CBF leader suggests it is time to revisit group’s ban on hiring gays

DECATUR, Ga. (ABP) – After the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship completes a re-visioning process and selects a new executive coordinator, a first order of business should be revisiting a policy that prohibits the hiring of gays and lesbians, the organization’s top elected officer told leaders Feb. 24.

CBF Moderator Colleen Burroughs told Coordinating Council members that coming into office she really wanted to “have a conversation” about an organizational policy the council adopted in 2000 on homosexual behavior related to funding and personnel. More pressing concerns including balancing a budget deficit last year, the impending retirement of CBF Executive Coordinator Daniel Vestal and implementation of a 2012 Task Force, however, took precedent in her term, which ends June 23 at the close of the CBF General Assembly in Fort Worth.

Colleen Burroughs

Burroughs said the “fattest inbox” on her computer and thickest file folder in her office is correspondence from people saying they feel marginalized by the policy.

“I know it’s a prickly conversation,” said Burroughs, executive vice president of CBF-partner Passport, Inc. She said the reason for talking about it “is not to take a vote, not to change your mind on anything” and the issue is not whether everyone can agree on the issue of homosexuality.

“It’s an intellectual conversation as much as a theological one,” she said. “But we’re not going to have that conversation today.”

The policy statement reads in full: “As Baptist Christians, we believe that the foundation of a Christian sexual ethic is faithfulness in marriage between a man and a woman and celibacy in singleness. We also believe in the love and grace of God for all people, both for those who live by this understanding of the biblical standard and those who do not. We treasure the freedom of individual conscience and the autonomy of the local church, and we also believe that congregational leaders should be persons of moral integrity whose lives exemplify the highest standards of Christian conduct and character.

“Because of this organizational value, the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship does not allow for the expenditure of funds for organizations or causes that condone, advocate or affirm homosexual practice. Neither does this CBF organizational value allow for the purposeful hiring of a staff person or the sending of a missionary who is a practicing homosexual.”

While prevented from giving the issue attention that it deserves this year, Burroughs said she felt obliged to share her own opinion. “I find the policy to be divisive, unenforceable and probably not Baptist,” she said.