“Southern Baptists have been doing quiet but crucial work, engaging in countless acts of kindness and compassion, spreading the Word of God, demonstrating the profound power of religious freedom. And you’ve held to faith where others may have lost it, gained in numbers where others haven’t, and made a difference where others couldn’t. You prove that the flower of faith can bloom anywhere, that no matter how hard the journey, no matter how humble the surroundings, God’s love provides.” — President George Herbert Walker Bush (1924-2018)