts in the last 20 years. In September, the Public Religion Research Institute (PRRI) released its latest study, titled “America’s Changing Religious Identity.” In short, the PRRI study discovered: [Read more…]

TBC MESSENGERS CONDUCT BUSINESS

November 20, 2017

By Lonnie Wilkey
Editor, Baptist and Reflector

Tennessee Baptist Convention President Steve Freeman, pastor of Grace Baptist Church, Springfield, delivers the annual president’s address during the Tuesday (Nov. 14) session of Summit.
— Photo by Corinne Rochotte

HENDERSONVILLE — Messengers to the annual meeting of the Tennessee Baptist Convention overwhelmingly spoke against racism and elected David Leavell, pastor of First Baptist Church, Millington, as president.

The annual meeting, held during The Summit Nov. 12-16 at First Baptist Church, Hendersonville, drew 993 messengers from 422 churches. Attendance was down from the 1,228 who attended last year’s sessions in Sevierville but was up from the 984 who registered for the 2015 Summit in Millington. The messenger count did not include messengers from First Baptist Church, Jefferson City. Messengers voted overwhelmingly to not seat the eight messengers from First Baptist which called a woman senior pastor earlier this year (see story). [Read more…]

TENNESSEE BAPTISTS DENOUNCE RACISM

October 25, 2017

By Lonnie Wilkey
Editor, Baptist and Reflector

Randy C. Davis, center, president and executive director of the Tennessee Baptist Mission Board, speaks during a press conference held Oct. 25 at the Church Support Center. Davis was joined by an ethnically diverse group of pastors from across the state. Also speaking during the conference was Jay Wells, left, pastor emeritus of Simeon Baptist Church, Antioch, and Thi Mitsamphanh, right, pastor of International Christian Church, Smyrna. — Photo by Corinne Rochotte, Baptist and Reflector

FRANKLIN – A mix of ethnically diverse Tennessee Baptists gathered in a display of unity at the Church Support Center in Franklin Oct. 25 to publicly denounce the white supremacist movement and racism during a press conference called by the Tennessee Baptist Mission Board.

“We don’t call press conferences very often but we believe it is impossible to stand silently by while the white supremacy movement plans to invade our state and perpetrate its evil Saturday (Oct. 28) in Shelbyville and Murfreesboro,” said Randy C. Davis, president and executive director of the Tennessee Baptist Mission Board. [Read more…]

THERE’S NO ROOM FOR RACISM IN TENNESSEE

October 24, 2017

By Randy C. Davis
TBMB President & Executive Director

As Christians, we are called to be salt and light, and in that calling there is no room for racism of any kind.

I have a reason for making such a stark statement. This Saturday (Oct. 28), White Supremacy groups will be in Shelbyville and Murfreesboro propagating an agenda rooted in hatred and spread through fear mongering. [Read more…]

WHAT WOULD YOU SAY ABOUT CHARLOTTESVILLE?

September 1, 2017

By Chris Turner
Director of Communications, TBMB

Car involved in a vehicle-ramming attack in Charlottesville, VA.
-Photo: Wikimedia Commons, Public Domain

The recent events in Charlottesville were tragic and seemingly becoming more common in cities across America. Racism in all forms is satanic, is biblically antithetical, and should be anathema to every Christian everywhere. Christ died to save some “from every tribe, tongue, and nation” (Revelation 7:9).

As Christians, we have a responsibility to speak on behalf of the gospel. And when we speak, it isn’t just our opinion that is being broadcast. People, especially non-Christians, form conclusions about God, His Kingdom, Christians, our churches, and us based on what we say. No pressure there, huh?

Unfortunately, an initial response by many pastors, ministers, and Christians is to go the other direction and say nothing. This is especially true if media call a local church asking for a comment. The response they are often greeted with is, “no comment.” First, “no comment” is never a good answer. Secondly, and probably more importantly, not to comment is a wasted opportunity. [Read more…]

Pence appearance, Greear election were among top storylines at this year’s annual meeting

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