The irony is unmistakable. In the summer of 1962 when Martin Luther King Jr. left Albany, Georgia, after months of marches and demonstrations to overturn discrimination against African-Americans and to register black voters, he considered the Albany Movement a failure.
But it was in Albany that history was made earlier this month when Mallary Baptist Association became the first association in Southern Baptist history to withdraw fellowship from a church composed of Anglo members because of overt racism against a predominantly black church.
Further irony was added when the unanimous vote to withdraw fellowship from the church came on April 3, the eve before the 50th anniversary of King’s assassination in Memphis on April 4, 1968.
The unanimous vote is more impressive when one considers that 52 of the association’s 53 cooperating churches are white churches. The only black church is New Seasons Church, the target of the alleged racism.
The vote was a tragic end of what started as a promising partnership. Unfortunately the partnership went downhill almost immediately and not even intervention efforts by the association and the Georgia Baptist State Convention could rescue the situation.
Raleigh White Baptist Church, Albany, found itself in a changing neighborhood with its membership and attendance declining. Pastor Ronnie Kinsaul led the church to partner with a small but growing black church called New Seasons Church. Both congregations would use the Raleigh White Baptist facilities.
Kinsaul retired a few months later and Raleigh White Church continued to decline, eventually dwindling down to about 20 worship participants. At the same time New Seasons grew, baptizing 78 in 2016 and 80 in 2017. Reportedly, as New Seasons grew and used more of the church facilities tensions between the congregations increased.
Director of Missions Hans Wunch and the association’s moderator and vice moderator all attempted to mediate the growing tensions. Eventually Georgia Baptist state missionaries joined the mediation efforts but with little success, they reported.
The three years of tension came to a head in March 2018 when Raleigh White planned a March 18 homecoming service. Schedules were adjusted to facilitate both congregations using the building that day. But when some African-American families arrived a half-hour early for their service, Raleigh White members told them to remain in their cars. The daughter of one visiting African-American family asked to use the bathroom but was told to go a convenience store down the road.
Openly displayed
With racism now being openly displayed by Raleigh White, Mallary Association’s administrative committee met March 21 and recommended removing the church from fellowship.
But before that action was taken one more effort was made to urge the church to change its ways. Wunch told the George Baptist Christian Index news staff that “the meeting did not go well.”
On April 3, after 90 minutes of discussion by the association’s executive committee, the unanimous vote to remove Raleigh White made Baptist history.
A statement released by the association said, “The reason for this action involved the church’s unchristian attitudes and acts toward another associational church. These attitudes and acts were racially motivated. Thus they do not reflect the values and mission of the Mallary Baptist Association.”
Georgia Baptist Mission Board Executive Director J. Robert White said, “It is very disappointing that some have apparently made no progress after 50 years. Jesus taught us to love one another. … There is no exception to Jesus’ command. The Georgia Baptist Mission Board cannot and will not tolerate racism. It is incompatible with what we believe.”
Reportedly the Georgia Baptist Convention has withdrawn fellowship from Raleigh White as well.
Last year Baptists in nine Southern states including Alabama passed resolutions condemning racism. The Alabama resolution called on Baptists to “denounce and repudiate” racial and ethnic animosity of any kind. It further urged Baptists to “prayerfully and urgently seek racial reconciliation in our respective communities across Alabama to show the power of the gospel and to give respect, honor and love to one another.”
Baptists in Georgia’s Mallary Association did not wait for official documents to be amended to make overt racism a reason to withdraw fellowship. Instead the association’s administrative committee cited Genesis 1:26 affirming that all people are made in God’s image and therefore deserve dignity and respect (see Baptist Faith and Message, Article III). The administrative committee referenced Jesus’ words in John 13:35, “By this all men will know that you are My disciples, if you love one another.”
These Baptists recognized overt racism and called it what it was. They condemned the actions as violating what the Bible teaches and not reflecting how Christians are called to live. That was enough for them to act. The leaders of Mallary Association would not be identified or associated with the actions of Raleigh White Church.
In the Feb. 8 issue we wrote in an editorial, “What kind of message would it send to cooperating churches, to the Christian world, to our nation and beyond if Alabama Baptists and Southern Baptists not only said racism is wrong but acted so that no church which practiced overt racism could be a member of our conventions?”
That is what Mallary Association did and we commend them for their leadership. May other Baptists be as courageous and forthright.
Still much work to be done
This historical event may mark the dawn of a new day in race relations among Southern Baptists. We may be at the point of adding actions to our words. But there is still much work to be done. Reading posts on websites where this story is available, it is disappointing to read responses attempting to defend or justify actions by Raleigh White.
Evidently overt actions of racism may be dwindling but much needs to be done with emotions and feelings that lay just under the surface.
So we will continue to pray and seek racial reconciliation within our churches and across our communities, state and nation because “we are ambassadors for Christ” who invite “whosoever will” into the family of God through faith in Jesus Christ.
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