WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. (ABP) — Any church that “knowingly affirms, approves, or endorses homosexual behavior” will no longer be allowed as a member of the Baptist State Convention of North Carolina.
“It is most important that we as a convention uphold the teaching of the inerrant word of our heavenly father,” said Bill Sanderson, pastor of Hephzibah Baptist Church in Wendell, who introduced the motion Nov. 15 to the annual meeting of the Baptist State Convention of North Carolina. “I believe we must stand up for absolute truth, not relative truth or untruths, as it seems so many others are willing to do these days.”
Sanderson's motion, approved overwhelmingly by a convention which few moderates attended, instructs the convention's Board of Directors “to develop and implement a policy” that would specify how the qualifications for convention membership are interpreted.
Sanderson previously announced a plan to revise the membership requirements in the convention's articles of incorporation to exclude churches that make public statements endorsing homosexual behavior, ordain homosexuals, perform marriages or unions for homosexuals, affiliate with any group that the church knows to affirm homosexual behavior, and accept as members people “the church knows have refused to repent of sin, including homosexual behavior.”
While the motion approved Nov. 15 did not include those specifics, it is expected to accomplish the same thing by instructing the Board of Directors to draft the policy. Sanderson's wife, Joann, currently is chair of the board.
If those specifics are approved, the policy apparently will exclude the 25 or more North Carolina churches that are members of the Alliance of Baptists, a national organization that conservatives say has a “pro-homosexual stance.”
Speaking against the policy, Rob Helton of Cherry Point Baptist Church in Havelock, said he agrees homosexual behavior is an “abhorrent sin,” but he added, “I struggle also with a policy to exclude members based on that one sin. I believe according to Scripture that all sins are equal in the sight of God.”
“Could it be that we oppose homosexuality because it is not our sin?” he asked. “If we need to have a policy on homosexuality, it seems to me that we need a policy on every sin in the Bible,” Helton said. Admitting he has struggled with the sin of gluttony, he added, “Eventually you would come to my sin and I would be excluded.”
The North Carolina convention already has a financial policy that prohibits churches that condone homosexuality from contributing to the convention, which is a condition of membership. That policy has been used four times since 1992 to exclude churches. But Sanderson and other supporters of the new policy said further clarity is needed in order to make a strong statement against homosexuality.
Kannapolis pastor Stanley Welch, who was elected president of the convention Nov. 15, told reporters the issue of homosexuality has been thrust upon Christians because American culture has “pushed it to the forefront.” Welch, pastor of Blackwelder Baptist Church, said gays are coming out of the closet in sports and the entertainment world. ” I don't think it was a fight anyone was going to look for,” he said, but “we're not going to sweep it under the rug.”
It remains unclear, however, what the new policy will accomplish, since it does not change the articles of incorporation, which Sanderson earlier announced as his intention. He changed his proposal “after much consideration and deliberation,” he told messengers, deciding it would be more appropriate to direct the Board of Directors to develop and implement the specific policy.
Sanderson's motion directed that “such policy must deal clearly with homosexual behavior and include that a church which knowingly affirms, approves or endorses homosexual behavior is a church not in friendly cooperation with the convention” — the traditional language used to describe membership.
During debate, Jo Godfrey of Emerywood Baptist Church in High Point, said the motion violated church autonomy, the priesthood of the believer and the freedom of belief. She also recalled Jesus' commandment to “love your neighbor as yourself.” “In this I hear no qualifications,” she said. “Why do we insert qualifications for welcoming members into a church?”
Paul Berry, pastor of Grainger Baptist Church near Kinston, responded he is not interested in locking people out but “in making known what sin is to sinners.” “Even, it seems, among our own people, there is a desensitizing of what is sin,” he added. “God's people need to rise up and let people know what sin is,” he said. Berry admitted he too “struggles with sin every day,” but he added repentance is “part and parcel of the salvation package.”
David Martin of First Baptist Church in Cary said Christianity is a religion of forgiveness. Regarding homosexuals, he said, “we should not write them off or be hard-hearted, but we need to take a stand.”
The motion carried by at least a four-to-one margin. Since the motion directs the Board of Directors to develop and implement the policy, no further action from the convention is required. The board's next scheduled meeting is Jan. 24-25.
Welch, the newly elected president, said the new policy is necessary. All church members sin, he conceded, but “there's a difference in sin and unrepentant sin, and I think that's the situation we are in.”
If people seeking church membership “do not ask for forgiveness,” they should not be accepted into a Baptist church, the pastor said, noting he has refused to allow unmarried couples who are living together to join his church.
“I don't think we can identify every sin on an individual basis” prior to accepting a person for membership, he continued. Homosexuals should be welcome to worship in Baptist churches, he said, but “any known sin” not accompanied by repentance should disqualify a candidate from membership.
In 2003 the Cabarrus Baptist Association, and later the state convention, excluded McGill Baptist Church in Concord after the church accepted as members two men believed to be homosexual partners. Welch, a pastor in that association, said once the situation came to light, the association tried quietly but unsuccessfully to get the church to revoke the couple's membership before eventually voting to exclude the church.