‘A Moral Issue’: Mississippi Baptist Convention Urges Removal of Confederate Emblem from State Flag

Calling it a “moral issue,” the Mississippi Baptist Convention Board on Tuesday urged the state legislature to change the state flag, which has incorporated the Confederate battle flag since 1894.

“Our position on this is not motivated by politics,” Shawn Parker, executive director-treasurer of the Mississippi Baptist Convention Board (MBCB), said at a press conference. “It is not motivated by economics. It is not even motivated by athletics. Our position on this is motivated by our understanding of the teaching of Jesus Christ.”

Parker read a statement that was unanimously approved by the 15-member MBCB Executive Committee and signed by Parker and every living past president of the convention. The current convention president also signed it, as did the head of the MBCB Christian Action Commission.

The Mississippi Baptist Convention Board is affiliated with the Southern Baptist Convention. About 2,100 churches are part of the Mississippi Baptist Convention.

The Mississippi state flag incorporates three red, white and blue horizontal stripes and the Confederate battle flag, which is known more commonly as the rebel flag. Although the battle flag was not the official flag of the Confederacy during the Civil War, it remains the most well-known flag from that era.

The MBCB statement references two Bible verses: Matthew 7:12 (“do to others what you…