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 Say President's Support for Gay Rights Anti-Religious Disciplinary Action Recommended by Church Leaders |
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By Jack Nichols
Atlanta, Georgia—Southern Baptist church leaders meeting here for the 142nd
Session of the Southern Baptist Convention, are furious about the pro-gay rights stance of
one of their own members, the President of the United States.
Last Friday's Presidential Proclamation heralding Gay and Lesbian Pride Month, found the anti-gay Baptist zealots smearing President Clinton, who is also a Southern Baptist, as a traitor to his faith's tenets. "When a member of a Southern Baptist church has taken the position he has taken, an outright contradiction to the word of God, that church should act to bring about church discipline," said Dr. Paige Patterson, president of the convention. There is no national hierarchy governing America's 15.7 million Southern Baptists inasmuch as each Baptist church is considered independent. Dr. Patterson, who has no papal-type powers, called upon the Immanuel Baptist Church in Little Rock, Arkansas where Clinton is a member to take action against the President, nevertheless.
A resolution condemning the president's Gay and Lesbian Pride Proclamation will be introduced by The Rev. Wiley Drake of the First Southern Baptist Church in Buena Park, California. The wording, reportedly, will insist "that any proclamation which acts to affirm, approve or endorse homosexual behavior is contrary to God's law. And, be it further resolved that we discourage all Americans from observing this month in any way, other than to pray for the repentance and salvation of those caught up in this sinful lifestyle." Rev. Drake, a leader in the Baptist boycott of Disney World because it unofficially hosts "Gay Days" in June each year, is now calling for a boycott of Orlando, Florida where next year's Southern Baptist Convention is scheduled to meet. The Executive Committee of the Convention opposes this resolution, however, because it could show that Southern Baptists do not keep their contractual obligations. It is late in the game, they say, to find another host city. An Orlando-area Baptist minister, The Rev. Virgil Lovett of Trinity Baptist Church in Apopka, called Rev. Drake's efforts to call off the Orlando meeting "ridiculous" and "crazy." "If a city turns into Sodom and Gomorrah, are you going to go anyway?" Rev. Drake countered. |
