Former President Jimmy Carter, Southern Baptists’ most famous layman, says he feels “excluded” by the Southern Baptist Convention and “can no longer be associated” with the nation’s largest Protestant denomination.
As a candidate in 1976 who introduced the term “born again” into the political lexicon, as a president who was criticized for witnessing to world leaders, as a goodwill ambassador through his work with Habitat for Humanity, and as a Sunday School teacher at his small church in Plains, Ga., Carter has been one of the most visible and respected Southern Baptists for 25 years.
But in a letter and press statement released Oct. 19, Carter lamented the new “creedal” direction taken by the SBC.
He said the recent changes in the Baptist Faith and Message doctrinal statement are “profound and revolutionary” and reflect “an increasingly rigid SBC creed.”
“I had never been involved in the political struggle for control of the SBC and have no desire to do so,” Carter wrote in the letter, which was mailed to 75,000 Baptists nationwide by the moderate group Texas Baptists Committed.
He said he was disappointed that his effort two years ago to promote dialogue between SBC factions failed.
“My hope was that, as a traditional Baptist layman, I could find some channel through which I could help fulfill our Christian commitments,” Carter said.
“But since that brief interlude of apparent harmony, I have been disappointed and feel excluded by the adoption of policies and an increasingly rigid SBC creed, including some provisions that violate the basic premises of my Christian faith. I have finally decided that, after 65 years, I can no longer be associated with the Southern Baptist Convention.”
“This is a torturous decision to make,” Carter added in an interview with Associated Baptist Press. “I do it with anguish and not with any pleasure.”
Carter, 76, said he could no longer “add my name and my support” to SBC efforts because its leaders “have departed from what I believe.”
In his press release, Carter said he and his wife, Rosalynn, want to associate with “other traditional Baptists who continue to share such beliefs as separation of church and state, servanthood and not domination of pastors, local church autonomy, a free religious press and equality of women.”
He lamented the SBC’s departure from those beliefs and the exclusion of those who disagree from service in the convention.
Carter told ABP that one particular change in the 2000 doctrinal statement “overrides and explains the other concerns I have” — the SBC’s decision to eliminate language that identifies Jesus Christ as “the criterion by which the Bible is to be interpreted.”
“Most disturbing has been the convention’s recent decision to remove Jesus Christ, through His words, deeds and personal inspiration, as the ultimate Interpreter of the Holy Scriptures,” he explained in his press release. “This leaves open making the pastors or executives of the SBC the ultimate interpreters.”
The day following his announcement, Baptist Press asked Carter about his positions on several controversial isues including abortion and homosexuality.
On the issue of abortion, Carter said he is pro-life.
“I have never believed that Christ would approve of abortion,” he said.
“When I was governor and president, I took an oath to uphold the Constitution. I had to administer the (abortion) law, but I did everything I possibly could to discourage abortion.”
Concerning homosexuality, Carter said, “Homosexuals have a perfect right to profess to be Christians, accept Christ as Savior, and I wouldn’t have a problem if they worshiped side by side with me,” the former president said.
“Jesus never singled out homosexuals to be condemned. When the Southern Baptist Convention started singling out homosexuals as a special form or degree of sinfulness, I didn’t agree with it,” Carter added. “Now, that target has shifted to the subjugation of women.”
Carter said he does not support legal approval for homosexual marriages but he does support laws that prohibit discrimination against homosexuals.
“Yes, homosexuality is a sin but so is adultery,” Carter said.
“When somebody doesn’t give 10 percent of their earnings to the church, it is a sin. All of us are sinners every day,” he said. “And adultery is a more serious sin than homosexuality.”
SBC president James Merritt told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution that he views Carter’s decision as “an unfortunate turn of events.”
Merritt, pastor of First Baptist Church in Snellville, Ga., said he believes the former president is “a man of sincere faith,” but “he evidently has a set of personal convictions that are at odds with what we believe as Southern Baptists.” Southern Baptists “cannot maintain a relationship with anyone that would come at the expense of what we believe to be biblical truth,” he said. (Compiled from wire services)
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