New Baptist Covenant: Respond to critics with spirit of love, Clinton says

Billy Howard

Former president Bill Clinton encourages Baptist Christians to love one another despite differences on a new journey of unity.

ATLANTA (ABP)-The only way for a broad group of Baptists to move toward their goal of unity is with a spirit of humility and forgiveness, former President Bill Clinton told participants of the Celebration of a New Baptist Covenant Feb. 1.

\"If we are going to form a covenant that can embrace the whole body of the Baptist [tradition], which every Christian can identify with and every good human being on earth can applaud, it is the spirit with which we go forward and our determination to offer specific things we can do as the children of God that will determine how it comes out in the end,\" Clinton said.

Clinton delivered the closing speech of the three-day conference, which was designed to bring Baptists together across a century and a half of deep theological, political and cultural differences. More than 30 Baptist denominations and groups sponsored and participated in the one-of-a-kind Baptist gathering in Atlanta.

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