Posted on 06/17/2011 10:58:08 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
PHOENIX (BP)--A coalition of homosexual leaders and their allies met for more than 30 minutes Tuesday with Southern Baptist Convention President Bryant Wright, with the leaders demanding an apology from the SBC and Wright refusing to budge, saying that Scripture is clear on the issue.
The remarkable meeting -- cordial the entire time -- took place between the morning and afternoon sessions of the SBC in Wright's annual meeting office at the Phoenix Convention Center.
The nine-person coalition included representatives of the Association of Welcoming and Affirming Baptists, Faith in America and Truth Wins Out. They protested outside the convention hall and requested to deliver petitions to Wright, who decided to turn the event into a dialogue. Several members of the media also attended.
"We're a coalition of groups asking the SBC to acknowledge and apologize for the damage that the convention has done to lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people," Jack McKinney, a heterosexual married man told Wright at the beginning of the meeting. McKinney is a spokesperson for Faith in America and a former Southern Baptist minister. McKinney and the other leaders repeatedly made parallels between racism and a stance against homosexuality. Sixteen years ago to the day, McKinney said, Southern Baptists passed a resolution apologizing for past racism.
"We feel like the convention is making the same mistake in the way it has demonized LGBT people," said McKinney, who handed Wright a packet of 10,000 signatures. "We come today to ask for an apology for that and for a pledge that those kinds of teachings would come to an end."
Wright, sitting at a roundtable with McKinney and four of the other leaders, rejected the parallels.
"Obviously, we don't feel that there can be an apology for teaching sexual purity," Wright, pastor of Johnson Ferry Baptist Church in Marietta, Ga., said. "As followers of Christ, our only authority for practicing our faith is Scripture, is the Word of God.... As followers of Christ it would be very difficult for us to betray our faith by ignoring what God says about sexual purity."
The Bible condemns both homosexual sex and heterosexual sex that is outside the bonds of marriage, Wright said.
"When I teach from the pulpit about adultery, I don't hate adulterers," Wright said. "Just as we have people attending our local church that are engaging in homosexual activity, we have people attending our church who are engaging in adultery. I don't hate those people when I speak about adultery. I am just, hopefully, loving them enough to speak the truth about what God desires for the best for that person."
Similarly, when Wright preaches about the Bible's prohibition on premarital sex, that doesn't "mean we hate teenagers," he said.
Mitchell Gold, Faith in America's founder, then spoke.
"I remember during the 1960s similar words justifying a position against integration and justifying a whole attitude toward black people. Part of what we are saying to you is, you really made a big mistake before and you apologized for it, you recognized it," Gold said.
"There's an enormous amount of harm" done to teens by the SBC's stance, Gold said, handing Wright a book written by Gold, "Crisis," that details stories of people who grew up homosexual.
Although some of the leaders said ex-gay ministries were harmful, Wright disagreed, saying "there really have been" people who have left homosexuality through the various ministries.
"The standard of Scripture for heterosexual single adults" and for homosexual single adults is "no different," Wright said. Both groups are, he said, to abstain from sex.
Wayne Besen, a leading homosexual activist and a former Human Rights Campaign spokesperson, interjected, "You're asking for people to surrender their humanity."
Wright drew the conversation back to his Christian faith.
"Jesus Christ came to die for all of our sins, whether it's heterosexual sin or whether it's homosexual sin.... For a society to come along at this stage in history and all of a sudden say that one of the ... areas that Christ has no power" over is "homosexual behavior is really elevating the importance of that behavior above the power of Christ.
"Looking at sexual purity from Scripture, we're not going to be able to come to common ground. I hope you all would respect that we're just seeking to follow Jesus."
Wright began drawing the meeting to a close with a personal plea.
"Christ loves you Wayne, He loves you Mitchell, He loves Robin [Lunn of the Association of Welcoming and Affirming Baptists], He loves me in spite of my incredible amount of sin," Wright said. "... But He does not desire for us to continue to engage in sinful behavior that He very clearly says is not good."
Stated well and with love. Good for him.
You know one thing that gets me? If you say that recognition of homosexuality today will lead to something like bestiality tomorrow they will accuse you of the “slippery slope fallacy.” Yet what are they doing when they say that opposition to homosexuality is like jim crow? Aren’t they doing the “slippery slope” in reverse?
In the 70’s, who would have thought there was any hope for the SBC.
Well Done!
RE: Aren’t they doing the “slippery slope” in reverse?
There are two assumptions they make in their arguments:
1) Homosexuality is like skin color. Therefore if it is morally wrong to discriminate against people of different color, it is also morally wrong to discriminate against Homosexuality.
2) Because skin color is immutable, gayness is immutable also.
Both of the above premises are wrong IMHO.
RE: Good job, Brother Wright.
This is the right Wright Obama should have followed instead of the wrong Wright.
God bless you Mr. Wright, you truly are a courageous man. Thank you for standing up for the Gospel!!!
What G-d says is right is right; what G-d says is wrong is wrong.
Amen! to the remarks by Mr. Wright. Thanks for posting.
Mr. Wright stood properly, and charitably, and deserves to be commended for this.
Quite accurate. A good many conservative religious leaders spoke out against equality for black people in the 60s and before. They were wrong. There is nothing in the Bible that supports such doctrine, unlike (for instance) the practice of slavery, which is supported in the Bible, primarily though not exclusively in the OT. They were speaking out of their own beliefs and culture, putting it above the word of God.
Today, the other side is doing exactly the same thing. What they want, or believe, or feel is to be placed in importance above the word of God.
The SBC, which originally became a separate organization when it split off over the issue of slavery, is exactly right in this case.
1) Homosexuality is like skin color. Therefore if it is morally wrong to discriminate against people of different color, it is also morally wrong to discriminate against Homosexuality.
2) Because skin color is immutable, gayness is immutable also.
Both of the above premises are wrong IMHO.
Even if (and it's a big "if") they could some how prove #1, they are still people I cannot take seriously because they bring in the bisexuals and "transgenders". It's one thing to insist one is "born gay"; another to say one is born with a compulsion to have sex with both genders. And trannies are just crazy freaks who should be considered insane.
This is a dispute within Christian (Baptist) congregations and as such, the SBC has a sound basis to make a judgment based on scripture, which it has. I think the slant he used, that people engaging in non-marital sex with anyone, regardless of their gender, was a bit inventive but still faithful to scripture. Homosexual behavior simply cannot be condoned by Christians who claim to live by the teachings of the Bible. Homosexual advocates that wish to believe that 'gays' are 'born that way' are mistaken. Until they can submit scientific proof that a preference for a sex partner of the same gender is a biological fact and not simply a 'feeling' (proclivity) their argument is invalid, on both a scriptural and scientific basis.
Won’t do him any good. It’s not how you say it; it’s what you say. And to a certain portion of the populace his words were mean and hateful, bigoted and exclusive, right-winged and pea-brained.
In my experience, the slope slips only to the Left
Bears repeating!!
RE: It’s one thing to insist one is “born gay”; another to say one is born with a compulsion to have sex with both genders. And trannies are just crazy freaks who should be considered insane.
_______________________________________________________________________
And if we go down this road, why can’t we include paedophilia in the mix? Why then should NAMBLA be condemned for encouraging people to be their “natural” selves?
T’anks Jim— We are in agreement. IMO these reprobates are merely doing their fathers work and trying to hasten the great falling away the Scriptures say must come first. I find No credible Science — No credible interpretation of Scripture to support any claim a response is even called for. I have read the parting gift Judge V.Walker gave the “cause out in Cal. and have written Judge James Ware asking he revisit his opinion. The capability for a homosexual to make an impartial judgement is NOT the the same as the act of doing so.And Colin Powell and Alveda King who share with Judge Ware the DNA birthright of skin color have both said
skin color cannot be compared to sexual orientation.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.