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ABCUSA: (corrected) American Baptists Respond to Southern Baptist
From
Worldwide Faith News <wfn@igc.org>
Date
Wed, 23 Jun 2004 08:23:46 -0700
Rationale For Withdrawal from Baptist World Alliance
American Baptist News Service (Valley Forge, Pa. 6/20/04)--American Baptist
leaders have responded with concern and surprise to allegations made during
the Southern Baptist Convention's annual meeting last week that the SBC's
withdrawal from the Baptist World Alliance was in part motivated by the
"leftward drift" of such BWA members as American Baptist Churches USA.
Paige Patterson, president of Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary and
a former SBC president, cited what he called a "gay friendly" presence
within American Baptist Churches USA.
"Dr. Patterson's statement is completely outrageous--nowhere, in any of the
conversations with the BWA, has such an excuse ever been given," said
American Baptist Churches USA General Secretary the Rev. Dr. A. Roy Medley.
The Southern Baptist action to pull out of the Baptist World Alliance "was
clearly and solely a response to the BWA's vote to welcome the Cooperative
Baptist Fellowship into the Baptist World Alliance," Medley said. "That is
when the issue arose, and is the substance of their action though they have
consistently sought to cover it with patently untrue excuses, such as that
the BWA is anti-American."
The Cooperative Baptist Fellowship, formed in the early 1990s by Southern
Baptist congregations dissatisfied with the SBC leadership's
ultraconservative direction, followed a process and met the criteria for
gaining BWA membership. Southern Baptist leaders opposed the CBF
membership application from the outset.
Medley's concern was echoed by the Rev. Dr. John Sundquist, former
executive director of American Baptist International Ministries, who has
served on the BWA Membership Committee. "In all the meetings of the
Membership Committee, in all the correspondence between the committee, and
in all of the discussions within the BWA General Council, never once have
American Baptists or the issue of homosexuality been mentioned as a reason
for the SBC's unhappiness with the BWA," he said.
Sundquist noted that the CBF application has been handled with integrity
and due process by his successor as BWA Membership Committee chair, Ian
Hawley of the Australian Baptist Missionary Society. Hawley, he said, has
been "very sensitive that the committee judge the CBF application only in
terms of whether it met the criteria in the bylaws for membership, and that
every opportunity has been given to the SBC leadership to express any
reason they felt the CBF did not meet the criteria for membership."
"Ian has been very pastoral and more time has been given to meetings with
the leadership of both the SBC and the CBF than has ever been given to any
other application for membership," Sundquist added.
BWA General Secretary the Rev. Dr. Denton Lotz said at the time of the
vote, "We were shocked by Dr. Patterson bringing in the gay issue, which
has never been on the table before. To combine that with the question of
gay marriage is really an insult to the rest of the Baptists of the world
and particularly to the American Baptists," who he said had maintained a
"strong stand" opposed to homosexual practice.
The Southern Baptist action to withdraw from BWA life "has fractured the
unity of Baptist expression that has lifted up Christ-honoring faith and
justice for nearly a century through the Alliance," said Richard W.
Schramm, deputy general secretary for Communication for American Baptist
Churches USA. "We deeply regret the Southern Baptist Convention's decision
to leave the Baptist World Alliance--perhaps most importantly because it
now will be vacating a seat at the table where vital mission and ministry
affecting 50 million Baptists worldwide will be prayerfully planned. The
Southern Baptist voice, counsel and fellowship will be missed."
Schramm also expressed "a profound sadness that our Southern Baptist
brothers and sisters have been given a misleading picture--one that
distorts the very traditional Christian understanding of marriage and
sexual expression held by the great majority of American Baptists. The
denomination's statement on marriage--which affirms monogamous, lifelong
heterosexual unions--and its statement on homosexuality--which maintains
'that the practice of homosexuality is incompatible with Christian
teaching'--are clear and representative expressions of a people called to
discipleship and service in the name of Christ."
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