DALLAS (ABP) -- A Dallas church has changed its website to identify itself as inclusive of varied sexual orientations -- a move that potentially could put the congregation at odds with the Baptist General Convention of Texas, which previously has excluded another church over its embrace of openly gay leaders.

A March 6 article in the Dallas Morning News characterized the move by Royal Lane Baptist Church as the congregation coming “out of the closet” regarding its quietly welcoming stance toward gays and lesbians -- including allowing them to fill church leadership positions such as deacons.

“In effect, this is a collective coming out about who we are and have been for a long time,” Ruth May, vice chair of deacons, told the newspaper, which identified her as a lesbian.

Pastor David Matthews noted he was scheduled to meet with BGCT Executive Director Randel Everett and BGCT president David Lowrie on March 11, and he was reluctant to comment publicly prior to that meeting.

Matthews did confirm the accuracy of the Dallas Morning News report March 9, and he noted the website revision was approved by the church’s deacons Feb. 14.

“Royal Lane Baptist Church is an inclusive, multi-generational congregation joined in Christian community. We are a vibrant mosaic of varied racial identities, ethnicities, sexual orientations and denominational backgrounds,” the church’s website states.

The website also identifies the church as “an ecumenical Baptist congregation affiliated with the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship and the Baptist General Convention of Texas.”

Royal Lane has been hesitant to use the term “welcoming and affirming” to describe its stance toward gays -- a term other gay-friendly churches have used in the past -- because “that term means such different things to different people,” Matthews added.

Members of Royal Lane have not voted to change the church’s mission statement,  bylaws or membership criteria, he emphasized. The website description is “simply a statement about who we are,” he said.

“We hope to maintain our connection to the BGCT and other Baptist groups with whom we relate, and we welcome conversations toward that end,” Matthews said.

BGCT officials declined to speculate how the state convention would respond to Royal Lane until after the face-to-face meeting. However, similar action by University Baptist Church in Austin in the 1990s prompted BGCT Executive Board action to exclude the church.

But this time, the Executive Board itself includes a director from the church in question -- Doug Washington, a member of Royal Lane. Members of the church also have served on the BGCT Executive Board staff at the Baptist Building.

In 1995, University Baptist Church ordained an openly gay deacon -- a move that caused the Austin Baptist Association to cut ties with the church. And in response to a motion introduced at the BGCT annual meeting that fall, the Texas state convention created a committee to study whether it should amend its constitution to disallow affiliation with churches that allow non-celibate homosexuals to serve as deacons or pastors.

The 1996 Messenger Seating Study Committee declined to recommend any constitutional change. However, the committee’s report -- subsequently affirmed by convention messengers -- stated: “The Bible teaches that the ideal for sexual behavior is the marital union between husband and wife and that all other sexual relations -- whether premarital, extramarital or homosexual -- are contrary to God’s purposes and thus sinful.”

A year later, the issue resurfaced when convention leaders became aware University Baptist Church posted on its website its affiliation with the BGCT, along with statements noting the church had ordained a gay deacon and made its facility available to a gay group.

That led the BGCT Administrative Committee to recommend -- and the Executive Board to approve -- a motion that the BGCT refuse any financial contributions from University Baptist Church and ask the church to stop identifying itself publicly as a BGCT-affiliated congregation.

University Baptist Church declined to contest its relationship with the BGCT by sending messengers to the annual meeting and risking a vote by fellow messengers to refuse to seat them. Subsequently, the church chose to discontinue its relationship with the BGCT.

Last year, Broadway Baptist Church in Fort Worth also declined to send messengers to the BGCT annual meeting after questions were raised about the church’s position on homosexuality.

In June 2009, the Southern Baptist Convention severed its relationship with Broadway over the church’s perceived toleration of gay members, even though a letter sent by a church representative to the SBC Executive Committee’s general counsel stated: “Broadway never has taken any church action to affirm, approve or endorse homosexual behavior.”

Prior to the 2009 BGCT annual meeting, in anticipation of a challenge from the convention floor regarding Broadway’s messengers, some Texas Baptist pastors proposed a compromise -- allowing messengers from the church to be seated but referring the matter of Broadway’s position on sexual ethics to the BGCT Executive Board for study.

At the time Broadway Baptist chose not to send messengers to the annual meeting, Pastor Brent Beasley said, “To not go stops a vote, doesn’t force us into this compromise, and gives us the time and freedom to decide where we go from here with the BGCT.”

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This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it   is managing editor of the Texas Baptist Standard.

Related ABP stories:

Broadway Baptist decides not to send messengers to BGCT meeting (11/15/2009)

SBC messengers sever ties with Texas church over gay members (6/23/2009)

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