Texas Baptists Committed - A Rancher's Rumblings, January 22, 2008

This week, America has celebrated the birthday of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. His picture and a framed copy of his 1963 “I Have a Dream” speech are prominently displayed in my office. Dr. King was a remarkable man—perhaps the most influential American of the 20th century.

As I read about the racial attitudes that once predominated in this country, I find them inconceivable. As most of you know, I am an avid baseball fan. I find it inconceivable that African-American men were expected to fight for our freedom in World War II yet were not permitted to play major league baseball. Separate schools . . . separate restaurants . . . separate restrooms . . . separate water fountains—none of these makes any sense to me.

I never remember my parents showing racism in any form, but I also don’t remember seeing any African-Americans in Paint Rock, so maybe the issue never presented itself to me when I was a child. San Angelo, because of the leadership of some strong Baptist laymen, integrated its public schools soon after the U. S. Supreme Court’s Brown v. Board of Education ruling in 1954. So I do not remember, even in the 1950’s and early 1960’s, seeing symbols of segregation when we visited San Angelo.

But I have found it interesting, through the years, to read of the challenges that Martin Luther King, Jr., faced and the remarkable way in which he changed America. It is an amazing story of courage fueled by faith.

I often reflect on the greater societal challenges I would have faced in seeking success had I been born a person of color.

Race is still a divisive issue in America, and we must not ignore that reality. Racism is usually more subtle today than in the past, but it persists nonetheless, taking many forms.

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One of the reasons that I am so excited about next week’s Celebration of a New Baptist Covenant in Atlanta is that many African-American Baptist conventions and groups are participating in this historic event. I have worshiped in several African-American churches through the years but never at an event that promises such great diversity and such great unity simultaneously.

For me, next week’s celebration is a tangible realization of Dr. King’s dream that “my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character.”

Martin Luther King, Jr., was a Baptist, one who understood what religious liberty was all about. That concept undergirded his commitment to social justice and his insistence that the rights of individual conscience before God be respected.

For over 20 years, Texas Baptists Committed has stood firmly for religious liberty for all people, insisting that such a stand has been a hallmark of real Baptists from the beginning. But also from the beginning, Baptists have faced grave threats—from within and without—to their liberty to worship according to their conscience. Those threats are as real today as they have ever been, especially here in Texas.

So let’s listen to Dr. King one more time, as he reminds us of what God expects of us in times such as this: “The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort and convenience, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy.”