American Baptists approved a clarifying statement about the group’s stance on sexuality in November during the group’s General Board (meeting) of the American Baptist Churches USA in Green Lake, Wis.
Divided over the issue of homosexuality, American Baptists have captured media attention as the nation has watched to see how the denomination is handling the disagreement.
Southern Baptists used the claim that some American Baptists were not opposed to homosexuality as a reason to pull finding for Baptist World Alliance (BWA). American Baptists are part of BWA.
But during the recent meeting, the American Baptist board voted to change a “We Are American Baptists” document, adding language about sexuality, the denomination announced.
The added phrase reads: “who submit to the teaching of Scripture that God’s design for sexual intimacy places it within the context of marriage between one man and one woman, and acknowledge that the practice of homosexuality is incompatible with biblical teaching.”
The addition was the subject of a close vote after it was recommended by the denomination’s Indiana Kentucky region. Fifty-nine people voted in favor of it, 45 opposed it and five abstained.
Larry Mason, executive minister of the Indiana-Kentucky region, said of the passage: “We don’t see it as a victory so much as a statement by our constituency that the Bible is our authority.”
Some members have been disturbed by recent practices in the denomination, claiming that the denomination had not enforced a 1992 resolution that states “the practice of homosexuality is incompatible with Christian teaching.”
American Baptist Churches of the Pacific Southwest were among those and began the process of withdrawing from the 1.5 million-member denomination in September.
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