June 5, 2000
American Baptist region may split over homosexuality
___SALT LAKE CITY--A regional body of the American Baptist Churches USA has voted to restructure itself, in large part because it is so divided on the issue of homosexuality.
___During its recent biennial meeting in Salt Lake City, delegates of the American Baptist Churches of the Northwest voted "with deep regret" to begin a process to determine how it can be reformulated to meet the needs of congregations and individuals who differ over controversial aspects of theology and sexuality.
___The move was approved by a wide margin, 184-46. The decision came on the recommendation of a mediation group that met in March and determined restructuring was necessary.
___"The mediation group felt that the region as it is now composed ... cannot exist in that form because the differences on homosexuality cause such tensions that we cannot function as one," said the Paul Aita, executive minister of the regional group. "Restructuring means very possibly dividing into two or more regions."
___The American Baptist Churches of the Northwest currently includes about 200 congregations in Washington, Idaho, Montana and Utah, and one each in Oregon and Nevada.
___Divisions over not only homosexuality but the authority of Scripture and the autonomy of churches have brought them to this point, Aita and others in the regional body said.
___"We realize we are in a troubled marriage, and if we're going to have a divorce, we'd like to do everything we can to have an amicable divorce," he said.
___At the same meeting, a proposal to dismiss member congregations that are members of any group that "affirms the practice of homosexuality as being consistent with Christian teaching" was defeated. The vote was 161 in favor and 92 opposed, falling short of a required two-thirds vote.
___"As a matter of peace, there is a place where one has to just recognize that we just can't live life together and continue ... with the same mission and message," said Jim Steiner, pastor of Second Baptist Church in Boise, Idaho, and author of the failed bylaw amendment.
___Steiner was part of the mediation process that failed to produce any other alternative.
___"We were trying to find a better way, and we were not able to find a better way other than reorganizing, which is a fancy way of saying, 'We're going to have a split, but let's plan it,"' he said.
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