Alliance asks CBF to rescind policy
of not funding gay-friendly groups
___DECATUR, Ga. (ABP)--For years, Southern Baptist Convention fundamentalists have accused the breakaway Cooperative Baptist Fellowship of being too soft on homosexuality. Now a more liberal breakaway group is accusing the CBF of being too harsh on homosexuality.
___The Alliance of Baptists, a much smaller splinter group off the SBC, has urged the Atlanta-based CBF to rescind a new "organizational value" that forbids direct funding of groups that condone gay and lesbian relationships.
___The Washington-based Alliance voted to make the request of CBF during the Alliance's annual convention April 20-22, held at Oakhurst Baptist Church in Decatur, Ga., a church under fire for its pro-gay stance.
___CBF Coordinator Daniel Vestal said he found the Alliance's request curious.
___"The Alliance has made clear its position on the issue of homosexual behavior, and I respect its right to do so," Vestal said. "But it disturbs me that one Baptist group would attempt to intrude in the affairs of another autonomous Baptist organization. To express a difference of opinion is one thing, but to formally 'urge support for the motion to rescind' CBF's policy crosses the line in terms of fraternal relationships between Christian organizations."
___The Alliance and the CBF have no direct link, other than that some Baptist congregations affiliate with both bodies. The Alliance has 110 member congregations, mainly in the Southeast. The CBF has 1,800 affiliated congregations.
___The contested CBF value statement, to be used in developing the Fellowship's annual budget and in hiring of staff and missionaries, primarily affects divinity schools linked to universities that include sexual orientation in their open-admissions policies. Under the new rule, those schools aren't eligible for institutional support from the Fellowship, but students who attend them may still qualify for scholarships.
___The Alliance vote stemmed from confusion about whether the new policy also applies to exhibitors at this summer's CBF General Assembly. A letter sent by a CBF representative to prospective exhibitors said they must "enhance and affirm the mission and shared commitments" of the Fellowship. Background documents included the value statement on homosexuality.
___That prompted the Alliance's board of directors to decree the group should "have no official presence" at the June CBF meeting in Atlanta, in order to remain consistent with its "welcoming and affirming" stance toward gays and lesbians.
___During a report of that action, however, Alliance member Mahan Siler of Franklinton, N.C., persuaded a majority of convocation participants to instead approve a statement expressing grief over the new CBF statement. Siler's substitute motion further urged the Fellowship's Coordinating Council "to rescind this action and to develop ways to continue discernment of the church's response to homosexual persons in our day."
___SBC fundamentalists criticized the CBF through articles in Baptist Press after last year's CBF general assembly. Those articles focused, in part, on allegedly gay-friendly literature at exhibit booths for the Alliance and the Baptist Peace Fellowship of North America.
___The Peace Fellowship reportedly had been asked not to display gay-friendly literature, but did so anyway.
___Nevertheless, Ken Sehested, executive director of the Baptist Peace Fellowship, said CBF leaders have granted his request to exhibit at this year's general assembly. He said the Baptist Peace Fellowship is free to display any of its materials, including a controversial resource booklet for promoting dialogue about sexual orientation in churches.
___"We are not censored in any way," Sehested said.
___David Willkinson, CBF communications coordinator, confirmed that the Baptist Peace Fellowship will be allowed to exhibit at this year's CBF general assembly. However, he re-emphasized that all exhibitors are asked to "display services and products that are consistent with the mission, ministries and shared values of the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship."
___It is not possible to monitor every piece of literature that every exhibitor displays at the general assembly, Wilkinson said.
___"Have we asked the Baptist Peace Fellowship--and every other exhibitor--to display services and products that are consistent with the mission, ministries and shared values of the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship? Yes. Have we tried to tell Baptist Peace Fellowship or any other exhibitor precisely what it can or cannot make available at its exhibit? No."
___Wilkinson said Sehested has told him Baptist Peace Fellowship does not intend to display the most controversial publication from last year--one that became the focus of a Baptist Press news report characterizing the CBF as a promoting a gay agenda.
___"If your sole purpose for visiting the resource fair is to find something you don't agree with, then you should offer to be a reporter for Baptist Press," Wilkinson concluded.
___Reported by Bob Allen of Associated Baptist Press and Managing Editor Mark Wingfield
The Baptist Standard
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