| CONCORD, N.C. (ABP) -- A Concord church that was removed from its
association in April has been quietly taken off the rolls of the Baptist
State Convention of North Carolina as well.
McGill Baptist Church was voted out of the Cabarrus Baptist
Association for allegedly baptizing two gay men. Jim Royston, executive
director-treasurer of the state convention, said he and convention
officers decided after hearing about the association's move that McGill
should be removed from the convention's membership as well. Convention
policy makes the church ineligible, he said.
In 1992, the convention's General Board changed its financial policy
to exclude "any church which knowingly takes, or has taken, any official
action which manifests public approval, promotion or blessing of
homosexuality." Such churches, the General Board said, are not
"cooperating churches" -- the terminology for membership.
"Technically, it wasn't because they were removed from the
association," Royston said. "It was the issue that brought it about. The
issue, as far as I could tell, that impacted us was the public action of
a church being removed from an association related to the homosexual
issue."
Steve Ayers, pastor of McGill Baptist, said the church has not made
homosexuality an issue. "We're just talking about accepting members," he
said. "I hope this doesn't mean that all gay members of churches would
be purged from churches affiliated with the Baptist State Convention of
North Carolina."
Ayers said he thinks the convention is "treading on very shaky
ground" if it's going to decide who can be members of cooperating
churches. "If someone thinks there [are] not gay people in churches,
somebody needs to look around," he said.
Ayers said the church has not asked the men if they are gay, but he
doesn't doubt that they are. The men first came to the church because
they were invited, he said. Ayers said he wonders if churches now must
have a list of questions to ask people before the church agrees to
baptize them.
"When someone says they've accepted Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior
of their life, do you believe them or not?" he said. "That's what it
comes down to."
Ayers said he believes that only God is capable to judge. "I could
not stand before God and tell him that I kept anyone out of his church,"
he said. "That's what this comes down to."
Ayers questioned why the convention's decision would be related to
the association's action. "That's not Baptist polity," he said. "We've
become very hierarchical."
Ayers said he found out that the church was no longer in the
convention when he discovered the church was not on the church locator
program on the convention's Web site.
"It was just a shock that came out of the blue," he said. "No one
from the state convention has ever asked us our interpretation on this."
Ayers wrote an e-mail to the convention's webmaster. He received a
reply from Royston saying the convention would no longer receive
contributions from the church, making it ineligible to be a cooperating
member of the convention.
Royston said in an interview that the convention should have notified
the church earlier. He said he planned to apologize to Ayers. "I just
regret that happened," he said. "That's not fair."
Royston said he expected the issue to come up during the convention's
Executive Committee and General Board meetings in May, but it didn't. He
informed the convention's business office that the convention would not
be accepting any more contributions from McGill and asked them to let
him know if the church sent any money.
The church sent the convention a check for more than $4,400, which
Ayers said the convention cashed in early September. Royston said the
convention had mistakenly cashed the check. The convention is sending a
check for the same amount back to the church, he said.
The convention's anti-gay policy was first used in 1992 to remove
Pullen Memorial Baptist Church in Raleigh and Binkley Memorial Baptist
Church in Chapel Hill. Pullen voted to bless the union of two homosexual
males. Binkley in Chapel Hill voted to license a gay man to the
ministry.
In 1999, the policy was used to remove Wake Forest Baptist Church in
Winston-Salem. The church held a same-sex union for two lesbian members
in September 2000. | 