Tulsa World: Carter: Baptists should focus on being unified
August 13, 2009
By The Associated Press
Published: 8/7/2009 6:00 PM
Last Modified: 8/7/2009 6:00 PM
NORMAN — Baptists from all groups should focus on what they have in common, not on their differences, if they want to successfully spread their faith, former President Jimmy Carter said Friday.
Carter spoke to about 800 people during the New Baptist Covenant's Midwest Regional meeting. His 24-minute speech included snippets about his personal faith, quotations from Scripture and discussions he has had — as president and as a private citizen — with those in other countries.
Those discussions, he said, have led him to a strong belief that unity among Christians, and particularly Baptists, is a critical necessity.
He said the image many outside the U.S. have of Christians is of a group of people struggling among themselves for positions of authority.
"People look upon Christians as incapable of cooperating with each other," he said, calling that "a cancer metastasizing the body of Christ."
Yes. I agree.
I also agree with this:
"'The most important of those principles,' he said, is that Christians 'are saved by the grace of God, through our faith in Jesus Christ. Despite our inevitable human differences, under this simple but profound banner, we Christians can and must reach out to each other and stand united.'"
President Carter is a not only a national treasure, but a Baptist treasure. The consistency, integrity, intelligence, and depth of his faith are a witness to all. The seriousness with which he approaches scripture and theology challenge us not to ride raves of popular Christian culture, but to consider the radical claims of Jesus.