Baptist Unity Effort Moves Forward

By Lillian Kwon
Christian Post Reporter

A year after launching an initiative aimed at ending factions in the wide Baptist community, former president Jimmy Carter convened some 1,200 people over the weekend to build on the unity movement.

“Carter is a lifelong Southern Baptist who has lamented the divisiveness that’s been present in the Baptist family,” said Brent McDougal, coordinator for Alabama Cooperative Baptist Fellowship, according to Tuscaloosa News.

“Baptists celebrate freedom of consciousness, autonomy of the local church and the priesthood of all believers,” McDougal noted. “Every Baptist stands before God a free person and that leads to a lot of differences–differences of opinions, worship styles and the way we believe church should function.”

Hundreds had packed the historic Sixteenth Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, Ala., on Saturday for the first of five regional meetings of the New Baptist Covenant–an initiative launched early last year with the participation of nearly 15,000 Baptists who are aiming to get past the bickering and work together on such social issues as global warming, poverty and human rights.

“There’s no way for us to avoid Jesus’ emphasis on the poor, the broken-hearted, the captive, the blind and the bruised,” Carter said. “We came together in Atlanta–black, white, Asian, Hispanic–to learn how better to serve … and to inspire harmony among ourselves and others.” Click here to read this entire article.

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