July 9, 2001
Texans play prominent role in
upholding CBF's sexuality statement
___By Mark Wingfield
___Managing Editor
___ATLANTA--The Cooperative Baptist Fellowship's vote to retain a policy statement on homosexuality will be received as good news in Texas, according to a Texas pastor who serves as an officer of the national organization.
___"I hope Texas Baptists will see this is quite a strong statement that we are not going to be proponents of homosexuality," said Paul Kenley, pastor of Baptist Temple in Houston and recorder for national CBF. "This vote demonstrates that we are not even willing to study it.
___"This should lay to rest any fears churches in Texas have about CBF," Kenley asserted. "Today we determined we are not going to be a single-issue splinter group but instead are going to be focused on missions."
___Two votes within one week not to rescind or suspend the policy statement on homosexuality should "bode well" for CBF's efforts in Texas, predicted David Currie, director of Texas Baptists Committed and chairman of CBF's finance committee.
___Currie said the final vote by the full assembly June 30 demonstrated that CBF had "rejected an effort from the left" to make homosexuality an issue within CBF.
___That has been a particular concern in Texas, according to a number of Texas Baptist pastors. Although Texas churches constitute the largest single bloc of contributors to CBF, Texans have not embraced CBF proportionately at the same rate as states such as North Carolina and Virginia.
___Accusations by Southern Baptist Convention fundamentalists that CBF is a haven for pro-gay Baptists have hampered CBF's influence in Texas--a state that is widely perceived to be not in lockstep with the new SBC but still quite theologically conservative.
___Many Texans involved with CBF have been particularly sensitive to this issue. Those concerns were voiced loudly during a CBF business breakout session where a motion to suspend the policy statement on homosexuality was debated.
___Of eight people speaking against the motion, six were Texans. No Texan spoke in favor of suspending the policy statement; and in fact, all nine speakers who advocated suspension of the policy came from east of the Mississippi River.
___To backtrack on the homosexuality statement "would be disastrous," warned Robert Prince, pastor of First Baptist Church of Vernon.
___"If we pass this motion, we will celebrate not only the 10th anniversary of CBF but the beginning of the end," added Mark Newton, pastor of Baptist Temple Church in San Antonio and first vice president of the Baptist General Convention of Texas. "Folks, the funding will end for CBF."
___Churches want to know where CBF stands on this issue of current concern, Currie said during the breakout debate. "What I continually hear about CBF is that they don't believe anything. ... I'm tired of that."
___While Texans largely were in the spotlight opposing the effort to repeal the policy statement, Texans could be found on both sides of the debate.
___Carl Bell, a member of Ross Avenue Baptist Church in Dallas, spoke against the policy statement during the Coordinating Council meeting. Other Texans were seen voting for the motion to suspend the policy for a year.
___This should not necessarily be construed as evidence that Texas Baptists want to endorse homosexuality, explained George Mason, pastor of Wilshire Baptist Church in Dallas and a keynote speaker at this year's general assembly.
___"The vote was as much about how CBF decides issues as it was about the issue itself," he said. "A significant number of people voted to rescind the policy not because they want to promote homosexuality but because of the process."
___From his perspective, Mason said, the problem with asking CBF to do a year-long study on homosexuality is that would have made the missions group act too much like a denomination.
___Such studies are more appropriate for local churches to do, he said. "The consensus among the churches should then be reflected among the body."
___An unspoken reality of the debate from a Texas perspective is that had CBF voted to suspend the policy statement and conduct a year-long study, the results of that study would have been reported at next year's general assembly--which is slated for Fort Worth.
___Few Texans attending this year's meeting in Atlanta seemed eager to bring that divisive discussion closer to home.
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