More big news out of this week’s SBC Executive Committee meeting. The EC is recommending changes to article 3 of the SBC Constitution, which would add racism or indifference to sexual abuse to the list of circumstances which would call for a church to be deemed out of cooperation with the convention, and therefore no longer a part of the SBC. You can see the language below from the photo in Phillip Bethancourt’s tweet.
This change will need to be approved by the messengers of the SBC to become official.
Major news: The SBC Executive Committee unanimously approved the following amended language to be added to Article 3 of the SBC Constitution to specifically address abuse and racism as grounds for disfellowshipping a church from the SBC. pic.twitter.com/gLSFtHNzsI
— Phillip Bethancourt (@pbethancourt) February 19, 2019
This part of Article III currently reads as follows (with the new sections proposed being numbers 4 & 5):
1. The Convention will only deem a church to be in friendly cooperation with the Convention, and sympathetic with its purposes and work (i.e., a “cooperating” church as that term is used in the Convention’s governing documents) which:
- Has a faith and practice which closely identifies with the Convention’s adopted statement of faith. (By way of example, churches which act to affirm, approve, or endorse homosexual behavior would be deemed not to be in cooperation with the Convention.)
- Has formally approved its intention to cooperate with the Southern Baptist Convention. (By way of example, the regular filing of the annual report requested by the Convention would be one indication of such cooperation.)
- Has made undesignated, financial contribution(s) through the Cooperative Program, and/or through the Convention’s Executive Committee for Convention causes, and/or to any Convention entity during the fiscal year preceding.
