WASHINGTON- The Baptist Joint Committee for Religious Liberty Board of Directors elected new officers and approved an increased operating budget during its annual meeting Oct. 7-8, 2013.
The board, composed of representatives of 15 national, state and regional bodies in the United States, passed a budget increase of 3.5 percent and elected Curtis Ramsey-Lucas as the chair. Serving as a representative of American Baptist Churches USA, Ramsey-Lucas is the managing director of resource development at American Baptist Home Mission Societies and executive editor of The Christian Citizen magazine.
Click here for photos of the 2013 board meeting.
Ramsey-Lucas said he was honored to serve in the position. “This is an exciting time in the life of the Baptist Joint Committee,” Ramsey-Lucas said. “With the Center for Religious Liberty up and running and a new education and outreach specialist in place, the committee is expanding its reach and engaging a new generation of advocates for religious liberty.”
Daniel Glaze, representing the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship of North Carolina, was elected vice chair. Glaze serves as pastor at First Baptist Church of Ahoskie, N.C. Tambi Swiney, representing the Religious Liberty Council, was elected secretary. She is the associate pastor of Immanuel Baptist Church in Nashville, Tenn. The treasurer and endowment committee chair is Gary Walker, who practices health care law in Tampa, Fla.
Baptist Joint Committee Executive Director J. Brent Walker applauded the new officers. "Curtis Ramsey-Lucas' wide experience in American Baptist life, his long labor as an advocate on Capitol Hill and his deep passion for religious liberty make him the ideal person to lead the BJC board for the next two years,” Walker said. “The BJC staff looks forward to working with Curtis, as well as the other new officers, to meet head on the many challenges to religious liberty that we will continue to face."
One of the main focuses of the meeting was education and outreach to youth. Charles Watson Jr., who started his post as the BJC’s education and outreach specialist in July, spoke about the organization’s plans to increase the number of speaking engagements on college campuses and encouraged board members to reach out to young people in their hometowns.
The meeting included reports from the different departments of the Baptist Joint Committee and an engaging discussion about current church-state issues, including upcoming Supreme Court cases.
Based in Washington, D.C., the BJC is an education and advocacy organization that fights to uphold the historic Baptist principle of religious freedom and the separation of church and state. While primarily supported by Baptists, the BJC fights for religious liberty for all, including Jewish, Muslim and a host of Christian groups, who count on the BJC for leadership.
