Shared ideals fire up Baptists

Disparate believers to gather in Atlanta

Joel Baucom, a 25-year-old divinity school student at Campbell University, occasionally finds it difficult to be a Baptist these days.

"When I introduce myself, I say 'I go to a Baptist church,' " he said. "But I quickly have to add, 'Not that kind of Baptist church.'"

At a time when many Baptists feel they must qualify their affiliation because of the often controversial stands taken by the Southern Baptist Convention, a gathering of more moderate and liberal Baptists aims to recast that image and create a competing identity for Baptists.

The New Baptist Covenant Celebration, the creation of former President Carter, will bring together 30 racially and theologically diverse Baptist groups from across North America. The goal is to demonstrate unity on issues such as ministry to the poor, environmental stewardship and respect for religious diversity.

"This seems to be a time when we can reclaim the authentic 'what it means to be a Baptist,' " said Baucom, who is heading to Atlanta on Wednesday with two dozen fellow Campbell Divinity School students to attend the meeting.

Baptists make up the largest religious group in North Carolina, and at least 430 from the state's churches are expected among the thousands who will converge at the Georgia World Congress Center. Among them are a mix of people who claim the Baptist name, but not the Southern Baptist mantle. They include white Baptists who left the Southern Baptist Convention over the past three decades as the denomination became increasingly conservative, and black Baptists who formed their own denominations after the Civil War.

All have taken more progressive stands on social justice issues such as racial inequality and poverty, and many split from the Southern Baptist fold over disagreements about the inerrancy of the Bible, and the rights of women and gays.

But the three-day event is not intended to create a new denomination opposite the Southern Baptist Convention, which is the nation's largest Protestant group, with 16 million members. Instead, it is designed to bring together otherwise isolated and fragmented Baptist groups and find ways to cooperate on missions.

If nothing else, this week's meeting will be historic in bringing together black and white Baptists, who split before the Civil War over whether missionaries could own slaves. Northern Baptists insisted they could not; white Baptists in the South insisted they could.

"This event has generated so much excitement that people expect to see some change that will bridge the gaps among the Baptist denominations," said Linda Bryan, a professor of missions and ministry at Shaw Divinity School in Raleigh.

What sort of changes will occur is not clear. Many pastors said they want to be open to the possibility of working alongside new groups, but they couldn't say what that might look like.

Hope -- and skepticism

Bill Leonard, the dean of the divinity school at Wake Forest University in Winston-Salem and one of the leaders of the celebration, said Carter, who has taught Sunday school for more than 60 years, has "impeccable credentials" to call together such a group.

But for it to work, many participants said, Baptists must first learn what it means to be a Baptist. Local church autonomy, freedom of conscience, the right to interpret the Bible for oneself, and the separation of church and state have historically been the hallmarks of Baptist faith, Leonard said.

"A good Baptist never expects anyone to agree with him or her completely, but should always demand that his or her voice be heard," Leonard said. A Baptist historian, he will be teaching a class on the distinctive Baptist touchstones at the conference.