Pastor Jon Roebuck battled racism early in his career
NASHVILLE - Pastor Jon Roebuck first realized he had a problem at his church when an African-American woman and two white people were set to be baptized on the same Sunday in 1991.
Roebuck’s third church out of seminary was in the inner city in Birmingham, Alabama.
The congregation was nearly all white, holdovers from the days when the neighborhood had been more affluent.
So, Roebuck was thrilled when a local black woman wanted to not only join the congregation, but to be baptized as well.
Not everyone shared his excitement. One of the church deacons approached him before the service.
“What order are you gonna baptize people?” the deacon asked
“What possible difference does that make?” the young preacher asked.
“Well, who’d want to get in the water after that black?”
Roebuck, horrified, lashed out at the deacon at South Avendale Baptist Church off Fourth Avenue.
“It angered me terribly,” Roebuck said.
“I looked at him square in the eyes and said, ‘The kingdom has left you behind.’ ”
Turned out there were many in the congregation who shared the deacon’s views.
Roebuck got a good deal of resistance from his parishioners when he invited a local African-American congregation to share the church building.
That same deacon opined: “That group will come in here and take over without firing a shot.”
“I was profoundly struck by how prevalent racism and prejudice existed in the hearts of Christian believers,” Roebuck said.
Those clashes helped solidify Roebuck’s longtime advocacy for inclusion, tolerance and acceptance in church.
Roebuck, now a Belmont University executive, is best known for his minutelong “A Moment That Matters” spots during airings of “Sunday Morning” on CBS (WTVF-Channel 5).
In his blog posts, Roebuck — who served as pastor for Nashville’s Woodmont Baptist Church for 17 years — has recently advocated for immigrants and for hiring more diverse staff members at churches.
“It’s easy to talk about welcoming the stranger in our midst. It is quite another thing to invest the time, energy, and resources it takes to make that happen,” he wrote in a Jan.17 post. “What if your church had the vision of making a difference in life of a least one immigrant family this year?”
That advocacy has its roots in that inner-city church in Birmingham, a church he left within six months of the baptism incident.
But he found himself more on fire for inclusion than ever.
“I’ve always described myself as a conservative liberal. My belief system is rooted in Scripture,” he said.
“And I find myself being more liberal with the love of Christ.” Reach Brad Schmitt at 615-259-8384 and on Twitter @bradschmitt.