Former SBC President Dr. Frank Page allowed me the honor of serving on the 2008 Southern Baptist Resolutions Committee. The work was hard and the hours long but the reward of working with some of the finest, most articulate leaders in the Convention made the experience one I will remember for a lifetime. All in all, the committee spent about thirty hours meticulously reading all of the resolutions submitted for consideration pairing the final number down to nine. From the defense of the term “Christmas” against the encroachment of a secular culture to recognizing Israel’s sixty years of survival in the face of tenacious enemies dedicated to her destruction, the committee attempted to address some of the pressing social issues of our day.
One such issue was the California Supreme Court decision to overturn the will of the people and allow homosexual couples to marry. On March 7, 2000, the people of California voted overwhelmingly (61.4%) in favor of Proposition 22 which affirmed, “Only marriage between a man and a woman is valid or recognized in California.” On May 15 of this year, a sharply divided Court (4 to 3) overturned the will of the people setting the stage for same-sex marriages to begin. On June 16th, state officials began issuing marriage licenses at approximately 5pm local time.
This is not the first time the Southern Baptist Convention has passed a resolution condemning homosexual marriage. Southern Baptists have addressed this issue many times in the last few years with the first resolution affirming the traditional family passing in 1980. The Convention spoke directly to the issue of same-sex marriage in 2003, resolving to “continue to oppose steadfastly all efforts by any court or state legislature to validate or legalize same-sex marriage or other equivalent unions.” Since Southern Baptists have spoken definitively and consistently (ten times in the past seventeen years) expressing the collective will of the messengers concerning same-sex marriage, why speak again in 2008?
The answer can be expressed in one word….portability. Massachusetts same-sex marriage law requires that all persons applying for a same-sex marriage license must be a resident of the state. California has no such law. Beginning June 16th, unless the court intervenes to suspend the law until California voters have their say in November defining marriage constitutionally, homosexual couples from any state in the union can travel to California, “marry,” return to their home state and challenge that states marriage laws under the full faith and credit clause of the United States Constitution. The result will be chaos in the courts and confusion in the home as our cultural and biblical understanding of the family rapidly discentegrates.
To fight this latest attempt of an activist court to force its liberal will on an unwilling electorate the messengers of the 2008 Southern Baptist Convention meeting in Indianapolis, Indiana resolved to “encourage all Christian pastors in California and in every other state to speak strongly and prophetically concerning the sinful nature of homosexuality and the urgent need to protect biblical marriage in accordance with God’s Word.” We also called on believers everywhere to “pray for the people of California as they seek to right this terrible wrong that has been forced upon them,” and to “pray for the people of every state where biblical marriage in under attack.” It should be obvious now to even the most ardent state’s rights adherent that the only way we are going to ultimately protect the biblical, cultural, and foundational institution of marriage is with a national marriage amendment. Continue >>
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Quite frankly, I am glad my children have finished public school (& college) -- and survived it all.
hlerwin
Thanks for the research. But conservative and moderate Republican (ie: RINO) are two totally different animals. The real issue is what worldview they hold to on this issue of ethics, positive law and society. They obviously ignored the will of the majority and the will of God.
Meanwhile, we have kids from Christian families getting brainwashed in PS regardless of this latest wacky court ruling and a church body that does nothing about it.
Here's a June 19 "Pensito Review" (what ever that is) article:
Jon Ponder | May. 19, 2008
When judges make decisions that favor gay civil rights, rightwingers label them “activist judges,” and howl, “Let the people decide.”
Yet more evidence — as if any were needed — that the rightwing position on gay marriage is based on bigotry, politics and fundraising, not principals or “moral” values.
But last year, when the California legislature — a.k.a. “the people” — passed bills that would have legalized gay marriage — twice — the right wing cheered when GOP Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger vetoed the laws both times.
Now, in the wake of the California Supreme Court’s ruling earlier this month legalizing gay marriage, the right will have trouble making their name-calling stick, because three of the four “activist judges” who voted in favor of extending civil rights to gays were Republicans:
Voting for:
Chief Justice Ronald George, 68, a moderate Republican appointed by Gov. Pete Wilson in 1991. He wrote the 4-3 opinion striking down the state ban on same-sex marriage, which he said violates the “fundamental constitutional right to form a family relationship.”
Justice Joyce Kennard, 67, a Republican appointed by Gov. George Deukmejian in 1989. She is considered a moderate and joined the majority opinion.
Justice Kathryn Mickle Werdegar, 72, a Republican appointed by Wilson in 1994. She is considered a moderate and was part of the majority in the ruling.
Justice Carlos Moreno, 59, the court’s only Democratic appointee, named to the bench by Gov. Gray Davis in 2001. He is considered a moderate and voted with the majority.
I will check my facts about how many CA judges are "conservative." I'm not sure, really.
You must know that this "activist" court in CA was mostly made up of conservatives, Republican apointees, at that. I think it was difficult for some of them to make the decision they did. But with a clear understanding of the constitution, they could not vote "for" discriminatory practices. The SBC has every right to use every resource to fight for what it believes God's plan is. The SBC is a church organization. Our government cannot procede that way.
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When I was at Keesler AFB in the summer of 78 there was already issues being raised with sending Christian kids to public schools in Alabama, the church I went to let me know that very few SBC churches were involved with this because many of their members were public school employees, I think it was the homeschooling issue that was being debated. Here in Southeast KY the idea of pulling Christian kids out of the public school system would go over like a lead balloon. Once again the schools here are very open to having churches involved in school activities and many of the employees at all levels are church members, but what they fail to realize is that most of the books they use are steeped in secular humanism and for those Christian parents who are truly concerned about their kids getting a Christian Worldview when it comes to education they often times have to reteach or unteach their kids. As most of you know I am a Southern Baptist, but this is one area where we need to wake up and smell the secular humanism that runs rampant within our public schools and develop a game plan to deal with this issue. But as long as many of our own church members remain intrenched in the public school systems themselves I'm not sure that will happen any time soon.
You both are right. It's taken 80 years or so for our PS system to sink this low and it will take longer (if ever) to get it turned around to any semblance of a Christian Worldview environment. The battle is between the parents and the state; our children should not be left in the system as sacrificial pawns. The SBC should endorse removal of children from all public schools across the nation and challenge the adults to take on the battle with the state.
Talk about a "blind leader"
Removing our children from the public schools is not retreating from the battle field, its removing our children from a part of the battlefield that we never should have put them on in the first place.
Education
http://www.polemos.net/Home%20Schooling.html
Some Good Quotes: Public Schools
http://www.polemos.net/Quotes%20Public%20Schools.html
I consider my Southern Baptist and would like to share that the SBC is deluding themselves if they think they can "retake the public schools for Christ." As a retired public school educator I was able to see first hand how the system has so totally been saturated by the far left agenda in every way that only a fool would think it can be "taken back." The best that could be done would be to slow down the total drift to total immorality. When a school principal states when one reports two students in a corner having intercourse "Well, we cannot infringe upon their right to freedom of expression" we have crossed the mark. Yet, please do not allow Christian t-shirts, prayer meetings, the Bible or anything else religious to occur in a public school. We cannot even decorate in green and red at Christmas as those colors might "offend" Muslims. Too bad. God must be very disappointed in the SBC for their timidity. I wonder if those fathers or mothers would vote the same when it is their daughters literally being raped in a school building dark corner!