COVINA, Calif. — In what may be the beginnings of a national split over homosexuality, leaders in a regional group of the American Baptist Churches USA (ABCUSA) voted to begin leaving the denomination.
Directors of the American Baptist Churches of the Pacific Southwest (ABCPSW) have initiated the process of disassociating from the Pennsylvania-based denomination by the end of the year. Although the vote was taken Sept. 8, the news was not made public until Sept. 13, when a pastor in the region posted Internet versions of the letters he received announcing the news. In a Sept. 12 letter to the region’s pastors and churches, Dale Salico, the region’s executive minister, said the Pacific Southwest board “has determined that the time has come to create distance between the ABCPSW and the ABCUSA so that both may move ahead in the mission God has given them without continued conflict.”
American Baptist officials, contacted for comment Sept. 13, said they were still in the process of preparing a formal response. It was not ready by press time for this story.
Tensions over the issue of homosexuality have come to a head in recent months in the ABCUSA, which counts 1.5 million members in 5,836 churches. Although the group adopted a resolution opposing homosexual conduct in 1992, many conservatives in the denomination have complained ABCUSA leaders have done little to “enforce” it on the denomination’s agencies or congregations.
In addition, the governing board of the ABCUSA Ministers’ Council rebuffed an anti-homosexuality measure Aug. 22. It would have required council members in good standing to be ministers who believe sexual intimacy is only appropriate in the context of heterosexual marriage.
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