Baptist Statesman Jess Moody Called Home

Was 93:

sun-sentinel.com/news/politics/fl-jess-moody-palm-beach-atlantic-obituary-20181208-story.html

 

Albert Mohler salutes Moody:

A key Southern Baptist pioneer on race is gone

"Mohler grew up in Florida, during an era when Moody 'was a force of nature' there, leading the First Baptist Church of West Palm Beach....'Jess spent most of his ministry working in places where the new America was taking form....He knew about the realities that were emerging in a more complex and diverse America,' said Mohler....Moody was, Mohler added, a 'great preacher and a showman' who wasn't afraid to deliver messages that made many Baptists cheer, while others 'would hang their heads....He was never afraid to speak his mind, to say the least.'"

"Moody...served as president of the Pastors' Conference of the Southern Baptist Convention and in 1969...Moody's sermon...left many pastors stunned and others infuriated. 'I've been loyal to this convention for the past 25 years, and I intend that every breath I take of God's free air will be a Baptist breath, but you listen....It takes the black and the white keys to play 'The Star-Spangled Banner'! And you can't do it without both....We must solve the problem of racial hatred'"

"Moody died last month at age 93, after several decades out of the spotlight. He lived to see Southern Baptists slowly, but surely, denounce the sin of racism. In 1995, the Southern Baptist Convention repudiated 'historic acts of evil such as slavery from which we continue to reap a bitter harvest, and we recognize that the racism which yet plagues our culture today is inextricably tied to the past.' America's largest Protestant flock apologized to black people for 'condoning and/or perpetuating individual and systemic racism in our lifetime.'"

"Tensions lingered, and in 2017 the convention made headlines by repudiating 'white supremacy and every form of racial and ethnic hatred as a scheme of the devil' that continues to attack the United States, while urging advocates of 'racist ideologies' to repent."