Southern Baptists poised to sever remaining ties with D.C. Baptist Convention

Jim
Fundamentalism & Evangelicalism
SBC

The Southern Baptist Convention will cut ties with the District of Columbia Baptist Convention unless D.C. Baptist leaders confront a member church with lesbian co-pastors, the SBC Executive Committee warned during Feb. 19-20 meetings in Nashville, Tenn. The move would end the D.C. convention’s more than a century of dual affiliation with Southern Baptists and the American Baptist Churches USA, intended as a unity message that turf on the nation’s capital belongs to all Americans. The symbolism expanded to a triple alignment in 1997, when the D.C. convention voted to align with the predominantly black Progressive National Baptist Convention, and later to quadruple when D.C. Baptists joined the Baptist World Alliance. According to Baptist Press, the Southern Baptist leadership group approved a substitute motion giving the District of Columbia Baptist Convention 90 days to secure removal of churches “that have demonstrated a faith or practice affirming, approving or endorsing homosexual behavior.”

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