HUDSON, N.C. (ABP) – A gay advocacy group has accused the Baptist State Convention of North Carolina of using a double standard when it comes to homosexuality.
The 4,000-church convention by policy excludes congregations that “knowingly act to affirm, approve, endorse, promote, support or bless homosexual behavior." At their recent annual meeting, North Carolina Baptists passed a resolution endorsing a proposed amendment to the state’s constitution that would ban gay marriage.
Brent Childers
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Because of its stated positions opposing homosexuality, Faith in America, which is based in Hudson, N.C., says the state convention needs to explain its close association with a financial firm recognized nationally for strong support of gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender individuals and their families.
According to its disclosure statement, the North Carolina Baptist Foundation employs Graystone Consulting, a division of Morgan Stanley Smith Barney, to help manage assets that totaled $128 million at the close of 2009.
Morgan Stanley, the world’s largest brokerage firm, scores 100 percent on a Human Rights Campaign corporate equality index with regard to gays and lesbians. The company is listed as a corporate sponsor of the HRC, the largest civil-rights organization working for gay Americans.
Brent Childers, executive director of Faith in America, said in a statement that “you cannot escape what appears to be some hypocrisy” on the part of the state’s Southern Baptists.
“Here is an anti-gay religious organization that tells its churches that they will be expelled from the convention if they affirm or support LGBT people,” he said. “But yet when it comes to managing the tremendous financial blessing God has bestowed upon North Carolina Baptists, they turn to a company that not only affirms LGBT people and all their human dignity but whose top executive actively supports the fight for their equality, including marriage equality.”
"What the N.C. Baptist Convention says is bad for its churches and members obviously isn't bad for the convention," Childers said.
Melissa Lilley, research and communications coordinator for the state convention, said the Baptist State Convention of North Carolina has a unique relationship with its entities.
"The North Carolina Baptist Foundation is a separate entity led by a separate board of directors from the Baptist State Convention of North Carolina," she said. "The Foundation’s Board establishes the parameters for which investments are made and chooses those entities that manage those funds."
Faith in America, started in 2005 by Mitchell Gold — a furniture manufacturer who in 2008 wrote a book detailing 40 stories about the personal, social and religious struggles of growing up gay in America — was one of eight gay-rights organizations that demonstrated at this summer’s Southern Baptist Convention in Phoenix to draw attention to church teachings deemed harmful to gays.
SBC President Bryant Wright met with leaders of the advocacy groups, but they agreed to disagree about the morality of same-sex relationships.
Childers said using a Morgan Stanley subsidiary for services including “guarding against investments in assets contrary to Baptist faith and beliefs” seemed hypocritical, but he was encouraged that North Carolina Baptists “would place that kind of trust” in a company with a strong record of support for gay equality. “Its close relationship and trust with Morgan Stanley should signal to North Carolina's 1.4 million Baptists that LGBT equality — including marriage equality — harms no one except gay and lesbian individuals and their families," he said.
Meeting Nov. 7-8 in Greensboro, North Carolina Baptists urged churches to “vigorously organize a strong effort” among their members to support a constitutional measure that voters statewide will consider in May.
“Protecting marriage as the union between one man and one woman is critically important to preserving the family, our children, the repopulation and economic viability of North Carolina, and North Carolina’s reputation as one of the best states in the nation in which to work and live,” the resolution stated.
Faith in America has called the ballot initiative approved by lawmakers in September “an act of violence against North Carolina children and families.”
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Bob Allen is managing editor of Associated Baptist Press.
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