BAPTISTS & PEACEMAKERS
By Leo Thorne

God may seem to be hidden at times, but God is never in hiding. And something divine is revealed every time
we follow the road to peace and reconciliation. Baptists may sometimes seem to be a quarrelsome lot as we strive
to follow the Biblical call “to make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.” Yet, Baptist history
shows us at our best when we follow Christ as the peacemakers we are called to be.
The audience that gathered on the evening of Friday, July 31, in the auditorium of the De Reehorst Hotel and
Congrescentrum in Ede, Netherlands, listened with intensity and compassion to take in every syllable spoken by
the three Baptist peacemakers. These modern peacemakers told their compelling stories during a forum at the
Baptist World Alliance (BWA) Annual Gathering which coincided with the celebration of the 400th anniversary of the
founding of the first Baptist church in Amsterdam by English exiles fleeing religious persecution in their country.
The presenters were Raquel Contreras, a BWA vice president, former president of the Union of Baptists in
Latin America and current president of the Union of Evangelical Baptist Churches of Chile; Brickson Sam, youth
director of the All Africa Baptist Fellowship; and Malkhaz Songulashvili, president of the Evangelical Baptist Church
of Georgia. Coming from very different parts of the world, these practitioners of Jesus Christ’s call to his disciples
to be peacemakers related moving stories about peacemaking initiatives in South America, Africa and Georgia,
respectively.
CHILE
“We are supposed to be people of peace and reconciliation, but sometimes we live with a vital contradiction
to our core beliefs.” Contreras was making reference to a major conflict that began in January of 1932 during the
national assembly of the convention in the south of Chile. The conflict arose over the way money should be handled.
The discussion became so heated that five pastors left the convention, and the large church where the meeting was
held was closed for several years. Contreras commented that this story “is shamefully real and unfortunately repeats
itself in different countries, languages and cultures.” For 70 years the two groups continued in their respective
ministry separately.
In time, overtures like exchange of pastors and students attending each other’s seminaries took place, but the
groups were ostensibly separated until the presidents of the two conventions came together to begin conversations
to end the historical separation. “After all,” she said, “we have the same difficulties and dreams and common roots.”
These conversations ultimately led to the two groups asking for forgiveness for “what our parents had done, even
though they believed they were doing the right thing.” The two conventions have not become one, but there are
encouraging signs. Last year they held a joint celebration of 100 years of Baptist work in Chile. In addition, a large
STORIES OF LIBERATION CONTINUED
In countries where Catholics are a majority, she added, “Baptists tend to move back and forth between actively
rejecting and simply ignoring Mary.”
But, Lozano noted, “This becomes one of the major barriers to relations between Catholics and Baptists” in
those countries.
Because Mary is so perfect in popular Catholic theology in Latin America – perpetually a virgin, although a
mother; blameless, even sinless – she becomes an impossible standard of womanhood. Nonetheless, many men
look for this standard in the mother of their children.
On the other hand, Lozano noted, Mary’s opposite – the wanton harlot – is what many men tend to look for in
sex partners. Being forced to choose between the two stereotypes can be deadly for women.
“When these [images of Mary and her opposite] are misused, they become oppressive and a source of suffering
for women,” she said. “Neither one of these models is a good one for women, because they do not present women
as complete human beings.”
But embracing what Lozano called the “life-giving” aspects of Marian veneration can be both healthy for all
women and a bridge between Latin American Protestants and Catholics, she contended.
Lozano pointed to two passages dealing with Mary in the Christmas story as recorded in Luke’s Gospel: the
angel’s announcement to Mary that she would bear Christ (Luke 1:26-38), and Mary’s song of praise to God, often
called the Magnificat (Luke 1:46-55).
Mary is not a passive presence in those stories, Lozano pointed out, but an active and willing participant in
God’s work who was “well aware of social injustices,” she said.
(Robert Marus is managing editor and Washington bureau chief for Associated Baptist Press.)
14 BAPTIST WORLD MAGAZINE
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