USA: Southern Baptists Elect First Black President

More than 160 years after its founding as a pro-slavery church, the Southern Baptist Convention on Tuesday elected a black pastor for the first time to lead the denomination.

The election of the Rev. Fred Luter Jr. of New Orleans comes 17 years after Southern Baptist leaders apologized for the denomination's onetime support of white supremacist and segregationist policies.

It also cements years of effort by the church to overcome that divisive heritage.

USA: Rev. Fred Luther, African-American Leader Of Southern Baptist Convention (SBC), Says Church Shouldn't Be Defined By Race

Rev. Fred Luther, African-American Leader Of Southern Baptist Convention (SBC), Says Church Shouldn't Be Defined By Race

Source: The Huffington Post

By Kim Lawton | May30, 2012

NEW ORLEANS (RNS) The Southern Baptist Convention began in 1845 in support of slaveholders and is now poised to elect its first African-American president, the Rev. Fred Luter Jr., in June.

"It's a new day in the Southern Baptist Convention," Luter told the PBS program Religion & Ethics NewsWeekly. "Our doors are open to each and everybody."

Luter, 55, has been pastor of Franklin Avenue Baptist Church in New Orleans more than 25 years. Under his leadership, Franklin Avenue has become one of the largest Southern Baptist churches in the state, with nearly 5,000 members. At one time, it was an all-white Southern Baptist congregation. But in the 1970s, whites moved out of the neighborhood, and the congregation became mostly African-American.

Otis Moss, III Challenges Fellow Black Clergy On Marriage Equality For Gays And Lesbians



The Rev. Dr. Otis Moss, III is the Pastor of Trinity United Church of Christ in Chicago, Illinois. During an address to his church on May 13th, Pastor Moss read a letter he had sent to a fellow clergyman who took issue with the President’s recent support of Gay marriage.

Find the transcript below:

My Brother:

Tell your brethren who are part of your ministerial coalition to “live their faith and not legislate their faith” for the Constitution is designed to protect the rights of all. We must learn to be more than a one-issue community and seek the beloved community where we may not all agree, but we all recognize the fingerprint of the Divine upon all of humanity.