'Division like a cancer' for Baptists, Carter tells New Baptist Covenant

Former President Jimmy Carter founded the New Baptist Covenant to promote unity among all Baptist denominations. In Birmingham, Ala., on Saturday, speaking to some 1,200 people who packed the historic Sixteenth Street Baptist Church, Carter said:

As we struggle with each other for authority or argue with one another about the interpretation of individual verses in the scripture, the arguments and even the animosities among Christians are like a cancer. . . . [Paul] made it vividly clear that to substitute any issue, no matter how important it was to us, for the good news of salvation, was an abomination.

Carter's message was in marked contrast to the Southern Baptist Convention's ongoing inquisitorial divisions.

Carter was addressing the first of five regional celebrations pursuing racial conciliation and cooperation on social issues.

Marv Knox wrote that the group "demonstrated racial, theological and geographic harmony as they prayed, sang, listened to sermons and attended workshops focusing on ministry to the people Jesus called 'the least of these' in society."

William Underwood, president of Mercer University, said:

A fire is burning here at Sixteenth Street Baptist Church. A fire that has not and will not be extinguished. The only question is, will the fire catch?

Actually, the reported intensity of the first regional meeting suggests to us that it is catching.