DALLAS (ABP) — Baptist General Convention of Texas leaders have announced they will escrow any money received from a Dallas church until it clarifies its position on homosexual behavior. They also have asked the church to remove from its publications any statements identifying itself with the state convention.
Royal Lane Baptist Church recently revised its website to identify itself as inclusive of varied sexual orientations. Pastor David Matthews noted the church’s deacons approved the change Feb. 14.
A March 6 article in the Dallas Morning News reported the church allowed gays and lesbians to serve in leadership positions such as deacons, and Matthews confirmed the accuracy of the newspaper report.
Reports “that the church’s position on homosexual behavior was clearly different from the historic theological position” of the BGCT prompted a March 11 meeting involving leaders of the church and the state convention, BGCT Executive Director Randel Everett said in a statement posted on the BGCT website March 17.
“During the discussion, it was learned that the church had taken no actions on these decisions, and questions about sexual orientation never came up in deacon selection,” Everett said.
“However because of the serious nature of the public remarks attributed to church leadership, with consultation with the officers of the Executive Board and the president of the BGCT, I asked the church to remove the partnership with the BGCT from any of its church’s publications and said we would escrow any money received from Royal Lane in 2010 until such a time that the church has clarified its position reflecting that it is in agreement with the theological position of the BGCT.”
Everett reported the deacons of Royal Lane Baptist Church met March 14 to discuss the matter and voted to ask the church to clarify its position.
Matthews was not available to respond to the BGCT statement by press time for this story.
Everett acknowledged the dilemma churches confront in dealing with human sexuality.
“How can we share the hope of Christ with all people and at the same time reflect the righteousness of Christ? How can we welcome everyone to our churches and preach that all of us must be rescued from the destructiveness of sin by Christ? This is obviously a challenging situation that all of our churches face,” he said.
At the same time, he pointed out Texas Baptists’ “theological position on marriage, and specifically on homosexual behavior, has not changed.”
In the 1990s, University Baptist Church in Austin ordained a gay deacon. In response to a motion introduced at the BGCT annual meeting, the Texas state convention created a committee to study whether it should amend its constitution to disallow affiliation with churches that allow non-celibate homosexuals to serve as deacons or pastors.
The 1996 Messenger Seating Study Committee declined to recommend any constitutional change. However, the committee’s report — subsequently affirmed by convention messengers — stated: “The Bible teaches that the ideal for sexual behavior is the marital union between husband and wife and that all other sexual relations — whether premarital, extramarital or homosexual — are contrary to God’s purposes and thus sinful.”
Later, convention leaders became aware University Baptist Church posted on its website its affiliation with the BGCT, along with statements noting the church had ordained a gay deacon and made its facility available to a gay group.
That led the BGCT Administrative Committee to recommend — and the Executive Board to approve — a motion that the BGCT refuse any financial contributions from University and ask the church to stop identifying itself publicly as a BGCT-affiliated congregation. The Austin congregation chose not to contest its relationship with the BGCT by sending messengers to the annual meeting and risking not having them seated.
Subsequently, the church decided to discontinue its relationship with the BGCT.
In his statement on the BGCT website, Everett indicated his desire to see Royal Lane Baptist Church maintain its partnership with the BGCT. Doug Washington, a member of Royal Lane, serves on the BGCT Executive Board, and members of the church also have served on staff at the Baptist Building.
“It is my prayer that Royal Lane Baptist Church will take the appropriate action to return to these Texas Baptist values and restore its fellowship with the BGCT,” Everett said.
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Ken Camp is managing editor of the Texas Baptist Standard.
Previous ABP story:
Dallas church announces gay-friendly stance, endangering BGCT
affiliation (3/9/2010)