Southern Baptist Convention Ejects Church for Lenient Gay Views

The Southern Baptist Convention on Tuesday ejected a Texas church because of its lenient views on homosexuality, reports the Fort-Worth Star Telegram.

Convention members voted almost unanimously during their annual convention to end their 127-year relationship with the Broadway Baptist Church, a 2,000-member organization in Fort Worth. The SBC executive committee said the church was in violation of Article III, a rule pertaining to “churches which act to affirm, approve or endorse homosexual behavior.”

Tension between the executive committee and the church erupted last year when the church considered whether to publish photographs of same-sex couples in its directory. The idea was rejected, but the committee probed the church further, and learned to its disapproval that at least two openly gay people served on church committees.

Stephen Wilson, an SBC executive committee member and vice president for academic affairs at Mid-Continent University, told the Baptist Press that the problem with the church was that it tolerated the gay members without trying to help them change.

"If churches are ministering to homosexuals, they are doing nothing more than what our own convention's task force has asked us to do," Wilson said. "But in Broadway's case ... the church was in effect saying that it was ok to have members who are open homosexuals."