Former presidents Jimmy Carter and Bill Clinton teamed up in Atlanta to announce a 2008 conference of moderate Baptist leaders which observers said will not likely touch on gay issues. (Photo by W.A. Bridges Jr. /AP)
Baptist Covenant likely to avoid gay issues New group to balance conservative Southern Baptists
A new coalition of moderate Baptist leaders announced in Atlanta last week their intent to offer a spiritual alternative to the conservative Southern Baptist Convention by focusing “on issues that bind us together as followers of Christ rather than dwell on the differences that surely exist among us.”
Backed by former presidents Jimmy Carter and Bill Clinton, the alliance of about 40 moderate Baptist organizations plan to host a massive assembly in Atlanta in January 2008 to brainstorm how the church can help alleviate societal problems such as poverty, inadequate healthcare, racism and religious intolerance.
But it appears unlikely that the group, known as the New Baptist Covenant, will advocate for churches to become more welcoming of gay and lesbian worshipers, and it remains unknown whether the politically-oriented coalition will take a position in the social debate over same-sex marriage. Both Carter and Clinton have said they support civil unions for gay couples.
“When you have that many number of organizations [within the New Baptist Covenant] it makes it difficult, if not impossible, to say the group will do X or Y,” said Robert Parham, executive director of the Nashville, Tenn. based Center for Baptist Ethics. “I think it’s important to recognize that the New Baptist Covenant leaders have little interest in being the reverse mirror image of the Jerry Falwells, Fred Phelpses and Southern Baptists fundamentalists.
“Just because the Southern Baptist Convention is pro-war does not mean that these goodwill Baptists will be anti-war,” said Parham, who expects the same to be true about gay issues. “I heard no discussion [at the recent Atlanta meeting] about the gay issue or gay marriage.”
The Southern Baptist Convention, with some 16 million members in more than 42,000 churches in the United States, has consistently opposed gay rights legislation and gay-friendly corporate policies, condemning homosexuality as a “manifestation of a depraved nature and a perversion of divine standards.”
In the 1990s, the group began expelling churches that ordained gay ministers, recognized gay unions or “approve or endorse homosexual behavior,” as well as boycotting companies like Walt Disney World that had gay-friendly policies. The convention also supports a federal amendment to ban same-sex marriage.
‘Strains of debate on sexuality’
Carter summoned more than 80 moderate Baptist leaders to the Carter Center Jan. 9 to unveil tentative plans for next year’s “Celebration of a New Baptist Covenant,” which is named for a document signed by progressive Baptist leaders following a meeting at the Carter Center in April 2006.
Neither of those gatherings included leaders from prominent Baptist organizations that welcome and affirm gay worshipers, said Stan Hastey, executive director of the gay-friendly Alliance of Baptists.
The Alliance of Baptists offices have received several calls in the last week from people wondering why it was not invited to the gathering of progressive Baptists, Hastey said. The organization has some 120 affiliated congregations that include about 60,000 members, but Hastey said he is not surprised it was overlooked.
“The American Baptist church is feeling the stresses and strains of a huge debate on sexuality, so I’m not surprised,” Hastey said. “It will be interesting to see if we are invited belatedly to be a participant.”
If the Alliance of Baptists secures a seat at the table of the New Baptist Covenant it will work to ensure Baptist leaders no longer support or ignore the spiritual marginalization of gay, lesbian and transgender Americans, Hastey said.
“We will not recoil from putting these issues out on the table because indeed they should be discussed,” Hastey said.
Some participants take anti-gay stances
While considered moderate-to-progressive Baptist organizations, several of the groups that participated in the Carter Center events have previously staked out anti-gay positions, including the Seventh Day Baptist Conference and the Baptist World Alliance.
The Baptist Convention of Ontario & Quebec issued a September 2003 resolution opposing marriage rights for gay and lesbian Canadians, and in 2005 the Baptist General Association of Virginia severed ties with Averett University after the small Christian school allowed a gay-straight student alliance to be formed on campus.
Mercer University — the Baptist college in Macon, Ga., that is helping organize the Celebration of a New Baptist Covenant — was itself rebuked by the conservative Georgia Baptist Convention in 2005 after members of a gay student group participated in National Coming Out Day.
“Baptists made an important decision here today, a decision to focus on issues that bind us together as followers of Christ rather than dwell on the differences that surely exist among us,” Mercer President Bill Underwood said last week. “We made a commitment to look for ways to work together on these issues of common ground.”
The Atlanta-based Cooperative Baptist Fellowship has also received calls from some of its 1,800 member churches, wondering if joining in the New Baptist Covenant will force the organization to alter its stance on doctrine related to homosexuality, said Lance Wallace, associate coordinator for news and information at the Fellowship. The Fellowship leaves it to individual churches to decide if they include gay-affirming programs, but if they do so they become ineligible for funding from the Fellowship, Wallace said.
“We get criticized from folks on both sides of the issue,” said Wallace, who added that he doubts gay issues will be included in next year’s conference.
“I think because we’re trying hard to agree on what we can agree on, and avoid conflict and negativity, it makes it difficult for those issues [to be included in discussions],” Wallace said.
Ryan Lee can be reached at rlee@sovo.com.
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