KN Press Release

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Group Challenges NC Baptists to Reconsider Their Pledge Motion CINCINNATI, Ohio - March 21, 2002 Last November, at the annual gathering of the Baptist State Convention of North Carolina (BSCNC), delegates passed a motion to display the flag of the United States at future gatherings and also to include the pledge of allegiance to the American flag in their proceedings. In a letter sent today to over 200 churches of the Baptist State Convention of North Carolina, Kingdom Now - a group of pastors, scholars and laypeople concerned about nationalism in the churches of the United States - challenged the BSCNC to reconsider this motion. "Pledging allegiance to the United States' flag at a church gathering dangerously blurs the lines between Church and State," said Christopher Smith, one of Kingdom Now's national coordinators, "and furthermore, this motion violates the Baptist World Alliance's Berlin Declaration of May 2001." The letter sent to the churches of the BSCNC challenged the churches to examine their motion in light of the Berlin Declaration, a statement that denounces any form of nationalism in Baptist churches worldwide. The Baptist World Alliance, who wrote this statement, is an umbrella organization consisting of practically all Baptist denominations around the globe including all the major Baptist denominations in the United States. The Berlin Declaration states clearly that: "That nationalism or adherence to a national ideology which exalt one nation over others, or are used to exclude others, are forms of idolatry and not compatible with our Christian beliefs." The letter sent to the North Carolina Baptists encouraged them to reconcile their actions with the beliefs of the Baptist World Alliance. "We realize that the Baptist World Alliance doesn't have the authority over Baptist churches that, for instance, the Vatican has over Catholic churches," said Smith, "but we hope that the BSCNC will prayerfully consider submitting themselves in humility to the anti-nationalistic stance taken by the worldwide alliance of Baptist Churches." Earlier this year, Kingdom Now submitted 95 theses on nationalistic idolatry to the national and regional headquarters of many major denominations in the United States. These theses, as well as the letter sent to the churches of the BSCNC can be found on the Kingdom Now website ( http://www.kingdomnow.org/ ). Contact: Christopher Smith Chris@kingdomnow.org http://www.kingdomnow.org/ ###