Committed Baptists

Throughout the 1960s, when many other Southern white churches were integrated by fiat of hierarchy or national assembly, even the most progressive Southern Baptist ministers found it difficult to act. In the nation's largest Protestant body (11.4 million members), each congregation is independent of superior authority, and pastors thus could not sway reluctant congregations with "orders from above." But independence works both ways, as Birmingham's First Baptist Church found out last week.

First Baptist's troubles began in 1968, when the congregation of the massive, gray stone church promised the incoming pastor, Dr. J. Herbert Gilmore Jr., that it would remain in its decaying downtown location to serve the inner-city community regardless of "nationality, birth, possessions, education or affinity." But when Mrs. Winifred Bryant and her daughter Twila Florence, 12, tried to join the congregation last summer, members objected. Mrs. Bryant and her daughter are black. Baptist churches in Birmingham had admitted blacks as visitors, but none had ever accepted Negro members. In September, after months of bickering and a tearful final appearance before the congregation, Twila and her mother were finally rejected.

Gilmore resigned, along with his youth director. "Christ died for all," he reminded the congregation. "All persons are therefore of infinite worth. By rejecting these two people because they are black, you have denied these fundamental truths of the Christian faith."

Sifted for Eternity. Last week Gilmore preached his final sermon, answering critics who accused him of splitting the church. "Is it more fearful to be split now by the weakness of man," he asked, "or to be sifted for eternity by the judgments of God?" Immediately afterward, nearly 300 of the congregation, including ten church staff members, voted to leave First Baptist permanently and form a new congregation. Now calling themselves the Company of the Committed, the group had first staged a walkout a month ago in protest against the rejection of Mrs. Bryant and Twila--who became charter members of the Company.

As for First Baptist, its future may be bleak. Many members on its rolls had shown up only to vote against admitting Twila and Mrs. Bryant, and are likely to slip back again into nonattendance. Moreover, claims Gilmore, those who left represented 90% of the church leadership and about 50% of its financial support.

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