NASHVILLE, Tenn. (RNS) How tough is it to create a racially diverse denomination? Consider a recent luncheon organized by the Southern Baptist Convention, the nation’s largest Protestant denomination.
About 100 Nashville-area evangelical leaders accepted invitations to a lunch hosted by the denomination’s policy arm, the Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission. On the agenda: a pitch for a spring summit and a short discussion by ERLC President Russell Moore about the need for churches to become more racially diverse.
The number of African-Americans who showed up for the lunch? Four (two of them denomination employees).
ERLC leaders originally planned a summit on bioethics. They quickly shifted gears after grand juries in November and December failed to indict police officers for the deaths of young unarmed black men. Moore’s social media remarks condemning the New York City jury’s decision not to indict the officer who killed Eric Garner were met with an angry backlash, some from people filling Southern Baptist pews and pulpits.
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“There were no discussions within the universal Christian faith — I certainly didn’t get a call — about what should be the vision going forward,” Evans said. “I’m not sure the motivation of their actions, but it’s a small beginning.”
He said he will have more interest when he sees a long-term, strategic plan and a financial commitment to implementing it.
The Gospel and Racial Reconciliation
The Gospel and Racial Reconciliation Summit will be held March 26-27 in Nashville. Speakers include: Fred Luter Jr., senior pastor of Franklin Avenue Baptist Church in New Orleans and the Southern Baptist Convention’s first African-American president; John Perkins, a civil rights leader and founder of the Christian Community Development Association; and Juan Sanchez, preaching pastor at High Pointe Baptist Church in Austin, Texas.
(Heidi Hall is a freelance writer in Nashville, Tenn. Contact her on Twitter @HeidiHallTN.)
