Baptized Gays - And Their Church- Face Expulsion

(Raleigh, North Carolina) A Concord, North Carolina Baptist church faces expulsion for baptizing two gay men.

In a letter to the church, the Baptist Association of Cabarrus county, part of the Southern Baptist Convention, one of the largest faiths in the US, the Rev. Steve Ayers of McGill Baptist was told the " Association must take a stand against any of our churches supporting or condoning this lifestyle. To allow individuals into the membership of a local church without evidence or testimony of true repentance (a turning away from the old way of living) is to condone the old lifestyle."

Ayers has been summoned to a meeting with Association leaders this week.

The Rev. Randy Wadford, missions director for the association of 78 churches, said baptism is only for those who agree to repent of their sins, whatever the particular sin might be. "It's understood that when a person comes to know Jesus Christ as their personal savior," Wadford said, "a conversion experience occurs, and repentance takes place in the life of a person."

Ayers says many in the congregation knew the couple was gay when the baptism took place at the service March 16. He said the ceremony marking a believer's acceptance into the church -- and into a life devoted to Christ -- was held because it's not up to him or the church to decide who deserves salvation.

"I think salvation is between them and God," Ayers said Thursday. "I'm not going to exclude anybody from God's kingdom. Our business is to love and follow his (Jesus') example. That's all."

In keeping with the Southern Baptist tradition of local church autonomy, preparation for baptism (typically by immersion) varies among its 42,700 churches. Convention Vice President William Merrell of Nashville said some pastors will baptize as soon a person make a profession of faith. Others will get to know a person first or invite them to a class to learn about the faith.

Merrell said churches have an obligation to feel confident that a person has repented of whatever they've done wrong before welcoming them into the church through baptism. "An unrepentant adulterer or homosexual or whatever is not ready for church membership," he said.

At McGill Baptist, Ayers said the two men feel badly about the trouble they've brought to the church. He said the men -- one in his 40s, the other in his 60s -- do not want to talk publicly about it.

However else they might differ from the 16.2 million other Southern Baptists, Ayers said, the men joined the church for the same reason many people do: "They said they found a place where they were accepted and where they could grow in Christ."

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