Perhaps we should ban Christian immigration. At least until we can "figure out what's going on."
It just so happens that this week, the Southern Baptist Convention (SBC) is holding its Annual Meeting in St. Louis, Missouri. As a congregationalist denomination, the annual meeting consists of thousands of “messengers” from the Convention’s autonomous churches who gather to discuss the future of the SBC. On Tuesday, their first order of business was to respond to the Orlando shooting.
The proposed resolution, Resolution 1, refers to the “tragic deaths of at least fifty” and calls upon messengers to pray, extend love and compassion to those devastated by the tragedy, donate blood, and “regard those affected by this tragedy as fellow image-bearers of God and our neighbors.”
The short resolution is noticeably missing any reference to the fact that the victims were gay. That could be because no church can participate in the Convention if it does not have a faith and practice that “closely identifies with the Convention’s adopted statement of faith,” which condemns homosexuality. In fact, the SBC Constitution specifically cites that belief as an example: “Churches which act to affirm, approve, or endorse homosexual behavior would be deemed not to be in cooperation with the Convention.”
It could also be because they didn't want to say anything that contradicted Resolution 3, "On Biblical Sexuality and the Freedom of Conscience," passed shortly thereafter. It reiterates many of the Convention's anti-LGBT positions, including overturning marriage equality, enabling religion-based discrimination against LGBT people, and opposing inclusion and respect for transgender people.
Here is how Resolution 3 does, in fact, discuss LGBT people:
The Supreme Court's Obergefell decision in 2015 purporting to redefine marriage does violence to the Constitution and is contrary to the Bible and natural order.
The Obama Administration's recent "guidance" requiring transgender access in public school bathrooms and locker rooms based on its unauthorized redefinition of "sex" in federal law rejects God's design of male and female.
Business owners and employees of various faiths are increasingly faced with decisions to submit to unjust laws about marriage and sexuality or violate their consciences.
Experience and recent history have shown that when the government redefines marriage as anything other than between a man and a woman, the police power of the state is brought to bear to enforce that redefinition, resulting in an inevitable collision with religious freedom and conscience rights.
That we reiterate our love for our neighbors who identify as transgender, seek their good always, welcome them to our churches, and, as they repent and believe in Christ, receive them into our church membership.
That's how the largest Protestant denomination in the United States responded to the country's largest mass shooting in modern history. They doubled down on intolerance against the very group who was targeted for violence, and made clear that only those who "repent" of their identities would be welcome in the fellowship of their churches.
http://thinkprogress.org/lgbt/2016/06/15/3788969/southern-baptist-orlando-shooting/
