Standard News

Hide Advertisement
  • Business
  • Culture
  • News
  • Technology
  • Trending
Site logo
ADVERTISEMENT
ADVERTISEMENT

U.S. Southern Baptists repudiate Confederate flag

By Reuters 2 min read
Advertisement - Continue reading below
A Confederate battle flag flies in front of a home in Liberty

(Reuters) – The U.S. Southern Baptist Convention adopted a resolution on Tuesday repudiating the Confederate battle flag as an emblem of slavery, marking the latest bid for racial reconciliation by America’s largest Protestant denomination.

The resolution, passed at the predominantly white convention’s annual meeting in St. Louis, calls for Southern Baptist churches to discontinue displaying the Confederate flag as a “sign of solidarity of the whole Body of Christ.”

Advertisement

The action came four years after the denomination elected its first black president, Fred Luter, a pastor and civic leader from New Orleans.

In 1995, a Southern Baptist committee issued a resolution apologizing to African-Americans for condoning slavery and racism during the early years of the denomination’s 171-year history.

The convention, currently made up of more than 46,000 churches nationwide, was established in 1845 after Southern Baptists split from the First Baptist Church in America in the pre-Civil War era over the issue of slavery.

The denomination now counts a growing number of minorities among its more than 15.8 million members and has sought in recent years to better reflect the diversity of its congregants and America as a whole.

“This denomination was founded by people who wrongly defended the sin of human slavery,” said Russell Moore, head of the convention’s Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission. “Today the nation’s largest Protestant denomination voted to repudiate the Confederate battle flag, and it’s time and well past time.”

The flag carried by the South’s pro-slavery Confederate forces during the 1861-65 U.S. Civil War re-emerged as a flashpoint in America’s troubled race relations after the massacre of nine blacks by a white gunman at an historic church in Charleston, South Carolina, in June 2015. The assailant was seen afterward in photographs posing with the flag.

The episode stirred a movement to eliminate the Stars and Bars flag – seen by many whites as a sign of Southern heritage, not hate – from South Carolina’s statehouse and many other public displays in the South during the months that followed.

(Reporting by Steve Gorman; Editing by Nick Macfie)

tagreuters.com2016binary_LYNXNPEC5E055-VIEWIMAGE

Advertisement - Continue reading below

Colorado city to pay restitution to poor jailed in ‘debtor prison’
News
Reuters 2 min read

Colorado city to pay restitution to poor jailed in ‘debtor prison’

Obama to meet with Flint, Michigan residents on water crisis
News
Reuters 1 min read

Obama to meet with Flint, Michigan residents on water crisis

A Look Back at the Worst Year in Human History
Entertainment
Michelle Ranken 3 min read

A Look Back at the Worst Year in Human History

Chanel brings glamor back to Cuba in catwalk extravaganza
News
Reuters 3 min read

Chanel brings glamor back to Cuba in catwalk extravaganza

After decades of segregation, anger boils over in Milwaukee
News
Reuters 3 min read

After decades of segregation, anger boils over in Milwaukee

EU accepts Paramount’s concessions over movie licensing
Entertainment
Reuters 2 min read

EU accepts Paramount’s concessions over movie licensing

Maximizing Your Potential: How to Bring Out the Best Version of Yourself Without Psychic Abilities
Lifestyle
Ethan Blake 9 min read

Maximizing Your Potential: How to Bring Out the Best Version of Yourself Without Psychic Abilities

Dispatch from inside the conventions
News
Reuters 3 min read

Dispatch from inside the conventions

Virginia Republicans seek to block governor’s voting rights restoration
News
Reuters 2 min read

Virginia Republicans seek to block governor’s voting rights restoration

Florida man sentenced for threats against mosques
News
Reuters 2 min read

Florida man sentenced for threats against mosques

load more Loading posts...

sidebar

ADVERTISEMENT
ADVERTISEMENT

sidebar-alt

  • About Us
  • Imprint
  • Contact Us
  • Terms of Service
  • Privacy Policy
  • For Advertisers