(New Orleans) — Here in New Orleans we’re seeing lots of coverage as a native son is set to become the first African American president of the SBC. Many are reporting on the race angle, but a columnist for the local paper, Jarvis DeBerry of the Times Picayune, says that’s not all that’s new about the ‘new face’ of the SBC.

Here’s an excerpt from today’s coverage:

Most of the coverage about Luter’s new position will focus on his race. That’s as it should be. It’s not insignificant that a black man will be leading a majority-white denomination. And not just any majority-white denomination, but one that was formed in defense of slavery.

But Luter as the new face of the Baptists is important for another reason. He seems to never stop smiling. If you’ve sat through as many Baptist services as I have, you might judge that a miracle. Baptists, especially Baptist pastors, have a reputation for being sour, disapproving, finger-wagging killjoys.

That’s not Fred Luter. “I love to laugh,” he said Friday morning. “I love to have a good time.”

That comes through in his sermons. It comes through in his conversation. The gospel is good news. Luter acts like it.

“If anybody has joy, if anybody has peace and happiness, it should be us,” he said. Still, the perception persists that “Baptists don’t have any fun, that we don’t laugh. We don’t have any joy. I would love to change that perception.”

Posted by Eric Reed

Fred Luter stands on the edge of history. Today he is expected to be elected the first African American president of the Southern Baptist Convention.

The New Orleans pastor wowed the crowd at the Pastors’ Conference last night with a sermon that was at once fiery, commanding, and joyful. Several times, after a series of rhetorical shouts, Luter flashed a winsome smile. Calling out a string of America’s sins – including abortion, racism, homosexual lifestyle, crime and drugs – Luter concluded there might be many things he’s ashamed of, given the current state of the nation, but “I am not ashamed of the Gospel!”

Excited by his subject, he jumped up and down in place, then turned to the head of the Pastors’ Conference and asked, “Can I do that here?” And he jumped some more to the cheers of a warm and approving audience.

No one besides Luter has been nominated for president so far. Messengers will vote later this afternoon.

Observers inside and outside the convention are wondering what the long-term impact of Luter’s election would mean for the historically white denomination. While the convention has made great strides in ethnic church planting, and now has about 20 percent non-white membership, the question arises how Luter can turn his election from a public statement into lasting change.

Bruce Nolan, writing in the New Orleans Times Picayune, framed the issue this way:

“’With Fred’s election the Southern Baptist Convention is going to affirm that change has to come,’ said the Rev. David Crosby, of First Baptist Church of New Orleans, who will nominate Luter on Tuesday.

Others cautioned that the election does not by itself signal wholesale change.

In the Southern Baptist world, the president’s influence lies in the power to nominate like-minded people to seminaries and agency boards. Presidents typically serve two one-year terms, so it takes several in succession to change the course of Baptist life.

‘Luter could be the first of a series of presidents moving the denomination toward a more racially and ethnically sensitive position,’ said Bill Leonard, a former Southern Baptist who is now chair of Baptist studies at Wake Forest University Divinity School.

‘But if it stops with him and it turns out he is the only one, it will be a moot point.'”

To read Nolan’s full article, go to http://www.nola.com/religion/index.ssf/2012/06/the_rev_luter_is_unoppose.html.