Tentacles of Homosexual Agenda Spread Far and Wide
by Keith Ninomiya Vol. XII, No. 4, April 1999
[Introductory Comments: This is an important article for it traces many of the contacts and overlapping board memberships between the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship and various pro-homosexual organizations. Note that in the second paragraph the article acknowledges, "The Cooperative Baptist Fellowship ... has no official position on homosexuality." But Jesus said, "by their fruits shall ye know them" (Matthew 7:16,20). In reading the article I counted 27 people it documents as having participated in actively pro-homosexual organizations and who have filled responsible positions with CBF. Does that tell you something about the position of CBF regarding homosexuality? You must decide that for yourself, but the answer seems clear to me.
Beyond the participation of such people, there is also the matter of CBF providing money in its budget to pro-homosexual organizations, another area for you to follow as you read the article.
Finally, in addition to the CBF connections with pro-homosexual organizations, consider the budget of the Baptist General Association of Virginia. The BGAV provides churches the option of choosing a budget track (WM-3) in which ALL the money that does not go to the BGAV state budget goes to the CBF, not a penny to the Southern Baptist Convention. Further, the default WM-2 track (in which all churches are placed unless they specifically choose a different giving plan) sends money to the Baptist Center for Ethics and the Baptist Joint Committee on Public Affairs ... organizations prominent in this article.
This is not an "easy read," but believers are commanded to be alert. I commend the article to your
study. To help you cope with all the abbreviations, we have included a list of all of them and their meanings.
at the end. TCP]
The homosexual agenda was thrust back into the spotlight in Southern Baptist life a few months ago
when the membership of Wake Forest Baptist Church of Winston-Salem, NC, voted to allow its ministers
to officiate at same-sex weddings and approved a statement asking that God bless such homosexual unions.
The Southern Baptist Convention affirmed its position on the family at the 1998 Convention in Salt Lake City. The Cooperative Baptist Fellowship, a group formed as an alternative to the SBC, has no official position on homosexuality. However, many past and present CBF leaders have connections to organizations that support the homosexual agenda. For instance, Wake Forest BC pastor Richard Groves is an influential moderate leader, having served on the CBF Interim Steering Committee and the CBF Coordinating Council. He also is a founder and former president of the Alliance of Baptists. Groves has led a church which has, over the past 10 years, allowed openly homosexual members to take positions on the deacon board, in the choir, and as Sunday School teachers.
The connections between the CBF and the homosexual agenda go much deeper. What follows is a
partial outline of those connections.
* An 80-page packet entitled HIV/AIDS Ministry: Putting A Face On AIDS was distributed at the 1994 and
1995 CBF General Assemblies. It was published by the Ethics and Public Policy Ministry Group of the CBF.
Nowhere in this resource is homosexual conduct identified as immoral and sinful. For instance, on page 16,
we read, "During pregnancy, the fetus is developing characteristics that will determine the person's sexual
orientation. Therefore, a person does not choose to be homosexual or heterosexual." Then, on pages
17-18: "We do not choose our sexual orientation, but rather we 'awaken' to it." Materials from the radical
homosexual group ACT-UP are recommended as suggested resources.
* James Hyde, director of the program of ethics and pastoral counseling at the University of Louisville in KY,
is co-editor of this resource packet, the first one prepared by the CBF in an annual series on pressing social
and moral issues. Author of the sixth section is Paul Simmons, an adjunct professor at the University of
Louisville. For 23 years, Simmons was a professor of Christian ethics at Southern Baptist Theological
Seminary. He serves as an associate with the CBF-funded Baptist Center for Ethics (BCE) and has served
as the chairman of the theological education committee of the Kentucky chapter of the CBF. In 1985,
Simmons said, "We can grant the distinction between orientation and action. I find nothing unacceptable
as such about being homosexual any more than I do about being heterosexual."
* At the 1995 CBF General Assembly, the CBF's mission statement was amended to say, "Affirming our
diversity as a gift of God, including but not limited to race, ethnicity and gender." The term "gender" does
not preclude the concept of sexual orientation.
* Telos Ministries is a group founded in 1992 to provide support for Baptist Gays/Lesbians. In the July 1996
issue of their newsletter called Tellus, under the heading Cooperative Baptist Fellowship Meetings, the
homosexual publication states: "There will be two members of Telos Ministries attending the meetings of
the CBF at Richmond June 27-29. We have been received at previous meetings, and anticipate the same
this year... We pray that the CBF will continue to move toward accepting all persons who know and love
Jesus Christ as personal Savior and Lord, as revealed to each by a Loving Father, without any mortally
contrived conditions or parameters."
* In the same issue of Tellus, the Baptist Joint Committee on Public Affairs (BJCPA) is identified as "a friend
for many years." James Dunn is the executive director of the BJCPA, which publishes a newsletter called
Report from the Capital. After reprinting much of Dunn's regular column from the BJCPA's newsletter, the
homosexual group expressed their "continuing support of the BJC" and wrote, "We encourage others to do
so as well." Indeed, the CBF continues to support and fund the BJCPA to the tune of over a quarter-million
dollars a year.
* Paul Duke is a professor of New Testament and preaching at Mercer University's McAfee School of
Theology, which is CBF-funded. The CBF's national office is housed in the McAfee School of Theology
building in Atlanta, GA. Duke has served on the CBF Coordinating Council. He was one of the first three
faculty appointments and also serves as one of the three New Testament editors for a new 30-volume Bible
commentary series launched by the CBF-funded Smyth & Helwys publishing house.
In 1994, Duke led a CBF Pre-Assembly Institute entitled "Homosexuality and the Church." He also
presented a two-part series bearing the same title at Broadway Baptist Church in Kansas City, MO, stating:
"We are people for whom Scripture bears real authority. Now let's tell the whole truth about that. Scripture
is not our ultimate authority, because the Bible will one day pass away. We won't carry those in Heaven...
Homosexuality is not a major concern of the Bible. The Ten Commandments say nothing of it. The four
Gospels say nothing of it. Jesus apparently said nothing about it... Having taken the time to study the
[biblical] texts, I must tell you -- I cannot with confidence say that the Bible condemns all forms of
homosexual behavior." When asked during a question and answer session about the "rite and ceremony
of [homosexual] marriage," Duke affirmed his "broad support" for the union of homosexual couples, but
noted that his personal preference was that the term "marriage" be reserved for heterosexual couples.
* The Baptist Peace Fellowship of North America (BPFNA) is an organization that receives funding from
the CBF. In the early 1990s, moderate leaders disenchanted with the conservative transformation of the
Christian Life Commission (now Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission) discussed alternate ethics
ventures. According to BCE Executive Director Robert Parham, "The Baptist Peace Fellowship of North
America was suggested as the ethics group for Fellowship Baptists."
Ken Sehested is BPFNA executive director and has led breakout sessions at CBF General Assemblies.
In February of 1995, the BPFNA issued a "Statement on Gay and Lesbian Justice" which, among other
things, advocated the ordination of "gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgendered persons" and their
employment in denominational structures. President of the BPFNA board of directors at that time was
Glenda Fontenot, who has been a leader with the CBF-funded Baptist Women in Ministry (BWIM). Carolyn
Crumpler, former CBF Moderator and former executive director of the Woman's Missionary Union (WMU),
has served on the BPFNA board of directors. Patricia Ayres, another former CBF Moderator, has served
on the BPFNA advisory committee. Jeanette Holt, associate director of the Alliance of Baptists, has served
on the BPFNA board of directors. Holt has served on the CBF Interim Steering Committee, CBF
Coordinating Council, and BJCPA staff.
* Glen Stassen, a BCE associate and former professor of Christian ethics at Southern Baptist Theological
Seminary, has served on the BPFNA advisory committee. David Waugh has served on the BPFNA advisory
committee, CBF Coordinating Council, and the board of directors for the Alliance of Baptists. The BJCPA
is an organizational member of the BPFNA. James Dunn and fellow BJCPA staffer Larry Chesser both have
served on the BPFNA board of directors, and both currently serve on the BPFNA advisory committee.
In a USA Today article, reporter Lori Sharn observes that many conservative Southern Baptists disagree with President Bill Clinton "for supporting gay rights and legal abortion." Sharn writes, however, that "Dunn says many moderate Southern Baptists agree with Clinton on social and moral positions." Marse Grant is editor emeritus of the Biblical Recorder, the Baptist state paper for North Carolina. Grant praised the BJCPA and Dunn, whose "considerable influence is enhanced by the election of Bill Clinton." Grant suggested that the CBF is where Clinton would feel at home. Indeed, Dunn has said, "Thank God that there is no such thing as a Baptist creed that includes abortion or drinking booze or any other particular set of agendas and [Clinton] is in the mainstream of Baptist history as he asserts and affirms his religious liberty."
In November of 1997, Clinton became the first American president to address a homosexual rights event, speaking at a Washington dinner sponsored by the Human Rights Campaign, the homosexual movement's largest political organization. Clinton reaffirmed his support for the Employment Nondiscrimination Act (ENDA), which would grant homosexuals and bisexuals the same workplace protection now afforded to classifications such as race and gender. A civil rights award was presented to the Washington-based Leadership Conference on Civil Rights.
Speaking at the 1994 CBF General Assembly, BJCPA General Counsel Brent Walker discussed the
proposed "federal gay rights legislation" that came to be known as ENDA. He said that the BJCPA had "been
working very closely over the past several months with the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights and a
number of religious and gay and lesbian groups on this bill." In 1997, Walker spoke of the BJCPA's support
for ENDA, noting that "those with religious objections to hiring homosexuals should not be able to
discriminate when they engage exclusively in for-profit enterprises." Oliver 'Buzz' Thomas is the former
BJCPA general counsel who is currently the special counsel for religious and civil liberties for the National
Council of Churches. Thomas submitted testimony before Congress in support of ENDA, calling it an act
of justice.
* In 1994, the BJCPA was given special thanks for its leadership role in the production of a left-wing political
training manual entitled How to Win: A Practical Guide for Defeating the Radical Right in Your Community.
Also given special thanks were Americans United for Separation of Church and State (AU) and People for
the American Way (PAW), two close religious left allies of the BJCPA. The manual is the work of a coalition
of 68 liberal organizations, including the Human Rights Campaign, National Gay and Lesbian Task Force,
Gay and Lesbian Victory Fund, and Parents, Families and Friends of Lesbians and Gays. Of the 43 brief
articles, nearly half deal in some way with the issue of homosexuality. At the end of the manual are three
directories devoted to networking with homosexual groups. The first directory is titled "PFLAG: Parents,
Families and Friends of Lesbians and Gays - Celebrating Real Family Values." The second directory is titled
"Contacting Politically Active Gays and Lesbians." The third directory is titled "Openly Gay and Lesbian
Officials."
* This year Dunn will become a visiting professor of Christianity and Public Policy at the Wake Forest
University Divinity School, which is in the CBF budget. Appointed to serve on the first board of visitors for
the divinity school are R. G.Puckett and Ann Quattlebaum. Puckett is the retiring editor of the Biblical
Recorder, the former executive director of AU, and a former BJCPA board chairman. Quattlebaum has
served as president of the Alliance of Baptists and on the BJCPA board of directors.
* Americans United for Separation of Church and State (AU) was founded in 1947, primarily through the
efforts of Rufus Weaver, the same Southern Baptist leader who was instrumental in the organizing of the
BJCPA. Since the early 1980s, Dunn has served as an AU trustee and officer. Puckett served as AU
executive director from 1979-1982. AU at one time was in the CBF budget, and numerous influential CBF
leaders have served on the AU governing board.
* Moderate leader Robert Maddox served as AU executive director from 1984-1992. Before that he worked
as a special assistant and speechwriter for President Jimmy Carter and served as White House liaison to
the religious community. In a 1991 interview, Maddox said that the act of homosexuality is neither sin nor
wrong in and of itself, but that it becomes sinful at the point where the lifestyle becomes destructive. He
said, "I have a few friends who have lived a gay lifestyle for a long, long time, in great stability - in great
productivity and creativity." Rob Boston is associate editor of Church and State, AU's news magazine. In
the same interview referenced above, Boston agreed with Maddox' perspective on homosexuality and
identified himself as a secular humanist and atheist. Boston led a 1994 CBF breakout session, where he
condemned the religious right and the "conservative takeover" of the SBC. Boston, who attends a Unitarian
church, said to his CBF audience, "In the Unitarian Church, the conservatives are the ones who believe in
God."
* The current AU executive director is Barry Lynn, an ordained United Church of Christ minister and former
legislative counsel for the Washington office of the American Civil Liberties Union. He has stated that he
finds "no fault with such a theological stance" as thanking God for the "diversity" that He created, "making
us male and female, black, white, gay, and straight." When asked about gay marriages during an interview
on America Online, Lynn responded, "Personally, I believe the State should recognize such a stable
commitment." AU leaders have worked together and held joint press conferences with leaders of The
Interfaith Alliance (TIA), one of the leading religious left organizations. AU and TIA joined together with the
BJCPA and PAW as contributing organizations in the production of the aforementioned pro-homosexuality
manual How to Win: A Practical Guide for Defeating the Radical Right in Your Community. Ken Langston,
TIA director of education, and Bill Golderer, TIA director of religious outreach, have led CBF breakout
sessions.
* The executive director of TIA is C. Welton Gaddy, who also serves as president of the Alliance of Baptists
and is a member of the CBF Coordinating Council. He has also served as Mercer University chaplain and
president of AU. TIA has endorsed the previously mentioned ENDA. Gaddy criticized the religious right's
disapproval of homosexuality, saying in a press statement, "Consider the arrogance of assuming their
interpretation of the Bible is the only accurate interpretation of the Bible, their understanding of
homosexuality is the only correct understanding of homosexuality, and their statement of faith represents
the view of all people of faith. This is arrogance with a vengeance."
Several members of the TIA board of directors advocate the legitimation of homosexuality, including the
endorsement of same-sex marriage. Also serving on the TIA board is Foy Valentine, former SBC Christian
Life Commission executive director, former AU president, and current head of the CBF-funded Center for
Christian Ethics at Baylor University. Also serving on the TIA board is David Currie, coordinator for Texas
Baptists Committed, which CBF founder Jimmy Allen once described as the functioning unit of the CBF in
Texas. Currie serves on the CBF Coordinating Council and was on the search committee that called Daniel
Vestal as the new CBF Coordinator.
* Alan Neely is the president of the Wake County, NC, chapter of TIA. Neely as the first executive director
of the Alliance of Baptists, taught as professor of missions at Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary
from 1976-1988, and served as Professor of Ecumenics and Mission at Princeton Theological Seminary.
Serving on the TIA board of directors is United Church of Christ pastor Dan Rosemergy, who said that TIA is part of the national network set up by People for the American Way (PAW). Moderate leader Grady Cothen has written that a number of Baptists were members of PAW and served on its board of directors. Carole Shields, the president of PAW, is Grady Cothen's daughter. Shields serves on the BJCPA board of directors and Cothen served as a co-chair of the BJCPA's Religious Liberty Council. James Dunn served on the PAW board of directors from 1981-1983. According to the annual report from the Playboy Foundation, it gave PAW a $40,000 grant in 1981 to begin its operation. PAW continues to receive funding from the Playboy Foundation. PAW and Penthouse International are contributing organizations in the coalition that produced the previously mentioned pro-homosexuality training manual How to Win: A Practical Guide for Defeating the Radical Right in Your Community.
PAW founder Norman Lear has received an award from the Human Rights Campaign, which is part of
the coalition that produced the aforementioned manual. Arthur Kropp, former president of PAW, was an
open homosexual who died of AIDS. PAW has been supportive of homosexual rights and political causes
since its inception and was among the supporting organizations for both the 1987 and 1993 homosexual
Marches on Washington. PAW released a statement of support on behalf of the "brave decision" by the
Manhattan Theatre Club to produce Corpus Christi, a play about a homosexual Jesus who has sex with His
apostles. The PAW Foundation has filed friend-of-the-court briefs in Hawaii and Vermont, urging the courts
to end the denial of equal marriage rights to homosexual couples.
* A PAW release reports that Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia, has approved the performance of
same-sex commitment ceremonies in its campus chapels. The Baptist Studies Program in the Candler
School of Theology at Emory University is in the CBF budget and receives institutional support. Nancy
Ammerman, a sociologist of religion at Hartford Seminary, formerly was a professor in the Candler School
of Theology. She has served on the CBF Interim Steering Committee and the CBF Coordinating Council.
Laurie Goodstein, a reporter with The New York Times, notes that the CBF is one indicator of diversity
among Southern Baptists. She quotes Ammerman saying, "You can be a member of a Southern Baptist
church that ordains women to the ministry, that is open and affirming of gay and lesbian people, that is way
left-wing peacenik."
* Oakhurst Baptist Church in Decatur, GA, is Ammerman's former church home. It is also the church home
of Walker Knight, founding editor and publisher emeritus of Baptists Today, the moderate flagship
publication funded by the CBF and the Alliance of Baptists. For many years, the Baptists Today office was
housed at Oakhurst BC. Pastor Lanny Peters states that the church has never voted on the issue of
homosexuality. In other words, Oakhurst BC technically has no official position on homosexuality.
Nevertheless, the church has ordained openly homosexual deacons, named a homosexual to the
chairmanship of its board of deacons, and in 1997 ordained a homosexual minister, a graduate of Wake
Forest University and Emory University. Also in 1997, the church updated its 24-year-old covenant
specifically to reject any discrimination because of several factors, including sexual orientation. The board
of directors for the Alliance of Baptists recently accepted an invitation to have its national convocation in
2001 hosted by Oakhurst BC.
* Nancy Hastings Sehested was associate pastor of Oakhurst BC when she assisted in the founding of the
Alliance of Baptists. She was a recent president of the Alliance of Baptists and is pastor of Sweet Fellowship
Baptist Church in Clyde, NC. She is the wife of Ken Sehested, the executive director of the Baptist Peace
Fellowship of North America, and she was instrumental in the founding of Baptist Women in Ministry
(BWIM). The 1991 annual meeting of BWIM was held at Oakhurst BC. In the Summer 1997 issue of Folio,
the news letter published by BWIM, the first article is written by Nancy Hastings Sehested. The second
essay is contributed by Sally Burgess, administrative pastor at the aforementioned Broadway BC in Kansas
City, MO. The third piece is penned by Rebecca Gurney, the current president of BWIM, who, until recently,
served as associate pastor at University BC in Austin, TX. BWIM is funded by the CBF and the Alliance of
Baptists. University BC is aligned with the CBF and the Alliance of Baptists. In February of 1998, the
executive board of the Baptist General Convention of Texas distanced itself from University BC, which had
ordained a homosexual deacon. According to its Internet website, the church welcomes, "gay, lesbian,
bisexual, straight, and transgendered people working toward unity and inclusion in our denomination
communities." The deacon and his homosexual partner are working through University BC to set up an
annual statewide revival for homosexuals in Texas. Pastor Larry Bethune said his church has never officially
endorsed homosexual relationships. In other words, University BC technically has no official position on
homosexuality.
* Stan Hastey, executive director of the Alliance of Baptists, writing in his regular column in Baptists Today,
defended University BC: "Let it be said plainly. Those who condemn unequivocally what is understood today
as homosexuality by saying the Bible condemns it are on shaky ground. It is shaky in part because, contrary
to what one infers from all the shrill condemnation of gays heard within the church, homosexuality is not a
prominent theme in the Bible." To buttress his argument, Hastey goes on to cite extensively the writings
of the aforementioned CBF leader Paul Duke. Larry Bethune also makes extensive use of Duke's material
on homosexuality on the church's Internet website.
* In March of 1998, the board of directors for the Alliance of Baptists voted to hold their 2000 national
convocation at University BC. Nancy Hastings Sehested, president of the Alliance of Baptists at the time,
said, "We have a conviction that the church of Jesus Christ is a church that keeps the doors open to all
people. University Baptist is a church that has taken the courageous stand to say, 'We are a church of the
open door,' so it is our privilege to walk with them on this part of the journey. It is a grief and sadness to us
that the larger church would take actions against University on their bearing witness to an inclusive and
loving faith." C. Welton Gaddy, executive director of The Interfaith Alliance, succeeded Sehested and is the
current president of the Alliance of Baptists. In September of 1998, the board of directors for the Alliance
of Baptists accepted an invitation to hold their 2002 national convocation at Wake Forest Baptist Church in
Winston-Salem, NC, the aforementioned church that recently voted to allow its ministers to officiate at
same-sex weddings and approved a statement asking that God bless such homosexual unions.
* Pullen Memorial Baptist Church in Raleigh, NC, was one of the hosts for the 1997 national convocation
of the Alliance of Baptists. In 1992, this same church approved and performed a marriage-like ceremony
for two homosexual men. Pastor Mahan Siler was a founder and member of the board of directors of the
Alliance of Baptists. Siler argues that there is a distinction between homosexual orientation and behavior.
This "basic sexual orientation is discovered, not chosen," he wrote. He concluded that the Bible "does not
condemn homosexuality as a sexual orientation." Siler formerly was an adjunct professor at Southeastern
Baptist Theological Seminary. Concerned with his views on homosexuality, conservative trustees on the
instruction committee denied adjunctive faculty reappointment to Siler, who was vigorously defended by the
moderate faculty. Richard Hester, moderate professor of pastoral care and psychology of religion, reflected
on the differences between conservatives and the moderate faculty: "The fundamentalists saw no historical
gap between the text in its original setting and its contemporary meaning. One example of the
consequences of ignoring the work of hermeneutical interpretation is their understanding of certain issues
of gender and sexuality. Because they do not build a hermeneutical bridge between the text in its ancient
context and its current setting, they oppose the ordination of women, they can see no problem in the views
of God shaped by a patriarchal society, and they fail to understand the difference between homosexual acts
addressed in the Bible and homosexuality as a gender orientation - a concept that was foreign to the biblical
writers.
* Furman Hewitt is director of the Baptist House of Studies at Duke Divinity School in Durham, NC. This
program is funded by the CBF, which also funds the Baptist Center for Ethics, for whom Hewitt serves as
an associate. He is a former professor of Christian ethics at Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary.
Hewitt agreed with Mahan Siler, saying, "The Bible does not speak to homosexuality as an orientation."
Hewitt does not see a clear-cut condemnation of homosexuality in the Scriptures. "I am reluctant to make
easy negative judgments on what I perceive to be silence. I think that means I am taking the Scriptures
seriously," Hewitt said. Furman, Hewitt, Nancy Hastings Sehested, and Dan Day were leaders of a
workshop entitled "The Church and Homosexuality: Introducing Dialogue" at the 1997 national convocation
of the Alliance of Baptists. Day is pastor of First BC of Raleigh, NC, which, in September of 1998, voted to
sever its relationship with the Southern Baptist Convention. The church is affiliated with the CBF, and Day
has served on the board of directors for the Alliance of Baptists.
* Cecil Sherman, the first CBF national coordinator, has also served on the board of directors for the
Alliance of Baptists. Former CBF Moderator Hardy Clemons is senior pastor of First Baptist Church of
Greenville, SC, which hosted the national convocation of the Alliance of Baptists in 1989 and 1994. Former
CBF Moderator John Hewett is a member of the Alliance of Baptists. C. Welton Gaddy, Richard Groves,
and Walter Shurden all have served on the CBF Coordinating Council and all are founders of the Alliance
of Baptists. Indeed, at one time, representatives from the CBF and the Alliance of Baptists met to discuss
the possibility of a merger. Stan Hastey has asserted that the Alliance of Baptists has provided much of the
leadership for the CBF. In 1992, John Hewett was CBF Moderator and the pastor of First Baptist Church
of Asheville, NC. Attending the national convocation of the Alliance of Baptists to bring greetings from the
CBF, Hewett told the group they have been "at the center of the [Cooperative Baptist] Fellowship from the
very beginning."
* For 15 years, Stan Hastey was on the staff of the BJCPA, serving a part of that time as associate director
under James Dunn. Hastey was also Washington bureau chief for Baptist Press before becoming executive
director of the Alliance of Baptists in 1989. Jeanette Holt served as administrative assistant with the BJCPA
for seven years before joining Hastey as associate director of the Alliance of Baptists.
* The Alliance of Baptists gave a $3,000 mission grant to Cross Creek Community Church, a new United
Church of Christ congregation which "'welcomes and invites all people' and does not discriminate on the
basis of gender, age, race or sexual orientation." Earlier this year, the Alliance of Baptists gave all six of its
mission grants to churches which advocate the legitimation of homosexuality.
* Responding to the final report of the Alliance of Baptists' Special Task Force on Human Sexuality, Hastey
writes in Baptists Today: "Some now will say we are pro-gay. And while some Alliance people will object,
I want you to know I won't be among them. My vision for the Alliance is that we are for all of God's children
- and against all the barriers that separate us... [T]hose whose sexual orientation is homosexual or bisexual
or anything else, our position is clear... Concerning the way persons of a homosexual orientation are treated
within the Alliance itself, we have made it equally clear from our inception that all are welcome. Just as
nearly every local congregation has gay worshipers and members, increasing numbers of them out of the
closet, so in the Alliance we have known of some of our gay constituency and have sought to create a
welcoming atmosphere. My strongly held view has been and will remain that this fact of Alliance life is not
something to hide or run away from but to welcome and celebrate."
* Carol Marie Cropper, a reporter with The New York Times, cites Bill Leonard, dean of the Wake Forest
University Divinity School. She writes: "Though fundamentalist Baptists accept gay members, it is with the
understanding that same-sex relations are sinful and those members must actively seek to change or remain
celibate. Full acceptance of gay members has become a kind of line in the sand for the fundamentalists,
Dean Leonard said."
[Keith Ninomiya is a freelance writer and researcher in Nashville. Reprinted from The Conservative Record,
P.O. Box 3001, Boone, NC 28607.]
Guide to abbreviations mentioned in this article
CBF Cooperative Baptist fellowship
BCE Baptist Center for Ehthics
BJCPA Baptist Joint Committee on Public affairs
BPFNA Baptist Peace Fellowship of North America
BWIM Baptist Women in Ministry
WMU Women's Missionary Union
ENDA Employment Nondiscrimination Act
AU Americans United for the Separation of church and State
PAW People for the American Way
TIA The Interfaith Alliance