NC Baptists ban gays and friends of gays

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http://www.wbir.com/news/national/story.aspx?storyid=39636

The Baptist State Convention of North Carolina voted today to bar from membership any congregations that affirm or approve of homosexuality.Advertisement



The move enacts one of the most rigid anti-gay policies among the nation's Christian churches.

The vote changes the convention's long-standing laws, which previously only had one simple requirement for membership: support the convention with both cooperation and financial contributions.

Now any churches that "knowingly act to affirm, approve, endorse, promote, support or bless homosexual behavior" can't belong to the group. A convention spokesman says 17 churches that belong to a group that welcomes gays as equal members will come under immediate scrutiny.

end of quote

Honestly for some of you to wonder why gays get so angry at religion this is one reason why. Notice that war mongers, murderers, adulterers all welcome, but not gays and their friends. I grew up Baptist. It is hard for us to take that. We, alone among sinners, aren't allowed in the doors. We, alone among sinners, can't have friends in their doors. That is a little hard to take.

[hobbit709]

1. That's OK

I don't want to associate with any hateful group of bigots. I don't miss being around people that think like that at all.

[dsc]

3. The targetted churchs have pretty much left anyway

this is just the final straw.

[Sequoia]

13. Elton John says, "No concerts for you!"

[gollygee]

2. They want gays to be shunned?

that's their goal? That is disgusting and evil.

:(

[Solly Mack]

4. I don't have to be tolerant of hate or any belief used to justify the hate

and fuck anyone that thinks I should

[KoKo]

5. There are other churches. They are going to lose congregation over this

and their hard line stand on gays. It's only a matter of time.

[porphyrian]

6. Fuck them.

How long before they have their women on leashes, for fuck's sake? Why does this appeal to anyone with a brain?

[readmoreoften]

8. Are we sure that the people that this appeals to actually do have brains?

At minimum, they used a little too much bleach when they were washing these particular brains.

[porphyrian]

14. "Igor, would you mind telling me whose brain I did put in?"

"And you won't be angry?"

"I won't be angry."

"Abby someone."

"Abby someone. Abby who?"

"Abby Normal."

[ninkasi]

7. This is reprehensible, especially coming from a church

The attitude would be vile coming from any group, but coming from a church, a group which claims to follow Jesus and worship God, it is shameful. As you point out, murderers, adulterers, war mongers, and pretty much anybody else will be accepted. If that attitude is indicative of the kind of people the Baptists of North Carolina are, then they have much more in common with the most hateful groups ever formed, including the Nazis.

"Judge not"...maybe the good pastors can help me out with a quote I seem to remember, something about not judging, lest ye be judged also. Oh, and that thing about whoever was perfect casting the first stone? I need help there, too. I'm sure such a righteous, Jesus following, God worshiping congregations such as the ones who think excluding anybody for being the way they were born to be is a perfectly loving, Christian thing to do.

[TechBear_Seattle]

9. Isn't the Baptist State Convention part of the Southern Baptist Association?

That was the church that broke with it's northern bretheren over the issue of slavery. Northern Baptists were largely abolitionist, holding that God commanded that we treat all persons with dignity and respect. Southern Baptists were largely beneficiaries of the slave system; they held that blacks were inherently inferior and were "marked" with dark skin by God as a shout out that these people were good for nothing more than short, brutal lives as beasts of burden.

How sad to see that some Baptists haven't come all that far.

[dsc]

11. I am not totally sure

Some churches are both American and Southern Baptists. I am not sure what this convention is but it is very large since it is the second largest Baptist convention.

[Beaverhausen]

10. That's so very "christ-like"

Not

[Lex]

12. The Baptists and their homophobia remind me of

the Baptists and their pro-slavery stances. You know, that they got from the Bible. :eyes:

Embarassing for them. Once again.

I predict in another 100 years, or however long, they'll have to hang their heads for being backwards socially once again.

Baptists at the 1998 Convention should go back and read the pro-slavery sermons, tracts and treatises of the founders of their denomination. Their Biblical expositions of Negro inferiority were based on Noah's curse of slavery upon Canaan, son of Ham, who was presumed to be the ancestor of the Black race; and also based on the patriarchal and Mosaic acceptance of slavery, and, also based on the New Testament commands of Peter and Paul regarding slave-master relationships. Rev. Furman stated, "For though they are slaves, they are also men; and are with ourselves accountable creatures; having immortal souls, and being destined to future eternal reward." The Southern Baptist view was that slaves were better off under the loving, tender, compassionate care of Christian slaveowners, and the institution of slavery was to be "a blessing both to master and slave." In fact it would little rewording of the 1998 “Family Amendment” to make it fit the 1845 Southern Baptist view toward slaves: “A slave/wife is to submit themselves graciously to the servant leadership of their master/husband even as the church willingly submits to the headship of Christ. Slaves/females, being in the image of God as is their master/husband and thus equal to them , has the God-given responsibility to respect their master/husband and to serve as their helper in picking cotton/managing the household and nurturing the next generation .”

One hundred and fifty-five years later, after a Civil War that left six hundred thousand dead and one million wounded, we recognize that our Southern Baptist forefathers and foremothers were on the wrong side of history and Biblical interpretation…But if the slave subordination and submission passages are no longer binding upon the church, then why are the female subordination and submission passages?

http://www.edwardtbabinski.us/religion/southern_baptist_history.html

[brentspeak]

21. On the issue of slavery, you need to differentiate between the SBC and other Baptist churches

Many of the Baptist churches that the SBC churches split from were home to a lot of prominent abolitionalists.

[Lex]

23. The article I posted

says Southern Baptists.

[brentspeak]

29. I know, but your post title said "Baptists"

[Orsino]

15. That's not quite the same as banning gays.

They're just banning uppity ones, or congregations that fail to keep 'em in their place.

Fuck 'em. Or, rather, don't fuck 'em.

[Sugar Smack]

16. You know, there are OTHER churches in NC that marry gays.

Binkley, for example.

[dsc]

17. I didn't know they married gays

They are one of the targetted churches. I have been to Binkley and Pullen which is also on the list assumedly.

[Ioo]

18. Yah! Reason Number 20.234.562 to never go to North Carolina

[Lex]

19. Yeah, we all suck here.

:eyes:

[brentspeak]

27. Same reaction, here.

I'm from NJ, but the amount of ignorance directed at the red states by some DUers is pathetic. I picture the red-state-bashers as, say, some guy sitting in a Starbucks, wearing spandex bicycle pants, one of those carrying sacs around their waist, peering down their nose as "the rednecks".

The red-state-bashers on the gay issue should try to explain to the rest of us why many BLUE states have rejected gay marriage (Oregon, for example.)

[mnhtnbb]

28. Hey, it's not all Baptists in NC. You'd love Chapel Hill--Berkeley of the south!

[karlrschneider]

33. You might want to avoid Oklahoma too. We are all mouth-breathing,

knuckledragging inbred idiots here as well.

:eyes:

[acmavm]

20. If I were you I wouldn't worry what these mean-spirited bigoted

assholes say. Nothing that they preach is spoken in the words or the spirit of Jesus anyway.

And they forget, judge not lest ye be judged.

And finally, wouldn't they be out begging you to come to church if they were sincere about saving souls?

Pffffffffft!

[David Zephyr]

22. This will only hurt the Baptists in the end. Look at the Disney "boycott"

Christians who grew up in the Baptist and Pentecostal faiths are leaving in droves for more tolerant and loving congregations.

This is their loss.

Jesus instructed his disciples to wipe the dust off of their feet when they were not welcomed anywhere.

I suggest that, in this case, following the words of Jesus, seem most wise.

Wipe the dust off of your feet.

[dsc]

31. The Pentacostals are leaving in droves

trying to find tolerant churches with their style of worship.

[demgurl]

24. They can ban me all they want.

I would not want to be a member of any organization that openly discriminates like that. WWJDA - who would Jesus discriminate against?

[sandnsea]

25. I don't go to church

I hate church. I hate to sing, I can read the Bible or any other inspirational writings whenever I want, I don't need the condescending judgment, I sure don't need ministers who make a bigger deal out of saying 'fuck' then cheating your neighor out of their last dollar - I don't get why anybody bothers with church.

[LeftCoast]

26. These people are messed up

Half of them are high on their own smug morality, the other half stew in their own self-hate for some imagined sin.

[crim son]

30. I've never wondered why the gay community isn't overly

religious. I have wondered why anybody would set foot in a church where, should anybody suspect that their sexual preference deviates from the "norm", they would most certainly be unwelcome. Some people don't like themselves very much, I guess.

[tinfoil tiaras]

32. I don't consider churches that ban gays really "christian"

Think about it: if Jesus was on earth today, would he ostracize homosexuals or would he love them like he loved everyone else. Remember, Jesus did spend time with the ostracized people of Biblical society (i.e. lepers, tax collectors, etc).