Free Republic

Southern Baptist leader says politics motivates appeal to faithful who feel left out by conservatives.Former Presidents Jimmy Carter and Bill Clinton announced in Atlanta on Tuesday the creation of a Baptist organization they said would counter what they say is a negative image of their faith. The New Baptist Convention was announced at the Carter Center by representatives of about 40 moderate Baptist groups that have distanced themselves from the conservative Southern Baptist Convention. Carter and Clinton —- both Baptists —- said the New Baptist Convention will look for solutions to problems such as poverty and racism. Carter and Clinton...

This brief Associated Press story reveals yet another example of the left's new tactic in dealing with "values voters"; namely, the distortion of biblical theology (while using religious symbol, rhetoric and association) to tempt Christians into aligning with the Democrat Party. In this same approach recently, we've witnessed the surge in the MSM's coverage of "progressive evangelicalism," the cave-in of several Protestant leaders to the unscientific ballyhoo of global warming, and the sidling up of ardent abortion promoters like Bill Clinton and Barack Obama to preachers like Bill Hybels and Rick Warren. And now...this: ATLANTA - Plans are in the...

Former Presidents Jimmy Carter and Bill Clinton have proposed the establishment of a broadly inclusive alternative Baptist movement to counter what they called a negative image of Baptists and to address poverty, the environment and global conflicts. Carter and Clinton kicked off their plans with a news conference Jan. 9 at the Carter Center in Atlanta, flanked by leaders of moderate Baptist groups including the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship, a breakaway group of an unverified number of churches that objected to the election of conservative leaders in the Southern Baptist Convention. Carter and Clinton announced a “Celebration of a New Baptist...

Former Presidents Bill Clinton and Jimmy Carter needed their Southern Baptist credentials during their political years in order to boost their electoral appeal. Now the pair, who have both been publicly criticized in the past by Southern Baptist Convention leaders, are helping to move the denomination against life and family as they did the country. At the Carter Center in Atlanta Tuesday, Clinton and Carter were on hand to announce a 2008 Baptist convocation which hopes to attract 20,000 Baptists from North America. They say it hopes to recast the Baptist image as less 'negative and judgemental'. The tentative date...