Political Insider
Political Insider

Southern Baptists asked to endorse an end to public display of Confederate battle flag

Joseph Andrews, one of a small group with the Rock Stone Mountain rally, waves a confederate battle flag towards a mass of counter-protesters more than 100 yards away at Stone Mountain Park on Saturday afternoon April 23, 2016 where a white power protest and two counter protests were scheduled. Ben Gray, bgray@ajc.com

Credit: Jim Galloway

Credit: Jim Galloway

Joseph Andrews, one of a small group with the Rock Stone Mountain rally, waves a confederate battle flag towards a mass of counter-protesters more than 100 yards away at Stone Mountain Park on Saturday afternoon April 23, 2016 where a white power protest and two counter protests were scheduled. Ben Gray, bgray@ajc.com
By Jim Galloway
April 24, 2016

Something to think about on a weekend in which Stone Mountain has again made headlines:

A black pastor has asked the Southern Baptist Convention to adopt a resolution calling for elimination of public display of the Confederate battle flag. From Baptist News Global:

Dwight McKissic, pastor of Cornerstone Baptist Church in Arlington, Texas, recently submitted a resolution for possible consideration at the SBC annual meeting June 14-15 in St. Louis, Mo., urging individuals and both public and private institutions to discontinue use of the Confederate flag "as a step in good faith toward racial healing" in a country in many ways still divided by race.

If the largest Protestant denomination in the United States were to take up the resolution, the debate would occur nearly a year to the day after the June 17, 2015 massacre of nine black Christians attending a midweek Bible study and prayer meeting at Emmanuel AME Church in Charleston, S.C., by a young man who often posed draped in a Confederate banner.

About the Author

Jim Galloway, the newspaper’s former political columnist, was a writer and editor at the AJC for four decades.

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