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Baker strums for equality and peace
Bountiful Community UCC Rev. Dr. Russell Baker often uses
his musical talent to make a point during sermons.

By Melinda Williams

BOUNTIFUL - With a banjo on his knee, the Rev. Dr. Russell Baker entertains Bountiful Community Church's congregation, while using the music to make a point or two. Baker, the new pastor at BCC, brings a different perspective to the Bountiful community.
Baker uses his banjo during services, and especially with the congregation's children, singing traditional folk songs and songs of his own composition.

As a young person growing up in Virginia, he saw segregation first hand - he was bused to school 16 miles to keep it segregated.

But by the time he was attending college in 1961, things were beginning to change. "It was a time of fermentation," he said, and the young man immersed himself in the civil rights movement. He admits his involvement was painful for his family, but they eventually adjusted to it.

His involvement eventually led to him meeting and marrying an African-American woman, his wife Anita; the couple has two grown children, a son and a daughter. His wife is now a teacher at Hill Field Elementary School.

Through the years, Baker has served in a number of organizations promoting racial unity and peace.

Raised a Southern Baptist, Baker said he was moved by the emotions members demonstrated. He attended the University of Richmond, a segregated Baptist school, which students wanted to integrate. "The student leaders said yes, but the president got cold feet." While there he was part of the Student Interracial Ministry.

So Baker moved on to Union Theological Seminary, a Presbyterian school to get his master's degree. He got his doctorate from Lexington Theological Seminary, in Lexington, Ken.

With his interest in peace and justice, perhaps it's not surprising that he wrote an article to the Herald Palladium of St. Joseph, Mich., in 2003, condemning the war in Iraq. It became a letter to the editor, which called for the United States to be "peacemakers."
He was also an organizing member of the Clergy/Religious Witness on Central America, in northern California, and remains concerned with peace and justice issues in that part of the world.

Baker has served churches in Chicago, Lexington, Berkeley, Calif., and Benton Harbor Mich.

When asked why he came to the small BCC congregation, Baker said he's always served small churches, and he's always been interested in churches which are struggling with the challenges of the Gospel.

" I have gobs of experience in a church this size."

He also likes that BCC is so community-minded, working with the Bountiful Community Food Bank and hosting the Interfaith Hospitality Network. "Those kinds of activities speak volumes about the congregation," he said.

He's intent on involving young people in worship, not just Sunday School, and that's where the banjo often enters, as he shares songs like "All God's Critters Got a Place in Church."

He believes young people learn best by doing things and hopes to give them hands-on experience with worship, including sermons done by children and youth.

Williams is a reporter for the Davis County Clipper in Bountiful, Utah.