Updated Friday, Nov 30, 2007

State meetings oppose blogging, alcohol

From wire reports

Baptists across the nation dealt with issues ranging from blogging to alcohol at recent state convention meetings.

Georgia Baptists approved a controversial resolution against blogging during their annual meeting Nov. 12-13.

The resolution said blogs are used by "certain people ... for divisive and destructive rhetoric at the expense of peace among the brethren."

A group of younger blogger-pastors have risen to prominence in Southern Baptist Convention affairs in the past two years, with many calling for reform in the denomination's structure. But the Georgia resolution said blogging has become a tool for personal attacks on Christians and promotes a negative view of the SBC.

Several bloggers condemned the resolution. Roger Ferrell, pastor of the SBC and GBC-affiliated Woodland Creek Church in suburban Atlanta, said most Baptist blogging does not center on personal differences but focuses on philosophical disagreements.

Besides, Ferrell added, all Baptists have the right to disagree respectfully with the actions of their institutions and to suggest better ways of doing things, he said in a column on www.sbcimpact.net.

Some bloggers also took issue with the Florida Baptist Convention's move to require alcohol abstinence from members of its boards and committees.

The new measure was easily approved by messengers at the annual meeting Nov. 12-13 in Daytona Beach. It requires all trustee nominees to "abstain from drinking alcoholic beverages and using any other recreational drugs."

Popular Southern Baptist blogger Jerry Grace of Clinton, Miss., called the decision "foolish." The position that many Southern Baptists take against any alcohol consumption doesn't come from Scripture, he said. Instead, it is a product of the women's temperance movement of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, which resulted in Prohibition.

"I am not too pleased with our alcohol position, not because I am a champion for serving beer at Wednesday-night dinner ... but rather because of the convoluted way in which we reached this much-beloved stance," Grace, who attends First Baptist Church in Clinton, wrote on the blog SBCOuthouse.blogspot.com. "Our position on alcohol is one of recent historic origin, not scriptural.

"There are destructive behaviors quite acceptable and far more deadly than alcohol, which we not only ignore but quite willingly permit. When someone dies young from a heart attack because they are obese, the family he leaves behind to struggle for themselves is just as abandoned and struggling as that of the drunk who was killed in a car wreck."

Several state conventions addressed relationships to their entities, including Tennessee where a settlement was announced with Belmont University that provides $11 million to a convention endowment over 40 years in light of the school's charter change to a self-perpetuating board.

Discussion of the Baptist Faith and Message (BF&M) arose in several states. In California messengers declined to require churches to adhere to the "most recent" BF&M. In Tennessee the BF&M was affirmed for the second year and is referenced when questioning prospective trustees and committee members.

A Southern Baptists of Texas Convention resolution affirmed the BF&M as an "instrument of doctrinal accountability" for all Southern Baptist entities to employ as the minimal theological standard, while also noting the appropriateness of entities adopting and enforcing "additional theological standards" as part of the unique responsibility of trustee boards as they operate in "conscientious accountability" to govern the entities in their charge.

Four major state conventions passed resolutions denouncing homosexuality: the Baptist General Convention of Oklahoma, the Alabama Baptist State Convention, the South Carolina Baptist Convention and the Louisiana Baptist Convention.

The Oklahoma, Alabama and South Carolina groups specifically denounced the expansion of federal hate-crimes statutes to add crimes motivated by a victim's actual or perceived sexual orientation. The laws already provide additional punishments for crimes motivated by a victim's race, national origin or religion.

Baptists in six meetings addressed issues related to protecting children from victimization. Messengers to state convention meetings in Alabama, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Louisiana and Ohio offered a variety of ideas for preventing child victimization.

In most cases churches were encouraged to perform background checks on employees and volunteers who work with children, and LifeWay Christian Resources materials to prevent the possibility of child abuse were cited. The Southern Baptists of Texas Convention, meanwhile, recommended the Texas-based Child Guard Systems during a session of their annual meeting. Alabama Baptists were encouraged to access their state convention's guidelines for churches to use when dealing with sexual misconduct.

On liquor, several state conventions passed resolutions discouraging expanding the sale of beverage alcohol. Messengers to the Missouri Baptist Convention annual meeting, meanwhile, overruled their own resolutions committee's decision not to bring a statement to the floor that unequivocally denounced the production, sale and consumption of alcoholic beverages. They voted to bring the resolution up for discussion and a vote, and it spurred lengthy debate.

Micah Fries, the pastor of Frederick Boulevard Baptist Church in St. Joseph, Mo., spoke against the resolution.

"I absolutely detest alcohol use, and I personally abstain," he said, according to the Pathway, the convention's official news organ. "And yet the wording of the resolution specifically encourages that we move beyond the words of Scripture in our expectations of our leadership."

But the convention's interim executive director, in his address to messengers, said Missouri Baptists should look to the spirit of the Bible rather than its letter in opposing all alcohol consumption.

Two state conventions noted their participation in the New Baptist Covenant meeting in Atlanta, with Baptist General Association of Virginia messengers encouraging participation by leaders while urging the meeting planners to "honor its promise and pledge for a nonpartisan gathering."

At the Baptist General Convention of Texas annual meeting, Executive Director Charles Wade described the New Baptist Covenant as a coalition of "the great and diverse Baptists bodies" that make up the North American Baptist Fellowship. He predicted they will "live up the great vision of our Lord," calling it "the Jesus Agenda" to "preach good news to the poor, to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to release the oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor."