At a recent gathering at Mercer University, former presidents Bill Clinton and Jimmy Carter told the self-proclaimed Moderate Baptists to seek unity on issues like religious diversity, ecology and racism. Russell Moore with the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary says keep in mind the former presidents’ audience was comprised of the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship, a group of disaffected, former Southern Baptists

“They have no confessional statement. They’re really united around what they don’t believe and what they don’t believe is essentially everything the Southern Baptist Convention does believe.”

He says it’s nothing new for left-leaning Baptists to have Carter’s endorsement; he left the SBC in 2000. But having Bill Clinton’s voice is new.

“I cannot believe that a group of self-professing Baptists would welcome as a participant in a convocation a man who vetoed legislation protecting unborn children from partial-birth abortion.”

Will Hall of the SBC says watch out when former Democratic presidents ask moderate Baptists to unify in an election year.

“I suspect, because of the timing of it in 2008, that it has more of a political ring to it than an actually an evangelical ring to it. To me it’s not a new voice, its just rehashing a tired, old saw.”

Calls to the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship were not returned.