GREENSBORO, N.C. — The Baptist State Convention of North Carolina (BSCNC) strengthened its membership criteria Nov. 14 to specify that only churches that do not support homosexuality and do not allow homosexuals to be members until they repent can be members.
The original article stated, "A cooperating church shall be one that financially supports any program, institution, or agency of the Convention, and which is in friendly cooperation with the Convention and sympathetic with its purposes and work."
The addition to the article states, "Among churches not in friendly cooperation with the Convention are churches which knowingly act to affirm, approve, endorse, promote, support or bless homosexual behavior. The Board of Directors shall apply this provision. A church has a right to appeal any adverse action taken by the Board of Directors."
Under the new policy, which adds "teeth" to the existing policy according to convention President Stan Welch, the BSCNC will not act like a "church watchdog." Instead two people would have to make a complaint, using their own names, to the BSCNC against a church they are familiar with that ordains gay clergy, for example, or makes public statements supporting homosexuality or accepts gays as members, said Welch, pastor of Blackwelder Park Baptist Church, Kannapolis, N.C.
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