Important Articles in the July Baptist Studies Bulletin

The July Issue of the Baptist Studies Bulletin is online with some important book reviews by Walter Shurden and a discussion of the North American Baptist Covenant by Bill Underwood.

Shurden is Executive Director of the Center for Baptist Studies at Mercer University. Underwood is President of Mercer University.

Here's a quote from Shurden's book review:

Though I vigorously applaud American Gospel and The Baptizing of America, Kingdom Coming by Michelle Goldberg is my favorite of the three books. Since she is a secular Jew of New York and I a progressive Baptist of Georgia, why am I most engrossed with Goldberg's analysis? Three reasons! One, Goldberg, a senior journalist for Salon, writes crisply and engagingly. And she researched this book the way journalists always research books: she went to the people she was writing about, observed their meetings, and heard their speeches. She has also read their books. Two, and this is the golden virtue of the book: Goldberg understands the vast overlapping network of the contemporary religious right, and she connects the dots for the reader. Three, some of her suggestions for taking on the religious right appear to me to be unusually fair and savvy, in keeping with her civil libertarianism.

If, like most, you don't have time to read all three books, please read Goldberg's introduction, "Taking the Land," and her conclusion, "Exiles in JesusLand." My guess is that after that, you will want to read all of her book and maybe the other two as well. "Take and read."

Goldberg was recently a guest on Welton Gaddy's State of Belief radio program. Here's a link to a brief podcast from that interview. I'll be interviewing Michelle on my Religious Talk radio program in the next few weeks.

After you've listened to Michelle Goldberg tell the story about the new faith-based policies of the Salvation Army in New York City, you'll find that whatever despair you might feel for the state of liberty of conscience in America may be alleviated by reading Underwood's discussion of the North American Baptist Covenant.

Underwood speaks about the possibility that 20 million moderate and progressive Baptists -- Baptists who remember their denomination's legacy in support of liberty of conscience -- might unite and work to reclaim their heritage after the leaders of 16 million Southern Baptists have spent three decades working to destroy that legacy. Here's the electrifying first paragraph from Underwood's discussion:

There are whispers of an exciting new movement emerging in Baptist life. Within the past several weeks, leaders of Baptist organizations representing more than 20 million Baptists have launched an unprecedented initiative to advance the Kingdom through the combined voice and work of Baptists throughout North America. Baptists from the North and from the South. Black and white Baptists. conservative, moderate and progressive Baptists joining together in a covenant -- the North American Baptist Covenant -- to affirm "their desire to speak and work together to create an authentic and genuine prophetic Baptist voice in these complex times."