Messengers to the annual meeting of the Southern Baptist Convention in Orlando, Florida passed seven resolutions today.
On Homosexuality and the United States Military
This resolution strongly opposed the “normalizing and open presence” of gays and lesbians in the armed forces. Describing “homosexual behavior” as “a contributing cause and consequence of God’s judgment on nations and individuals,” the resolution asserted that the Defense Department “must accept input from…the Southern Baptist Convention.”
The resolution announced that “ATTEMPTING” to normalize (not the act itself but the attempt) homosexuality in the military “demonstrates a willingness to jeopardize national security.”
Not only is national security at stake, according to Southern Baptists. “Social survival” is at stake as well – all because gays and lesbians live openly as gays and lesbians while serving in the military…
The “religious moral freedom” of Southern Baptist military personnel, especially chaplains, is also jeopardized so says the SBC. SBCers warn that military recruiting will be “crippled” with the repeal of DADT. They believe that a large percentage of active military personnel will not reenlist or will end their careers early.
The resolution continues with the claim that the repeal of Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell is in no way comparable to President Truman’s decision to desegregate the militry back in the late 40s. Here is where “Sin Rights Movement” vs. God-ordained Civil Rights Movement argument comes in to play. Too bad that very very few Southern Baptist “conservatives” were supportive of that God-ordained quest for civil rights back in the 50s and 60s.
On Employment Non-Discrimination Act
For background on ENDA, read here.
A few assertions made/implied by the SBC in this resolution:
-Hate crimes laws criminalize the preaching of the Gospel
-Faith-based adoption agencies (which receive federal funding) should be exempt from non-discrimination statutes
-Support for broadly-defined “conscience clauses” in the health care profession. For example (according to SBC), a Wal-Mart pharmacist opposed to birth control on conscience grounds should not be legally obligated to fill any prescriptions for birth control pills, etc.
-For-Profit Businesses w/ 15+ employees that have a “religious character” will be unable to deny employment on the basis of sexual orientation IF ENDA is passed and signed into law, according to the resolution.
I’m pretty confident that Congress will not choose to exempt sizable for-profit businesses with a “religious character” from ENDA. The line has to be drawn somewhere.
In the RESOLVED sections, the SBC urges President Obama to appoint and Congress to confirm “only nominees to federal judicial positions who will protect foundational religious freedoms.” This is a nice sentiment. Fortunately, most do not consider the right to discriminate against persons on basis of one’s sexual orientation in the for-profit business world to be a “foundational religious freedom.”
It is EXTREMELY hard for any outsider to take seriously the SBC’s claim that “Homosexual persons are not our enemies but our neighbors whom we love” when they spend so much time and effort fighting every single gay rights initiative from opposing Hate Crimes legislation to the repeal of Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell to non-discrimination legislation aimed at BUSINESSES not churches.
Do you believe that conventions should not pass resolutions on proposed legislation which they percieve to affect their religious liberty?
Second, did the Alliance of Baptists pass a resolution prior to signing their letter in support of ENDA?
I’m certainly not opposed to religious groups passing resolutions. Not sure where you get that impression from..
However, I obviously disagree with numerous assertions made and conclusions reached about ENDA & Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell in this case.
No impression, just wondering. Some people think conventions should not pass current-event-type resolutions; however, the other ditch would be “where’s the church” syndrome.
Anyway, the policy that replaces Don’t Ask Don’t Tell will become U.S. policy (probably effecting overturn of the Defense of Marriage Act and numerous other laws), so it’s certainly a watershed.
National security endangered? No re-enlistments? Gays are serving now…and you can bet that many of their fellow soldiers know who they are. Why are these folks so afraid of gay people? I have known, worked, and played with gays all my life. Most of us have. What a piece of hogwash!
The heads of the Army, Navy, Air Force and Coast Guard each wrote Congress asking them to hold off on the Don’t Ask Don’t Tell vote until after a survey of the military about the issue, due later this year. (Will it affect re-enlistment, unit cohesion, etc). But Congress voted w/o this evidence. That’s unfortunate; as you noted, the rank and file military may actually support repeal, but it appears that after 17 years of Don’t Ask Don’t Tell — and in the middle of two wars — Congress just could not wait until December.
I don’t think Congress could wait. Even if the Dems do not lose the House, Repubs will surely make significant gains. In addition, the Democratic leadership would never have been able to get 100% support from House Dems on DADT. The only reason my Democratic Congressman here in Texas gets re-elected in this Republican district is because of his support of Veterans Affairs. I can’t imagine that he would ever vote for a repeal. Same could be said about more than a few Dems.
It seems like the House leaders realized this was perhaps a now or never moment. No time to wait until December.
Bottom line, Obama should have immediately moved on repealing DADT upon taking office. There would been more time for the study. Now the clock is ticking and the political climate has changed.
When a denomination passes a current events type resolution it becomes an embarrassment to those in the denomination who disagree with it. So, if the issue is important enough to exclude from your denomination those who disagree, by all means pass it. If it’s not, then the issue is best taken up in blogs, Sunday school class, or by para-church organizations.
[...] The resolution titled On Employment Non-Discrimination Act asserts/implies that hate crimes laws criminalize the preaching of the Gospel and faith-based adoption agencies (which receive federal funding) should be allowed to discriminate against gays. The resolution also contends that FOR-PROFIT BUSINESSES with a broadly-defined “religious character” should be allowed to discriminate in the hiring process on the basis of sexual orientation. (Read more about these resolutions here) [...]
Over the years I have found that most people do not read and study subjects for themselves any more. The subject of homosexuality is definately one of them. You will find most of our religious leaders have not either. They just blindly follow what we have been told to believe. When they do study in depth they find we have been sold a pack of lies. But they cannot say so as their loving flock will throw them out of the church and to to great lengths to make sure no other church will accept them either.
For you to learn the truth is to read “Christianity, Social Tolerance, and Homosexuality” by John Boswell. When this first came out the church leaders could not find fault with the content so they did their best to attack the author and draw attention away from the book itself. The usual Christian Political policy is promote lies and feed on peoples fear and ignorance. If you are one of those that like to point to nature to prove homosexuality is not natural then read “Biological Exuberance” by Bruce Bagemihl, Ph.D. As a Christian I am really concerned at how many people are becoming hatemongers in the name of the church. These people need to read their Bibles and find out that hatemongers will not be allowed into the kingdom of heaven on judgement day. So wise up or you are in for an extreme shock when you find out you are lost for ever. Thanks to our so called church leaders and their teaching Gay people all over the world are being beaten, jailed, tortured and murdered all in the name of CHRIST.
Even non-christians repeat religious hatemongering to justify their despicable behavior. If you still think it is ok to pass laws to discriminate, then why not just start with the 10 commandments and pass a law against each person who breaks any of them. This is America, we should not discriminate against just one type of sinner we should include them all.