WAKE FOREST, N.C. (ABP) — Baptists in North Carolina next month will be asked to place new restrictions on churches that condone homosexuality, creating perhaps the most specific ban of gay-friendly churches in Southern Baptist life.
The president of a conservative group within the Baptist State Convention of North Carolina said Oct. 18 he will propose an amendment to the convention's articles of incorporation that would tighten requirements for church membership in the state convention to eliminate “ambiguity” on the gay issue.
The article dealing with membership in the convention currently says: “A cooperating church shall be one that financially supports any program, institution, or agency of the convention, and which is in friendly cooperation with the convention and sympathetic with its purposes and work.”
Bill Sanderson, president of Conservative Carolina Baptists and pastor of Hephzibah Baptist Church in Wendell, N.C., said he will propose adding the following:
“Among churches not in friendly cooperation with the convention are churches which act to affirm, approve, or endorse homosexual behavior. Such actions include: 1) official public statements affirming, approving or endorsing homosexual behavior, 2) ordination of those whom the church knows have not repented of their homosexual behavior, 3) any pastor of the church performing or the church providing facilities for a marriage or other ceremony, blessing or union of persons of the same sex, 4) affiliating with, contributing money to or maintaining membership in a group which the church knows affirms, approves or endorses homosexual behavior, and 5) accepting as members those whom the church knows have refused to repent of sin, including homosexual behavior. The Board of Directors shall apply these provisions, subject to the right of a church to appeal to the next session of the convention.”
Sanderson said he thinks there should be “no ambiguity” about where the convention stands on the homosexual issue. “We need, I feel, to set a very clear statement about how we as Baptists in North Carolina feel about this,” he said.
The first sentence of Sanderson's proposal is identical to wording added to the constitution of the Southern Baptist Convention in 1993. Four of the provisions seem to deal with specific instances in which churches in North Carolina have been removed from the convention under a policy not in the convention articles of incorporation.
In 1992, the convention Board of Directors (then General Board) adopted a financial policy that prohibits the convention from accepting funds from “any church which knowingly takes, or has taken, any official action which manifests public approval, promotion or blessing of homosexuality.”
Since churches must give funds to the convention to be a cooperating member, the policy effectively kept out such churches. The policy, which was reaffirmed by the convention board in 2003, was first used to remove Pullen Memorial Baptist Church in Raleigh and Binkley Memorial Baptist Church in Chapel Hill from the convention. Pullen had voted to bless the union of two homosexual males. Binkley voted to license a gay man to the ministry.
The policy was later used to force out Wake Forest Baptist Church in Winston-Salem, which held a same-sex union for two lesbian members in September 2000.
Two years ago, the convention used the policy to refuse funds from McGill Baptist Church in Concord. Convention officials said the church fell under the policy because it baptized two men believed to be gay.
The homosexuality issue came under discussion again this year when the convention's nominating committee voted to exclude from consideration persons from churches that are affiliated with the Alliance of Baptists. The organization's web site includes a statement affirming same-sex marriage, which was adopted during the organization's annual meeting in 2004, as well as the report of a task force on human sexuality that was commissioned and received “with gratitude” — though not officially adopted — in 1995. That report calls for full acceptance of gays, lesbians, bisexual and transgendered persons.
Sanderson said those earlier expulsions prompted his proposal. “It's all about that, so when these things happen we already know where we're standing,” he said.
Sanderson said he thinks churches that affirm homosexuality should not be in the convention. “This brings it down without any problem whatsoever,” he said. “You know if you're on this side of this theological issue, you're on the wrong side.”
Sanderson said he included in his proposal a general reference to sin so the provision could be applied to people who have not repented of lying, backbiting, adultery, murder or other sins.
Clella Lee, chair of the convention's constitution and bylaws committee, said a motion similar to Sanderson's was proposed to the committee.
“The committee did not believe it was in the best interest of the convention to recommend a change in the definition of a cooperating church to the Executive Committee without the time to consider historical precedence, present concerns, and future long-term implications,” she said. “I believe it is unlikely that such in-depth consideration could be accomplished during the convention session. My hope is that the convention messengers will recognize the magnitude of amending this article without giving careful consideration to each of the areas I mentioned.
“If the convention wants to consider changing the definition of a cooperating church, I strongly encourage the messengers to make a motion to that effect and refer it to the constitution and bylaws committee or a special committee formed to study this issue and report to the convention in 2006.”
The convention articles of incorporation can be amended by a two-thirds vote of messengers to the convention annual meeting provided the proposed amendments are printed twice in the Biblical Recorder, the convention's newspaper.