By Editor Bob Terry
Alabama was international news the first week of August. Unfortunately it was for all the wrong reasons. Whatever happened (see Aug. 11 issue of The Alabama Baptist), the story reported internationally was that a white church in rural Alabama unanimously fired its pastor because he wanted to invite African-American children to Vacation Bible School.
That story reinforced all the negative stereotypical images of Alabama that have been ingrained in minds worldwide by events related to the “Movement” for civil rights that took place here in the 1960s.
Because the church in the news story was a Baptist church, Alabama Baptists also took a hit.
The event became another nail holding up the image of Alabama as a racist state and Baptists, the largest religious group in Alabama, as a racist people.
Recruiters for business and educational institutions in Alabama often say their biggest problem is getting someone on a plane to visit Alabama. People who come to this fair state are often favorably surprised by the people, the culture, the quality of life, the opportunities, the accomplishments.
Alabama, they find, is not always like the historical stereotypes that form their images of the state.
That is not to say Alabama does not continue to struggle with the sin of racism. It does. Thankfully the loudest voices in our state are sharp and clear that racism is a form of idolatry. Racism worships creation rather than the Creator. Racism denies the image of God in all human beings and sees it only in some.
That other states and metropolitan areas struggle with the same problem is of little comfort. Wherever racial prejudice and racism surface they are sins and must be resisted.
Overcoming evils
Thankfully Alabama Baptists are among those struggling to overcome these evils.
Birmingham was the epicenter of racial struggle in the 1960s. Today 33 of the 130 member churches of the Birmingham Baptist Association are predominately African-American. The current associational moderator is Rosevelt Morris Sr., associate pastor of Sixth Avenue Baptist Church, Birmingham, a historic African-American congregation. Two of the 5 ministerial staff members of the association are African-Americans.
The association’s weekly meeting for ministers always includes African-Americans and African-American pastors frequently serve as president of the group.
Birmingham is not alone. Many of the Baptist associations in the state have predominately African-American churches as members. Both Mobile and Montgomery associations report 11 African-American churches as members. Bessemer Association has nine and Madison Association in the Huntsville area counts seven such churches among its members.
In Shelby Baptist Association, CrossWay Christian Fellowship, Pelham, is a fairly new church plant with about an equal number of Anglo and African-American members. The pastor is Fred Muse, an African-American. Other predominately Anglo churches have African-American staff members.
Efforts for black and white Baptists to work together are not limited to metropolitan areas. Pine Barren Baptist Association in Wilcox County elected an African-American pastor as moderator, a position in which he served from 2009 to 2011.
African-Americans serve on the Alabama Baptist State Board of Missions (SBOM) and as SBOM staff. They serve as members of statewide committees and on institutional boards.
Certainly there is more to do but Alabama Baptists are purposefully trying to be inclusive not only of African-Americans but of Hispanics, Koreans and other ethnic groups.
But serving in positions of leadership is not the place that prejudice and racism are overcome. That will only happen as people of different ethnic groups worship together and get to know one another in local churches.
Normal inclusion
Recently I spoke at the 160th anniversary service of First Baptist Church, Montevallo. African-Americans were there as greeters. They were part of the praise team leading worship. African-Americans were in the choir and families sat in various parts of the auditorium.
As one visits Baptist churches across Alabama, it is not unusual to see African-Americans in the congregation and in leadership roles.
In the church where my wife, Pat, and I are members (Dawson Memorial Baptist Church, Birmingham), for example, African-Americans are members of our Sunday School class, our choirs and our leadership. An African-American has served as our chairman of deacons.
Few, if any, think anything about this inclusiveness. It is the way things are supposed to be in the kingdom of God. It is normal.
Again Alabama and Alabama Baptists have a long way to go in regards to racial prejudice and racism but this is not the Alabama of the 1960s. Baptists understand that those who cling to racial prejudice and racism are on the wrong side of theology and the losing side of history.
At our best, Baptists proclaim a “whosoever will” gospel. All are invited to God through faith in Jesus Christ because “God is not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance” (2 Pet. 3:9). In that same spirit, Baptists invite all who know Jesus as personal Savior and Lord into the fellowship of the Church.
There will be other “bumps in the road” and other sad stories about failures like the one that went viral earlier this month. Hopefully that will not discourage us from continuing to work together to overcome racial prejudice and racism. We must never become weary in well-doing.
Share with others: