By Marv Knox
Southern Baptists punctuated key themes of their annual gathering with statements affirming “Kingdom families” and condemning homosexual unions.
Those topics highlighted a slate of eight resolutions approved by messengers to the Southern Baptist Convention (SBC) annual meeting June 18 in Phoenix.
Messengers also condemned abortion, declared the recent war in Iraq “just,” affirmed religious liberty, denounced anti-Semitism, called for a response to the global AIDS crisis and thanked the local hosts.
They zipped through the resolutions, pausing only briefly to defeat two amendments made by Wiley Drake, a perennial fixture at SBC microphones, known for offering a spate of motions and resolutions.
The convention’s Kingdom family emphasis telegraphed the SBC’s first resolution, “On Kingdom Families.” It cited divorce, attempts to redefine the family, infidelity and abandonment as factors undermining the “biblical model of the family.”
Through the resolution, messengers agreed to “renew our commitment to build Kingdom families by the recovery of the biblical understanding of family and the acknowledgement of the permanence and responsibilities of the marriage covenant.”
The resolution also urged parents to “assume their responsibility as the primary protectors and instructors of their children” and called on churches to strengthen families and marriages and minister to single-parent families.
The “same-sex marriage” resolution cited recent advances made by advocates of homosexual rights. These initiatives will result in more homosexual couples demanding their “marriages” be recognized in other states, the resolution predicted.
“Legal and biblical marriage can only occur between one man and one woman,” messengers affirmed. They went on record opposing “all efforts by any court or state legislature to validate or legalize same-sex marriage or other equivalent unions.”
The resolution also called on churches to “guard our religious liberty to recognize and perform marriages as defined by Scripture.”
The other resolutions:
- Condemned abortion.
- Affirmed the recent war that resulted in the “liberation of Iraq.”
- Declared “absolute religious liberty” to be a basic human right that should be affirmed globally.
- Denounced “all forms of anti-Semitism as contrary to the teachings of our Messiah and an assault on the revelation of Holy Scripture.”
- Supported humanitarian efforts to combat the AIDS crisis around the globe and urged prayer for and ministry to AIDS victims.
- Thanked all the people whom God used “to bring about a convention characterized by grace, evangelism, worship, encouragement, unity and purpose.”
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