ASHEBORO, N.C. (ABP) — Nominees to leadership positions in the Baptist State Convention of North Carolina were rejected because they are members of churches affiliated with the Alliance of Baptists.
Using such “unpublished criteria” to exclude people from leadership is unfair, Jerry Harris, a member of the convention's Executive Committee, said in a written statement read to the Executive Committee July 12. The committee on nominations rejected two nominees from his church, Greenwood Forest Baptist in Cary, Harris said.
Harris said he believes the committee acted unfairly in adopting requirements for nominees that were not known to the agency and institutional executives when they formulated their list of preferred nominations to board positions.
David Horton, conservative president of the convention, said he “totally” supports the committee on nominations' work. “Their only criteria,” Horton said, “was a listing of churches affiliated with the Alliance of Baptists.” The Alliance's “very pro-homosexual stance” was seen “as being not in line with North Carolina Baptist churches,” he said.
The Alliance of Baptists was founded in 1987 as the first national organization started in response to conservative-led changes in the Southern Baptist Convention. The group was first called the Southern Baptist Alliance but changed its name in 1992.
The Alliance's website lists 121 affiliated Baptist churches in 25 states. North Carolina, with 21, has the largest number. Seventeen of those listed have ties to the Baptist convention.
The Alliance website also includes a statement affirming same-sex marriage that 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 supports full acceptance of gays, lesbians, bisexual and transgendered persons.
Horton cited resolutions approved at past state convention meetings stating that homosexuality is not an acceptable lifestyle. The committee “felt they had to make some kind of decision,” Horton said.
Stan Hastey, Alliance executive director, said the convention's decision “doesn't come as a great surprise,” adding, “I find it sad that this single criterion is identified as the end-all and be-all issue of our time,” he told Associated Baptist Press.
Hastey said a convention or other Baptist body rightly can determine criteria for membership. “Wisely, churches have exercised that right rarely,” he said, since the “right of association” is often in conflict with local-church autonomy.
The committee's rejection of nominees in North Carolina “is guilt by association on two levels,” Hastey said, since it assumes that the nominees are in agreement with their churches' affiliation with the Alliance and that the churches are in agreement with the Alliance's position on homosexuality.
“We don't have anything approaching unanimity ourselves on this issue,” he said of Alliance members.
Hastey acknowledged openness to gay Christians has become a distinctive of the Alliance. “That is not something we are likely to take back or deny,” he said. “I'm not trying to sidestep or downplay that aspect of who we are.” But the Alliance has never been on a “crusade” to push acceptance of homosexuality, he added.
“We would not impose [our view] or create pressure on churches to do anything other than figure out what they should do with this issue,” he said. The Alliance's position statement “invites our churches to engage in a civil and Christian process to evaluate their stance and make their own decisions” about homosexuality, he said.
Several North Carolina Baptist institutions were affected by this year's rejection of nominees to their boards, including the convention's newspaper, the Biblical Recorder.
Traditionally, entity presidents are invited to prepare a list of twice as many candidates as needed, prioritized to meet the organization's most pressing needs in terms of the prospective board members' expertise, geographic location, gender, occupation or membership in a large or small church.
Convention bylaws call for the committee on nominations to recognize each entity's need for persons with certain abilities and to work in consultation with the presidents to choose the best candidates.
This year, several college and institutional presidents were notified that one or more of their recommendations had been ruled unacceptable.
The heads of those entities met with the chairman of the committee on nominations and asked that the committee reconsider, since they didn't know about the criterion excluding Alliance-related nominees before they presented their lists of nominees. The committee rejected the request.
John Butler, president of the convention's board of directors, told the Executive Committee that, even though some high-priority nominees were rejected, all of the institutions and agencies — with the exception of the Biblical Recorder — did get a full slate of nominees who had been on their larger list.
The committee rejected six of the eight persons recommended by the Recorder for four open positions, adding two persons who had been recommended by other people. But none of the persons passed over for the Biblical Recorder board attend churches affiliated with the Alliance.
The Executive Committee was told the rejected nominees were not asked about their personal views on homosexuality or the Alliance.
An Executive Committee member asked whether the Alliance criterion would lead to other exclusions, such as membership in a church that supports the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship. George Bullard, associate executive director, said the committee on nominations made it clear that its policy was for the current year only. It is “not a convention policy, nor does it encumber next year's nominations,” he said.
Horton suggested the convention may need to clarify the selection criteria used by the committee on nominations.
“Some may not agree with their decisions, but we are in a time … when the issue of homosexuality is a hot-button,” he said. “I think it is a defining issue for denominations, churches and individuals as to where they stand on that issue.”
— Tony Cartledge is editor of the Biblical Recorder.