Rabbi first speaker in new Mercer lecture series

MACON, Ga. — Baptists and Jews, both having suffered historically as minority faiths, share a strong commitment to religious liberty, Rabbi David Saperstein said during an inaugural Mercer University lecture series. Saperstein has directed the Washington-based Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism for 30 years.

At the Walter B. and Kay W. Shurden Lectures on Religious Liberty and Separation of Church and State held April 4–5, Saperstein said the “robust religious liberty, free of government interference, is the indispensable component” that Jewish and Baptist communities share in common. The lectureship was created through a gift to the Baptist Joint Committee for Religious Liberty from Walter Shurden, the founding executive director of Mercer’s Center for Baptist Studies. The Georgia Baptist Convention founded Mercer in 1833, although the convention recently severed the affiliation.