GREENSBORO, N.C. (AP) - The Baptist State Convention of North Carolina voted Tuesday to cut ties with congregations that affirm or approve of homosexuality, enacting one of the most rigid anti-gay policies among the nation's Christian churches.
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(Photo: News & Record / Jerry Wolford)Messengers of the Baptist State Convention of North Carolina vote.
The vote changes the convention's long-standing laws, which previously only required its members to support the convention through cooperation and financial contributions. Now any churches that ``knowingly act to affirm, approve, endorse, promote, support or bless homosexual behavior'' will be barred from membership.
``This action does not mean that you should avoid ministry to the homosexual community,'' said convention executive director Milton Hollifield Jr. ``Even though we believe that homosexuality is wrong, we still love and engage those in this lifestyle.''
With over 4,000 member churches and 1.2 million members, the North Carolina Baptist convention is the second-largest association of Baptist churches in the nation.
The convention's board of directors adopted a similar anti-gay policy in 1992, but its members had never voted to include the policy in its written articles of incorporation. And that past rule, unlike the one approved Tuesday, didn't give the convention the authority to investigate gay-friendly churches.
``It did not have teeth in it like it needed to have,'' said convention president Stan Welch. ``There was a general policy in place, and we needed something to say, 'We're going to act upon this and we're going to follow through with it.'''
Seventeen churches in North Carolina will come under immediate scrutiny under the policy, convention spokesman Norman Jameson said. Those churches are associated with the Alliance of Baptists, a Washington D.C.-based group that welcomes gays as equal members.
They contribute just $185,000 to the Convention's $36 million budget, Jameson said.
``It's not something that we wanted to do, but homosexuality is the only sin that has its own advocacy group,'' Jameson said. ``Those advocacy groups are pushing us into this stance. Other denominations that waffle and waver on the issue year after year are getting torn apart.''
The new law is even stronger than a similar policy adopted by the Nashville, Tenn.-based Southern Baptist Convention - the nation's largest Protestant organization. The Southern Baptists changed their constitution in 1993 to say that ``churches which act to affirm, approve, or endorse homosexual behavior'' are not eligible for membership.
``But the Southern Baptist Convention didn't go around trying to meddle with and investigate churches,'' said Jeanette Holt, associate director for The Alliance of Baptists. ``This new policy sounds to me like an interfering witch hunt.''
State Baptist conventions in Georgia and Florida also have anti-gay policies.
The proposal in North Carolina needed a two-thirds majority from the convention's 3,500 participants to pass. No precise count of the hand vote was taken, but convention officials said that the measure had passed.
Several delegates criticized the convention for breaching the autonomy of individual churches and focusing on such a polarizing issue.
``Let's spend more time confessing our own sins than exposing the sins of others,'' said Don Gordon, senior pastor of Yates Baptist Church in Durham, who still labeled homosexuality as sinful behavior. ``Let's let the whole world know that God loves every person.''
Copyright © 2006 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. The information contained in the AP News report may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without the prior written authority of The Associated Press.
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