Baptist group: Remove rebel symbol from Mississippi flag

[Judi Lynn]

Source: Associated Press


Emily Wagster Pettus, Associated Press
Updated 2:33 pm CDT, Tuesday, June 23, 2020

JACKSON, Miss. (AP) — Mississippi's largest religious group said Tuesday that state lawmakers have a moral obligation to remove the Confederate battle emblem from the state flag because many people are “hurt and shamed” by the symbol.

“While some may see the current flag as a celebration of heritage, a significant portion of our state sees it as a relic of racism and a symbol of hatred,” the Mississippi Baptist Convention said in a statement. “The racial overtones of this flag's appearance make this discussion a moral issue.”

The conservative-leaning and majority-white Southern Baptist group has more than 500,000 members in the state, at more than 2,100 churches. Mississippi's population is about 3 million, and 38% of residents are African American.

Protests against racial injustice across the U.S. are focusing new attention on the flag and other Confederate symbols.

Read more: https://www.chron.com/news/article/Baptist-group-Remove-rebel-symbol-from-15360712.php

[Hoyt]

1. This must be from the predominantly Black Baptist organization. White Baptists are vile,

racists, with some exceptions.

In any event, it’s definitely time for Mississippi to renounce its racist past.

[Aristus]

2. My grandparents were Southern Baptists, and just about as racist as one can be

without actually donning a KKK dunce cap.

[Hoyt]

3. The most racist people I've know went to school in Baptist church basements.

Probably worse than Southern home-schooling.

But, there are a lot of Black Baptists that make up for those.

[deurbano]

11. My Southern Baptist dad was a member of the White Citizens Council in Mississippi.

I wondered (dreaded) if he'd been a member after I watched Eyes on the Prize and saw the types of professionals who belonged to that (somewhat) higher class KKK. After I asked him, I was horrified to learn my suspicions were true, and it made me feel akin to the child of a Nazi. He had been a teacher/principal (also substitute coroner!) in a tiny Delta town in the same area where Emmett Till was killed, and he actually knew the murderers. Thankfully, my parents moved to California when I was two, so I was given a somewhat better shot at pulling myself out of the toxic cesspool of my family's racism. I mean, I would hope I'd have managed it in MS, too, but it would have been more challenging given the environment. In CA, we were just a small nuclear family (with no extended family reinforcing the toxicity), and for a few years, we even attended the neighborhood Congregational Church, which was pivotal in the development of my personal values... even though I'm no longer religious.

[Princess Turandot]

4. The OP describes them as a 'conservative-leaning and majority-white' Southern Baptist group. nt

[friendly_iconoclast]

7. Some people just aren't willing to let pesky facts interfere with their stereotyping...

[friendly_iconoclast]

5. "This must be from the predominantly Black Baptist organization" Nope:

This is from the Mississippi Baptist Convention, a overwhelmingly white division of the Southern Baptist Convention:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mississippi_Baptist_Convention

They're Southern Baptists in Misssissippi who are willing to kick at least the appearance of racism to the curb, so this is somewhat
of a big deal.

You might want to ask someone more familiar with Southern culture to explain it to you...

[Hoyt]

15. Have known plenty of gun-humping Southern Baptists, to my chagrin.

This pronouncement must be from white leadership worried about image among the racists who have supported that flag for decades.

[OriginalGeek]

19. image is all they were worried about

My methodist cousins liked to tell the joke "Why must you bring at least 2 baptists fishing with you?
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Because if you only bring one, he'll drink all your beer.

oh, and "Two baptists will never meet in the liquor store because as soon as they see each other they pretend they didn't".



And of course I saw it first-hand from my hypocrite step-father. Everyone that didn't (actually) know him, loved him.

[Hoyt]

20. LMAO. I've known a couple exactly like that.

[GulfCoast66]

12. Nope. This is the Southern Baptist Church.

But you have to understand how they are organized. Or rather, not organized. Each church is totally independent. There is no Hierarchy. At all. No bishops. They just pay their fees and are members of the convention. I imagine some of the rural churches will leave the convention and become independent Baptist because of this.

Which means there are huge differences between churches. Especially the big ones in Urban areas and small rural churches. This is probably driven by the large churches in places like Jackson, Hattiesburg and Biloxi.

[Hoyt]

16. Got it. Sounds like a few in leadership trying to improve image of

a loose group that supported that darn flag, and what it represents, way too long

[Phoenix61]

6. For the hat trick.

NASCAR, the SEC and white Southern Baptist.

[keithbvadu2]

8. Another Baptist split coming up?

WOW!

Another Baptist split coming up?

[friendly_iconoclast]

9. That would make about the 483rd time that Baptists have split...

[GulfCoast66]

13. In Mississippi alone!

[OriginalGeek]

10. According the baptist church I was raised in

Southern baptists were always too liberal.


but they'd still let a southern baptist come to a klan meeting.

[GulfCoast66]

14. Yep. Was raised Southern Baptist.

We always looked down on the hicks in freewill and independent Baptist churches. And they considered us liberal enough to question our salvation.

The social elite who weren’t Methodist or Presbyterian went to the Southern Baptist Church.

I’m no longer a believer but haven’t forgotten the silly politics of southern towns and churches. Which are often intertwined.

[OriginalGeek]

18. Same here but from the independent, fundamentalist side lol

I know it irked some of our leadership that we always had to go to Southern Baptist churches for the big events - like when well-known evangelists came through - Y'all had the bigger sanctuaries and even some concert halls. Ooooh if jealousy were a sin...oh wait....lol



but hey, they made me the liberal atheist I am today.

[NurseJackie]

17. And there's a town in Georgia that adopted the OLD (stars and bars) version of the Georgia flag...

And there's a town in Georgia that adopted the OLD (stars and bars) version of the Georgia flag... as their new city-flag. They were angry that Georgia had removed it from the state-flag, yet they were determined to enshrine a symbol of hatred and racism. They only way they could do that was to adopt it as their city flag (with a few minor changes to include the city name).

Found it! https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flag_of_Trenton,_Georgia

[Gore1FL]

22. Stars and bars looked like much like the stars and stripes but two red and one white bar.

Georgia's old state had the confederate battle flag. I am glad they changed it. It's crazy any still thinks it's appropriate, like the town you mention that still uses it.

[inanna]

21. Good.

*