conjectural navel gazing; jesus in lint form

baptist news update

Disaffected American Baptist groups see little resolution after meeting

By Rob Marus

VALLEY FORGE, Pa. (ABP) -- Leaders on all sides of the debate over homosexuality in the American Baptist Churches - USA see little resolution to concerns raised during the denomination's recent biennial meeting.

"I don't think the biennial solved anything, in terms of the future of
the denomination," said Mike Williams, executive minister for the
American Baptist Churches of Michigan.

The lack of action means further moves by those disaffected with the
national denomination could come between now and the next meeting of the
denomination's General Board in November.

Churches in at least four ABC regions threatened to withhold
contributions to the national denomination or leave altogether if their
concerns over homosexuality were not addressed at the biennial, which
took place July 1-4.

The denomination's General Board, meeting prior to the larger
convocation in Denver, accepted the first reading of a petition from one
region that calls for amendments to documents designed to more clearly
state American Baptists' opposition to homosexuality.

Regional fellowships are the channel through which local churches relate
to the national body, which counts 1.5 million members in 5,836
churches. In recent years, several gay-friendly churches have been
expelled from some of those regional bodies. The ABC General Board
changed the denomination's rules in 1999 to allow churches to join
regions outside of their geographical area if the region is willing to
accept them.

As a result, many pro-gay ABC churches have joined more progressive
regions outside their geographical area.

The Indiana-Kentucky region initiated the petition to change the rules
on regional affiliation back, as well as to amend a denominational
identity statement to read that American Baptists are a people "who
submit to the teaching of Scripture that God's design for sexual
intimacy places it within the context of marriage between one man and
one woman, and acknowledge that the practice of homosexuality is
incompatible with biblical teaching."

The petition notes the ABC General Board's 1992 approval of a resolution
that declares homosexual practice "incompatible with biblical teaching,"
but the petition says subsequent actions by denominational leaders have
not sent as clear an anti-homosexuality message.

The denomination has presented "an inconsistent and confusing message to
the world about what American Baptists profess to believe and what is
actually practiced," the petition reads.

It and another petition expressing concern over the unity in the
denomination will receive a second reading at the November meeting of
the General Board. If passed, it effectively would create a mechanism
for expelling many gay-friendly churches from the ABC.

But the leader of the Indiana-Kentucky region said, despite the
acceptance of their petition, many of his regional leaders who attended
the meetings were disappointed.

"Our board ... felt that the General Board [meeting] and biennial were
somewhat orchestrated in the way that they were presented so that it
would present a more open position [on the issue of homosexuality] than
we would like," said Larry Mason, executive minister for the American
Baptist Churches of Indiana-Kentucky.

But Ken Pennings, the newly appointed executive director of the
gay-friendly Association of Welcoming and Affirming Baptists, had a
different view of the meetings.

Mason said the Indiana-Kentucky board had already appointed a task force
to study the issue, and that leaders were conducting listening sessions
with American Baptists from around the region. The task force will
report to the regional board with recommendations on how to proceed at
their November meeting -- a week prior to the national ABC General Board
meeting.

"I have no idea what that task force will decide," Mason told Associated
Baptist Press. But he added he expects the task force will offer some
contingencies, should the ABC General Board adequately address the
region's concerns.

Asked what such an adequate action would look like, Mason said it might
involve the General Board both approving a second reading of the part of
the Indiana-Kentucky petition that involves expelling churches, as well
as approving the change to the identity statement to clarify that
homosexuality is incompatible with the Bible.

"I think that would help a lot of people here in Indiana-Kentucky to
think that at least they have been heard, and that the denomination does
stand on an issue of what they consider to be biblical authority," he
said. "So, I believe the first point of the petition -- if that is not
passed, it will be seen as a real statement of our denomination as to
where they are going to lead in the future."

Action may come sooner in the American Baptist Churches of the Pacific
Southwest, one of the regions that threatened to alter its relationship
with the national denomination "if the issues regarding homosexuality
[were] not biblically dealt with by the end" of the biennial meeting.
Dale Salico, executive minister of the Southern California-based region,
declined to comment on his view of how the biennial went until after his
regional board meets in August.

But Williams, of the Michigan region, said Salico's region may be the
watershed in a wider American Baptist movement. "I think it will be very
interesting to see what Pacific Southwest decides to do," he said. "If
they decide to take some action, like formally separating from ABC-USA,
then it might be a catalyst for other regions to consider that."

During his address to about 2,000 delegates to the biennial July 1, ABC
General Secretary Roy Medley pleaded for unity in the ethnically,
geographically and theologically diverse denomination.

"We stand at a crossroads," he said, according to the American Baptist
News Service. "In our world, the path of radical discipleship -- the
path of radical love -- is the road less taken. We dare not choose
another. We dare not choose the wrong road ... the road that leads to
separation. That choice will certainly unite you with like-minded people
but will give you small souls and make you comfortable Christians."