Baptist gay marriage
I’m getting married soon. It’s been a long time coming. We have chosen to be married using the Marriage Rites of the Baptist Union of Australia.
My not-so-Catholic-anymore fiancé and I met twenty years ago, studying history at university. For almost two decades, our separate lives unfolded in uncannily similar ways. We found faith. We studied theology. We got married (to other people). We each cobbled together a living — one in hospitality, the other in retail — while we struggled in the precarious academic underclass. We got divorced. We each continued to write and speak about history, literature, religion, and theology. Now we both work in theological education. I am all but ordained as a Baptist minister. Our history degrees have establish us up for life, in more ways than one.
We didn’t choose the Baptist Marriage Rites because either of us holds any “traditional” view of marriage — which, after all, is a modern legal concept. In fact, we’re getting married when we don’t even agree on what marriage is. For him, marriage is a sacrament; for me, it’s an ordinance. It’s theological h
Stances of Faiths on LGBTQ+ Issues: National Baptist Convention USA Inc.
BACKGROUND
The largest group of African American Christians in the United States, the National Baptist Convention is founded on the belief that the Bible is, “a perfect treasure of celestial instruction; that it has God for its storyteller, salvation for its cease, and truth without any mixture of error for its matter.”
As with other Baptist conventions, individual parishes—representing million individuals—are entirely autonomous but meet basic criteria for membership as dictated by the Church constitution. Each parish can opt how fully to participate but will lose voting power if they lose to join in cross-church missions, which focus on outreach and education. The Convention does not apply administrative or doctrinal leadership, and there are no mandatory rules on attendance or funding.
The National Convention, which convenes annually, is led by the Board of Directors and its President, who is elected every five years. The Board of Directors consists of the Vice Presidents of six Regions, and Presidents
Stances of Faiths on LGBTQ+ Issues: American Baptist Churches USA
BACKGROUND
The American Baptist Churches USA (ABCUSA) is the fifth-largest Christian denomination in the Combined States, with approximately million members and 5, congregations worldwide. Although ABCUSA shares many traditions, views and values with other Baptists, ABCUSA is a different entity from its relatives, the American Baptist Association (ABA), the Southern Baptist Convention (SBC), the Alliance of Baptists, and the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship.
Following more moderate ideals than the ABA and SBC, ABCUSA is considered one of the most inclusive and radical Protestant bodies. At its core, ABCUSA believes in and advocates for autonomy in religious organization and function, religious release through expression and cultural/ethnic inclusion within the church. Of its more traditional values, the denomination believes that the Bible is the divinely authoritative manual for serving God, that believers in Christ need to participate in the Lord’s Supper and full-immersion or believer’s baptism and that all memb
WHEREAS, Marriage is a covenant relationship and an institution established by God rather than simply a human social construct (Genesis ; Matthew –6; Ephesians –33); and
WHEREAS, Southern Baptists hold consistently affirmed our sustain of the biblical definition of marriage as the exclusive union of one man and one woman; and
WHEREAS, The Scriptures indicate that all sexual behavior outside of marriage is sinful; and
WHEREAS, All people, regardless of race or sexual orientation, are created in the image of God and thus are due respect and love (Genesis –27); and
WHEREAS, The Department of Justice has argued (Perry v. Schwarzenegger) that the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) is unconstitutional claiming that DOMA unfairly discriminates against homosexuals; and
WHEREAS, For the first time in history the President of the United States has publicly voiced his personal back of “same-sex marriage”; and
WHEREAS, While homosexuality does not present the distinguishing features of classes entitled to special protections, like the classes of race and gender, we acknowledge the uniqu