nineteen hundred and forty-six - Amazon Web Services

120 SOUTHERN BAPTIST CONVENTION
RESOLUTION OF THANKS
We are grateful to the Baptists of Miami who, when no one else would
invite us, graciously opened their doors and offered us their best. We pray
God's blessing upon them and express the hope that our meeting in their city
will bring a blessing to them through the years to come.
We offer, our heartfelt thanks and appreciation to Dr. Chas. H. Bolton,
General Chairman, and all the Committees who have labored so zealously with
him to provide for every need c*f ours they could supply.
We are indebted to the citizens of Miami, their city government, the police
department, and the Chamber of Commerce for courtesies shown us.
Our Convention has been exceptionally favored in the publicity given it
by the news gathering agencies, the Miami Daily Herald, the Miami Daily News
and the services of Radio Stations WIOD, WGBS, WQAM, and WKAT, who have
generously furnished all the service we could desire.
In spite of difficulties that could not be avoided, God has blessed us with
a great session of our Convention and we herewith acknowledge our debt to
him and Miami for the opportunity that has been ours.
72. The report of the Social Service Commission, presented
discussed by Chairman Jesse B. Weatherspoon, Kentucky, was adopted
after further discussion by G. W. Strother, Louisiana.
SOCIAL SERVICE COMMISSION
THIRTY-EIGHTH ANNUAL REPORT
The Social Service Commission desires to preface its report with two announcements
which look toward an enlargement of its service. There is a
growing conviction among us that Southern Baptists ought to see and weigh
their moral tasks for themselves in order that they may come to think together
concerning their participation in promoting personal and social morality. An
increasing understanding of the problems we face as Christians in our inescapable
social relationships, a clearer view of our responsibility as citizens, and
a more united front in what we undertake will add much to our influence in
these times of moral confusion and social conflict. It is hoped that the announced
proposals will serve these ends.
The first announcement is that under the auspices of the Commission a
Social Service Conference will be held at Ridgecrest on August 26-27 of this
year. An opening address by the Honorable J. Melville Broughton, formerly
governor of North Carolina, on Christian Citizenship will be followed by a
series of conferences relating to some of the greater regional problems in
which we as Christians are involved. These conferences will be open to public
attendance and participation. They will not be for the purpose of "putting
something over," but rather a search for understanding and for the guidance
of God in the fulfillment of a worthy citizenship. It is especially hoped that
this first Conference will be attended by the members of the social service
committees of the several state conventions, teachers of sociology and ethics
in our schools and colleges, and by pastors.
The second announcement is that the Sunday School Board has graciously
agreed to cooperate with the Commission in its publication of a series of handbooks
dealing with vital subjects in the field of Christian social life. These
handbooks will eventually include studies in the Christian approach to Marriage
and Family Problems, Industrial Relations, the Liquor Problem, Race Relations,
and Christian Citizenship. It is hoped that the first of these will be published
in 1947. They will be intended for the use of pastors, teachers and church
leaders in conducting study courses, and for general distribution.
NEED FOR INCREASING MORAL CONCERN
We begin the second century of our Convention's life at a time when
world conditions make it imperative that Christian people should reaffirm and
make fresh demonstration of their adherence to principles of righteousness.
justice and truth, and in organized associations, such as our Convention, ex
press faithfully and courageously their moral judgment on the principles, customs
and movements that contradict basic morality and degrade humanity.