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TechnoratiRepublican presidential candidate Mike Huckabee has been criticized for withdrawing from the so-called New Baptist Covenant Celebration because of remarks made about President Bush by former president Jimmy Carter. For conservatives, the real surprise should be that Huckabee agreed to speak in the first place, not that he has decided to withdraw from the event. Jimmy Carter, Bill Clinton and Al Gore have teamed up to support the leftist North American Baptist Fellowship which is a division of the leftist Baptist World Alliance in their attempt to form a new group of Baptists. Both Carter and Clinton claim the purpose of the new group is to “counter the negative Baptist image and demonstrate Baptist unity around social concerns.”
The real purpose of the new group is to counter the influence of conservative Christians in the political arena. Those on the left know all too well that concerned Christians, motivated by a desire to defend traditional marriage and to stand up for the rights of the unborn made a huge difference in the 2004 election. Exit polls showed strong support for President Bush and pro-life, pro-marriage candidates among conservative Christians. Democrats on the left realized after looking at the exit polling data that they had to come up with a way to nullify or compromise the voting strength of conservative Christians. Those already in office facing reelection campaigns decided to hire consultants to help them understand how to reach conservatives by repackaging their liberal messages in conservative, biblical language. In order to help them win back control of Congress, the Democrats recruited conservative, pro-life candidates to run against conservative Republican incumbents, hoping that voter frustration with the Iraq war would drive people to vote for a democrat providing the democrat was pro-life. Their strategy worked in many areas of the country particularly Pennsylvania, where conservative Senator Rick Santorum was defeated by pro-life democrat Bob Casey.
It amazes me that any true conservative Southern Baptist pastor or leader could take one look at the line up of speakers at the new convocation and not see through the stated purpose of the group. The list of speakers reads like who’s who of prominent leftist democrats including Jimmy Carter, Bill Clinton, and of course Mr. global warming himself, Al Gore. The timing of the event should also raise red flags for conservatives. The convocation is scheduled for January of 2008 which would be just in time for the media to bring national attention to a liberal Baptist group right before the start of the presidential primary season. If this meeting is truly about the gospel with no emphasis on politics why are most of the speakers political operatives for the Democrat party? How can you separate the message from the messengers? Theologically, Jimmy Carter has made it clear in his Sunday School class that Jesus Christ is not the only way of salvation. Politically, he has made it clear by traveling to Cuba and supporting Fidel Castro and making outrageous statements supporting the terrorists within Hamas and the PLO that he is firmly committed to a leftist political agenda.
Dr. Russell Moore, Senior Vice-President for Academic Administration at the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary described the New Baptist Covenant Celebration as being “really united around what they don’t believe and what they don’t believe is essentially everything the Southern Baptist Convention does believe.” Moore’s assessment of absolutely right on point….Carter, Gore, and Clinton are all pro-choice, pro-homosexual, and anti-traditional marriage. I don’t think most Southern Baptists fought for ten years to restore the denomination to its conservative roots only to have those roots redefined for political gain by the left. Continue »
