A little history is necessary to understand why the upcoming election of Fred Luter to the presidency of the SBC is being regarded as a milestone moment.
Beginning in the 1830s, churches in the North began to express their opposition to slavery. As Henry Vedder in his Short History of the Baptists put it, "there was a growing sentiment among the churches, that a Christian man ought not to be a holder of slaves."
Tragically, this view did not hold in the South. When northerners began advocating emancipation, most southerners defended this sinful institution. As a result, even before the United States engaged in a Civil War, costing the lives of more Americans than any war previous or following, the Baptists split.
It may come as a surprise to learn that just a few decades earlier, in 1790, a significant group of Baptists in Virginia had asked the government to end slavery:
Resolved, That slavery is a violent deprivation of the rights of nature, and inconsistent with a republican government; and therefore we recommend it to our Brethren to make use of every legal measure, to extirpate from the land, and pray Almighty God, that our Honourable Legislature may have it in their power, to proclaim the general Jubilee, consistent with the principles of good policy.
But by the 1830s, this group had reversed their position, condoned slavery, and set themselves in opposition to the emancipation movement taking shape in the North. The controversy came to a head in 1844 when the northern and southern Baptist churches disagreed over the question of whether or not their denomination should allow slaveholders to be sent as missionaries overseas. Baptists in the North argued "we can never be a party to an arrangement which would imply approbation of slavery." Baptists in the South largely disagreed and in 1845, in Augusta, GA, they organized the Southern Baptist Convention.
Perhaps, then, you will appreciate the significance of the Southern Baptist Convention, meeting this week in New Orleans, preparing to vote upon the election of Fred Luter, the pastor of Franklin Avenue Baptist Church. Mr. Luter is an African-American.
He was called to Franklin Avenue in 1986, when it was a church with 65 members. Almost twenty-years later it had become a megachurch. But when Hurricane Katrina hit the building that thousands of his members called home, it was rendered unusable. Only a handful stayed in New Orleans. Most fled. Luter, their leader, remained. Jamie Dean of World Magazine reports:
Though the pastor could have fled himself, Luter stayed in New Orleans and led the church's efforts to restore its building and its congregation. Today, more than 4,500 worshippers pack Sunday services in a new building that opened in 2008.
I live in Atlanta, GA, just a few hours from where the Southern Baptist Convention was founded. I began pastoring here in 2008. I have met men and women who look for a Southern Baptist Church because they want to go where the Gospel is preached, and they are convinced that, by-and-large, SBC churches have done a good job holding fast to the Gospel where many churches have failed. I have also met men and women who would never darken the doors of a Southern Baptist Church. In part, their reluctance is due to the history of the SBC--they don't want to be part of a movement with such a tragic and sinful start.
As a Yankee who has found a home in the South, and as a Christian who longs to see the the nations worshipping together under one roof, I can appreciate both positions. I don't know Mr. Luter, but I am thankful for his willingness to take the reins of a denomination with a reputation for being on the wrong side of discrimination. Such a reputation, though deserved given our past, is a blight upon congregations who claim to follow the Lord Jesus Christ. It was, after all, Jesus who gave the Apostle John a vision that we are all waiting to be realized:
After this I looked, and behold, a great multitude that no one could number, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed in white robes, with palm branches in their hands, and crying out with a loud voice, "Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb!"
Mr. Luter will not be able to change the perception so many have of the 40,000 or so Southern Baptist churches that exist today. Furthermore there are many churches, in the SBC and other denominations, who still have cultures of racism. The election of Mr. Luter will not changethe culture of these churches. Nonetheless, his nomination and election is an opportunity for a denomination once known for the enslavement of men, women, and children, to become known as a denomination that is aware of its past, repentant of its sin, and eager to elevate a godly man such as Mr. Luter to a position of highest honor in our denomination.
It took too long, but at least the day has finally arrived. The opportunity this election presents should not be ignored.