RALEIGH, N.C. — A Rocky Mount pastor has filed a formal complaint with the North Carolina Attorney General charging the Baptist State Convention of North Carolina with violating its constitution by expelling North Rocky Mount Baptist Church over the issue of homosexuality.
In a filing dated Feb. 9, Gene Scarborough, pastor of the church, asked the state Attorney General’s office to render an opinion as to whether the convention acted in violation of its constitution by calling on a subsidiary financial policy to exclude McGill Baptist Church in Concord from its membership.
Jim Royston, executive director of the North Carolina convention, ordered the church removed from convention rolls in the spring of 2003 after the Cabarrus Baptist Association withdrew fellowship from the church, which came under fire for baptizing two men believed to be gay.
Steve Ayers, pastor of McGill Baptist Church, said at the time he does not customarily ask new believers to specify their sexual orientation before baptizing them and insisted that the decision was a local-church issue.
In 1992, the general board adopted a policy refusing to accept financial contributions “from any church which knowingly takes, or has taken, any official action which manifests public approval, promotion or blessing of homosexuality.” (TAB)
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