‘Symbol of racism’: Southern Baptists vote to ‘discontinue’ use of Confederate flag

A virtual tie between two candidates for president of the Southern Baptist Convention has been resolved with one stepping aside to endorse the other.

Southern Baptist Convention Parliamentarian Barry McCarty explains the resolution amendment process after a messenger complained about not being allowed to speak after time expired during the afternoon session of the annual meeting of the Southern Baptist Convention on Tuesday, June 14 in St. Louis.

On the previous ballot, Gaines had received 49.96 percent of the votes while Greear got 47.8 percent.

Gaines said he was also planning to withdraw until meeting Tuesday night with Greear, who told him he believed Gaines remaining in the race was the right thing to do.

During the annual meeting of Southern Baptist churches in St. Louis, participants weighed in on a variety of hot-button issues, among them the controversy over refugee resettlement.

That emergent diversity was on display as Floyd convened a group of pastors who were African-American, Hispanic, Asian, Native American and white to discuss racial unity along with Jerry Young, the president of the largest historically black denomination, the National Baptist Convention U.S.A. It also stated that there should be opportunities for those in Southern Baptist seminaries and colleges to learn about Alzheimer’s and dementia. “We encourage Southern Baptist churches and families to welcome and adopt refugees into their churches and homes”.

While the resolution didn’t mention gay and lesbian victims, outgoing SBC President Ronnie Floyd said in an address to attendees that an “attack against gay Americans in Orlando is an attack against each one of us”, adding that Christians should oppose violence and bigotry against “anyone in this world”, according to minutes kept by Baptist Press. And they actually voted to strengthen the language of the resolution presented to them by a committee, deleting a sentence that said the flag is seen by some as a memorial to their ancestors. “I didn’t know which one”. I think to honor those nine people in Charleston that were killed, surely you can repudiate what drove Dylann Roof to kill those folks.

Greear is the pastor of The Summit Church, which has grown in worship attendance from 350 to nearly 10,000 during his 14 years there. The white community for the first time, in some ways, would experience the depth of the pain; for the first time, beginning to understand, it was our church that was attacked, our people, our brothers and sisters, our neighbor. “(Greear) to pull out at the same time”, he said. “I love my church, but I love my Southern heritage and don’t intend to change”. “So I am respectfully withdrawing my candidacy as president”. “He is a man of character, compassion and of concern”. The Southern Baptist Convention (SBC), which began in 1845 in part in support of slaveholding missionaries, approved a resolution in 1995 repenting of racism and asking for forgiveness from African American Christians.

The Committee on Order of Business recommended Roger Spradlin, pastor of Valley Baptist Church in Bakersfield, Cal., as the 2017 convention preacher; Vance Pitman, pastor of Hope Church in Las Vegas as the alternate; and Mark Blair, Bellevue Baptist Church in Cordova., Tenn., as music director.