N.C. Baptist
delegates approve anti-gay policy
By Mike Baker, AP
from wilmingtonstar.com on the Web, November 14, 2006
GREENBORO, N.C. -- The Baptist
State Convention of North Carolina voted Tuesday to cut ties with congregations
that affirm or approve of homosexuality, formally adopting a rigid anti-gay
policy that allows the group to investigate whether member churches are gay
friendly.
The convention, which with more than 4,000 member churches and 1.2 million
members is the second-largest association of Baptist churches in the nation,
said it was one of the most rigid anti-gay policies among the nation's Christian
churches.
"It's not something that we wanted to do, but homosexuality is the only sin that
has its own advocacy group," said convention spokesman Norman Jameson said.
"Those advocacy groups are pushing us into this stance. Other
denominations that waffle and waver on the issue year after year are getting
torn apart."
The vote changes the convention's long-standing laws, which previously only
required its members to support the convention through cooperation and financial
contributions. Now any churches that "knowingly act to affirm, approve,
endorse, promote, support or bless homosexual behavior" will be barred from
membership.
"This action does not mean that you should avoid ministry to the homosexual
community," said convention executive director Milton Hollifield Jr. "Even
though we believe that homosexuality is wrong, we still love and engage those in
this lifestyle."
The convention's board of directors adopted a similar anti-gay policy in 1992,
but its members had never voted to include the policy in its written articles of
incorporation. And that past rule, unlike the one approved Tuesday, didn't
give the convention the authority to investigate gay-friendly churches.
Now, should two church members request an inquiry, the convention has the formal
authority to act.
"It did not have teeth in it like it needed to have," said convention president
Stan Welch. "There was a general policy in place, and we needed something
to say, 'We're going to act upon this and we're going to follow through with
it.'"
Sixteen churches in North Carolina will come under immediate scrutiny under the
policy, Jameson said. Those churches are associated with the Alliance of
Baptists, a Washington D.C.-based group that welcomes gays as equal members.
They contribute just $185,000 to the Convention's $36 million budget, Jameson
said.
The Alliance of Baptists said the new policy is stronger than a similar policy
adopted by the Nashville, Tenn.-- based Southern Baptist Convention -- the
nation's largest Protestant organization. The Southern Baptists changed
their constitution in 1993 to say that "churches which act to affirm, approve,
or endorse homosexual behavior" are not eligible for membership.
"But the Southern Baptist Convention didn't go around trying to meddle with and
investigate churches," said Jeanette Holt, associate director for The Alliance
of Baptists. "This new policy sounds to me like an interfering witch
hunt."
State Baptist conventions in Georgia and Florida also have anti-gay policies.
The proposal in North Carolina needed a two-thirds majority from the
convention's 3,500 participants to pass. No precise count of the hand vote
was taken, but convention officials said that the measure had passed.
Several delegates criticized the convention for breaching the autonomy of
individual churches and focusing on such a polarizing issue.
"Let's spend more time confessing our own sins than exposing the sins of
others," said Don Gordon, senior pastor of Yates Baptist Church in Durham, who
still labeled homosexuality as sinful behavior. "Let's let the whole world
know that God loves every person."
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