Baptist Joint Committee Supporting Bodies Capital Campaign Update Alliance of Baptists American Baptist Churches USA Baptist General Association of Virginia We’ve only just begun; you can still join the effort Baptist General Conference Baptist General Convention of Texas Baptist State Convention of North The Baptist Joint Committee for ber the BJC this fall as we seek to meet Carolina Religious Liberty continues to move our present budget needs. Cooperative Baptist Fellowship ahead after the success of its recent capi- Spread the word about the BJC to National Baptist Convention of tal campaign matching challenge. We your friends, Baptists and non-Baptists America raised nearly $1.7 million in a little over alike. Religious liberty is a right that National Baptist Convention U.S.A. Inc. two weeks. And because of should be enjoyed by all. National Missionary Baptist the generous support of Convention donors like you, we’re North American Baptist Conference Partners in Giving Progressive National Baptist halfway to our goal of $5 mil- We invite you to become a Convention Inc. lion to establish the Center for Partner in Giving by estab- Religious Liberty Council Religious Liberty on Capitol lishing an automatic monthly Seventh Day Baptist General Hill. gift to the BJC on your credit Conference If you were unable to give card. Partners provide income during the challenge, you can that the BJC can count on for still be a part of the effort. ongoing budget needs and REPORTfrom the Capital Let’s use the momentum of the chal- are given the opportunity to lenge issued by Babs Baugh to push the help sustain the BJC as we work to J. Brent Walker BJC forward in our capital campaign secure religious liberty. Simply call or e- Executive Director and in our everyday efforts to secure mail us or go online to religious liberty. www.BJConline.org to make a credit Jeff Huett As we look forward to the Center, we card gift. If you wish to set up an auto- Editor know there is much church-state work matic monthly credit card gift, simply Phallan Davis left to do. And we ask that you remem- tell us so on the online form. Associate Editor Report from the Capital (ISSN-0346- 0661) is published 10 times each year by the Baptist Joint Committee. For sub- Our Challenge—Their Future scription information, please contact the Securing religious liberty for our children and grandchildren Baptist Joint Committee. Non-profit Organization U.S. Postage PAID Riverdale, MD Permit No. 5061 200 Maryland Ave., N.E. Washington, D.C. 20002-5797 Return Service Requested Phone: 202.544.4226 Fax: 202.544.2094 E-mail: [email protected] Website: www.BJConline.org REPORTfrom theCapital Seventh Day Baptists vote to remain part of the Baptist Joint Committee NEWBERG, Ore. — The Seventh Day est days of the Baptist movement on both Baptist General Conference voted to remain continents. part of the Baptist Joint Committee for Kevin Butler, editor of the denomina- Religious Liberty despite disagreements tion’s Sabbath Recorder newsmagazine and over church-state relations. Seventh Day Baptists’ representative on the In a rare vote-by-church, BJC board of directors, said delegates to the Seventh the dispute over supporting Day Baptist General the organization centered Newsletter of the Conference, meeting July on differing understandings Baptist Joint Committee 29–August 4 at George Fox of church-state separation. University, decided, 279-234, “I would say it’s the to remain part of BJC. whole issue of representa- Vol.62 No. 8 According to a news tion and guilt by association release on the group’s Web — that they don’t feel that site, “topping the business the Joint Committee or any agenda was the vote on the real body could represent question, ‘Shall the SDB Seventh Day Baptists on September 2007 General Conference with- political or social issues,” draw its membership from Kevin Butler photo said Butler, who opposed the Baptist Joint Committee Parliamentarian John Pethtel attempts to withdraw from for Religious Liberty?’” (l) and President Ruth the BJC. “They just don’t Churches were sent informa- Burdick await final tally of feel that anyone could real- tional packets about the votes regarding the BJC ly speak for a group of decision. issue in January. Many independent thinkers.” INSIDE: churches, however, waited until this sum- Some Seventh Day Baptists critical of BJC mer to cast their votes at the local level. involvement have cited its support for rigor- “We are delighted at the outcome of the ous church-state separation, saying many Reflections . .3 vote,” said Brent Walker, the BJC’s executive Seventh Day Baptists would not agree with director, noting that the denomination has such a view. Pentagon video. .4 belonged, for nearly 60 years, to the coali- “The BJC has pursued a doctrinaire ‘wall tion of national and regional Baptist bodies of separation’ position with respect to the that support the BJC. “I am very pleased [First Amendment’s] establishment clause,” Hollman Report . .6 that the BJC family remains distinctively wrote James Skaggs, a retired Wisconsin Baptist — and definitely joint.” teacher, in a June 5 entry on his blog. News . .7 In a later vote, the group approved a Skaggs has been an outspoken opponent of recommendation instructing Seventh Day continued Seventh Day Baptist affiliation Baptist leaders to send BJC representatives a with BJC. letter conveying the “significant concerns “In alliance with a wide array of liberal among some Seventh Day Baptists about religious and non-religious groups, it has our continued involvement in the Baptist filed briefs encouraging the courts to adopt Joint Committee.” that view,” Skaggs noted. Seventh Day Baptists believe the Sabbath “The cumulative effect of such court should be observed on Saturdays. A small decisions is to reduce the ability of religion but established group, its history in Europe and North America dates back to the earli- Story continued on page 2 Kennedy Townsend calls on America’s churches to return to social justice WASHINGTON — “Ask not what your country Her concern for social welfare was instilled in her can do for you; ask what you can do for your coun- as a young child. She writes in Failing America’s try.” Decades after President John F. Kennedy spoke Faithful, “My uncle’s [John F. Kennedy] death had these immortal words, his niece, Kathleen Kennedy made me wonder why we should work for justice if Townsend, has responded with a similar call to justice was not able to be given in return. But in action — this time directed at America’s churches, as thinking of the model of Jesus’ life, I also was forced she calls on them to redirect their attention back to to embrace the model of Jesus’ death. And, in that, social justice. the tragedy of my uncle’s death Townsend, former lieutenant became more bearable.” governor of Maryland, participat- The author laments that religion ed in a July 30 forum at the has become “privatized.” National Press Club with Bill Townsend said, “Our sense of Kovach, chairman of the morality comes from churches. Committee of Concerned Now churches are focused on indi- Journalists and a former vidual salvation. We’ve gone from Washington bureau chief for The common humanity to demonizing New York Times. The two dis- others. [The] sense of reconciliation cussed Townsend’s recent work has been lost for the most part.” Failing America's Faithful: How In the book, she elaborates, Today's Churches Are Mixing God John Metelsky photo “Yes, everyone of faith should with Politics and Losing Their Way. Kathleen Kennedy Townsend talks with strive for a connection to the In it, Townsend contends that Bill Kovach at a July 30 National Press divine. But too often we forget that the increased entanglement of Club event. this personal relationship can religion with politics has resulted occur only through our connection in America’s churches straying from their mission of to each person we meet for it is they who carry the social welfare. Townsend’s book is as much a “spiri- divinity within them.” tual call-to-arms” as it is a call to act. Townsend reflected on the impact of the First and She shared how British journalist David Frost once Second Great Awakenings and how Protestants were asked of both Townsend’s father, Robert F. Kennedy, leaders of the social justice movement. Although and Ronald Reagan “What do you think we are here much time has passed since both Awakenings, on earth for?” Townsend, loosely paraphrasing, said Townsend asserts that America’s churches would do that Reagan, then governor of California, responded well to go back to the days when they were con- “personal salvation.” And her father responded “to cerned more about the greater good than politics. care for the worse off than us.” —Phallan Davis SDB VOTE continued from page 1 to influence government late 1600s in the New policy and to prevent gov- World. ernment from using reli- SDB vote-by-church to stay in BJC Seventh Day Baptist gious institutions for social supporters of the BJC have good. It has also been a vehicle used by anti-religious noted that the organization is principally focused on groups in America to increasingly remove religion from the extending religious freedom and believes supporting a public square.” strong interpretation of the Establishment Clause is essen- Skaggs’ arguments echoed those used by BJC detractors tial to protecting religious liberty. September 2007 in the Southern Baptist Convention. In the 1980s, they “I think an appropriate level of church-state separation began an effort — ultimately successful — to withdraw is necessary,” said Butler.