SBC: Resolutions

by   T. C. Pinckney                                                                                                                                  Vol. XXI, No. 6, June/July 2008

Resolutions provide a means for Southern Baptists to speak out on a variety of issues, some pertaining to SBC matters, some dealing with other concerns. Resolutions express the views of the messengers at an annual meeting but are not binding on churches or the entities of the SBC.

In Indianapolis messengers approved nine resolutions reported to them by the Resolutions Committee. Six resolutions were approved in the Wednesday morning session, of those five were approved virtually unanimously. They:

– expressed thanksgiving for the growing ethnic diversity in the SBC and urged "balanced representation" of ethnic groups on the convention's trustee boards and entity staffs.

– called for Southern Baptists and other Christians to participate in the political and public policy process, while avoiding the politicization of congregations.

– urged Southern Baptists and other Christians to "resist the march of secularism" and seek to influence businesses and other institutions to return Christmas to "its proper place in the culture."

– celebrated the 60th anniversary of the state of Israel and encouraged prayers on its behalf.

– offered thanks for the work of Southern Baptists in Indiana and others who assisted with this year's meeting.

One morning resolution was debated at length and amended. It urged the maintenance of a "regenerative membership" and the restoration of "wayward members" by churches. Messengers approved two amendments that added to the content of the amendment. The amended version approved by messengers addressed the disparity between the SBC's annual report, which shows more than 16 million members in convention-affiliated churches, and the average Sunday morning worship attendance of about 6 million. The resolution called for repentance for failure to practice church discipline and urged churches to keep their membership rolls accurate, to proclaim the "necessity of spiritual regeneration and Christ's lordship for all members", and to seek to restore absent members

During the evening session three amendments were approved. One recognizes the 100th anniversary of Royal Ambassadors, the convention's missions training program for boys.

A second evening resolution addressed Planned Parenthood and called for Congress to eliminate funding for that nationwide organization which each year receives more than $336 million in government grants and contracts. Clinics affiliated with Planned Parenthood performed nearly 290,000 abortions in 2006. Decrying the "immoral actions" of the organization's clinics, the statement urges President Bush to veto spending bills that include funds for Planned Parenthood.

Though the resolution on Planned Parenthood passed without hesitation, an extended debate on an eventually unsuccessful amendment occurred on the resolution about "gay marriage" in California.

Ron Wilson of First Baptist Church in Thousand Oaks, CA, sought adoption of an amendment that would have encouraged "all Christians in California to remove their children from the public schools, which are the main training ground for the teaching of same-sex marriage." After messengers debated its merits, the amendment failed by a margin that was estimated by some observers as about four to one. (Note: In previous years similar school motions have failed by much more overwhelming margins.)

The failed amendment essentially would have accomplished the goal of a proposed resolution – not reported out by the committee – that dealt with recent events which legally cemented the indoctrination of California's students into "sexual deviancy." The rejected resolution was an extension of recent advocacy by some Southern Baptists for a Christian "exit strategy" from the public schools.

The resolution on the California referendum came in the wake of a May decision by that state's Supreme Court that will permit homosexuals to "marry." Californians have collected enough signatures to place on the November ballot a referendum that will combat the ruling by defining marriage as only between a man and a woman.

The resolution urges Southern Baptists in California to work and vote for the referendum and called for all Southern Baptists and other Christians to pray for its passage. It encouraged California pastors to "speak strongly, prophetically, and redemptively" about homosexuality and the protection of biblical marriage. It also repeated calls for adoption of a federal constitutional amendment to define marriage as only the union of a man and a woman.

The Resolutions Committee opposed the amendment. At a news conference following the final resolutions report, Darrell Orman, chairman of the Resolutions Committee, said the panel wanted to stay focused on the same-sex "marriage" issue in opposing Wilson's amendment. [Above summarized from Baptist Press releases.]

Editorial Comment: I commend the Committee on the resolutions they reported to the floor. They are theologically sound and well timed. Southern Baptists certainly should oppose homosexual marriage and government funding of Planned Parenthood. However, another resolution was submitted by Voddie Baucham and Bruce Shortt which the committee did not report to the messengers.

That resolution noted the passage of the new California law which mandates teaching that homosexuality is a valid lifestyle to government-school children from kindergarten through12th grade! Should Southern Baptists not also fight against such anti-Christian perversion?

Government schools were first established in the United States in Massachusetts in the 1830s at the instigation of a group whose specific (though not public) purpose was to remove children from the influence of the churches and their parents at the earliest possible age. (See: Samuel L. Blumenfeld, Is Public Education Necessary?, The Paradigm Company, Boise, Idaho, 1985, pp. 95-96.) Their advocates have been remarkably clever, persistent, and successful.

I ask, what is the moral difference between Hebrew parents in ancient Israel offering the lives of their children on altars to Baal and Baptist parents today placing their children in schools which deny the truth of Genesis, which approve and foster homosexuality (there are at least 62 gay, lesbian, transgender clubs in government high-schools in Virginia), which celebrate winter holiday rather than Christmas, which are rife with teacher-student sex, and which – under the new law in California – may not even use the words Mom and Dad?

There are many alternatives available today. Find the one that suits your situation best. Churches, help the parents. The Bible never speaks of the government teaching our children, only parents.

Pastors, find your backbone. Stand up for God’s Word. Of course people will criticize you. So what? God will be pleased. Which is really most important to you? TCP