So. Baptists Wrap It Up in Indy
by Allie Martin and Fred Jackson
June 17, 2004
(AgapePress) - The Southern Baptist Convention has concluded its annual conference, voting on measures dealing with same-sex unions, public education, and even a change in the name of the denomination.Southern Baptists at the gathering in the Indiana capital passed a motion supporting efforts to amend the U.S. Constitution to ban same-sex marriage. The "messengers" -- representatives from Southern Baptist congregations nationwide -- had heard President Bush and their own denominational leaders earlier in the week urge for passage of a Federal Marriage Amendment defining marriage as the union of a man and a woman.
In addition, the SBC rejected a plan to ask parents to pull their children out of public schools in favor of Christian or home schooling. The resolution's co-author said "Godless" public schools "are enabling Satan to destroy our children." But the convention substituted a broader warning against a "cultural drift" toward secularism in schools.
One of the country's best-known evangelists praised that decision. "Let's don't surrender public schools. Let's take them back," Franklin Graham said during Wednesday night's closing session. "And how are we going to take them back? Are we going to fight for it? No, we're going to have witnesses -- every class, a young kid who can stand up and share his faith in Jesus Christ."
Graham said to help make that happen, his ministry is launching a website aimed at training children to share the gospel with their classmates.
And finally, the messengers rejected a motion to undertake a study looking at the possibility of changing the denomination's name. The motion to form a committee to study a possible name change failed by a margin of 55 percent to 45 percent.
The debate on the floor was lively concerning that motion. One messenger from Highland, California, spoke in favor of the study to see if "God could raise up a better name" that would identify all Southern Baptists across the country. That messenger's argument was countered by another messenger from Cape Girardeau, Missouri, who stated "Southern Baptist is who we are, not where we are."
The proposal to change the denomination's name was crafted earlier this year by outgoing SBC president Dr. Jack Graham, who said a name change was needed to strengthen the denomination's witness in America and around the world.
