Posted on 06/15/2006 12:56:52 PM PDT by Kahonek
GREENSBORO, N.C. (BP)--Messengers to the 2006 Southern Baptist Convention adopted resolutions on such currently controversial topics as immigration and the environment June 14, but the debate time was dominated by an issue addressed repeatedly in the convention’s 161-year history -- alcohol.
A lengthy debate on a recommendation concerning the use of alcoholic beverages consumed the Resolution Committee’s report in the morning session. In a departure from recent years, the committee needed the evening session to complete its report.
When the back-and-forth on alcohol finally ended, the messengers passed with about a four-fifths majority a resolution not only opposing the manufacture and consumption of alcohol but urging the exclusion of Southern Baptists who drink from election to the convention’s boards, committees and entities. Like other resolutions, it is not binding on SBC churches and entities.
The resolution’s supporters contended the action was needed because some Christians believe they may drink based on a wrong interpretation of the believer’s “freedom in Christ.” They said abstaining from alcohol preserves a Christian’s purity and testimony, while drinking can be a “stumbling block” for others and has destructive results.
Opponents argued that the resolution promoted a position based on Southern Baptist tradition instead of Scripture, which describes the use of wine in the Old and New Testaments. Concern also was expressed that a resolution excluding those who drink alcohol could be the start of a list of sins that would disqualify people from serving in the convention.
The passage of the resolution marked the first time the SBC had approved an alcohol-related recommendation since 1991, according to the records of the convention’s Executive Committee. The 15-year gap is the longest between approved resolutions on alcohol since the convention adopted its first such recorded measure on the topic in 1886. In all, the SBC has approved 57 resolutions related to alcohol since that year.
T.C. French, chairman of the Resolutions Committee, acknowledged afterward that the panel was a “little surprised” the alcohol measure dominated debate, considering some of the other issues addressed in the 15 resolutions.
“We felt like since we had not presented [a resolution] on alcohol in a number of years, we felt like we needed to get that done,” French told reporters.
The committee offered the resolution without recommending any restriction in SBC life for those who consume alcohol. Jim Richards, executive director of the Southern Baptists of Texas Convention and a messenger from First Baptist Church of Fort Worth, Texas, introduced on the floor an amendment calling for abstinence among those serving in the SBC, and the Resolutions Committee endorsed his recommendation.
The amendment, which also passed with about four-fifths of messengers in favor, said: “Resolved, that we urge that no one be elected to serve as a trustee or a member of any entity or committee of the Southern Baptist Convention that is a user of alcoholic beverages.”
“While there may be liberty, we cannot violate [the admonition in 1 Corinthians 8 that] says our liberty can become a stumbling block. … [T]he use of alcohol as a beverage can and does impede our testimony for the Lord Jesus Christ,” Richards said in support of his amendment. “[O]ur leaders should take the high road in our walk with the Lord Jesus.”
Voicing opposition to the amendment, Tom Ascol, pastor of Grace Baptist Church in Cape Coral, Fla., and executive director of Founders Ministries, a Southern Baptist organization that advocates reformed theology, referred to an New Testament account of Jesus at a wedding as his rationale.
“Christ turned water into wine,” Ascol said.
Speaking against the resolution, Benjamin Cole, pastor of Parkview Baptist Church in Arlington, Texas, said he does not advocate the drinking of alcohol but he feared the convention was in danger of “misstepping” if it adopted “a position that is contrary to what the Bible teaches in the flexibility of the scriptural admonitions as they relate to the consumption of alcoholic beverages.”
Cole’s father died at the age of 39 from a liver disease brought on by alcoholism.
“My father did not die because he drank alcohol; my father died because he drank alcohol in excess,” said Cole, who said as a 13-year-old he cared for his father during the last six months of his life.
In defense of the resolution, committee member Dwayne Mercer, pastor of First Baptist Church in Oviedo, Fla., said while he appreciates “the fact that people become alcoholics because they drink too much alcohol, my parents always taught me, ‘If you don’t take the first drink, you don’t have to worry about taking the last.’”
In opposing the resolution, Jeff Young, pastor of Corinth Baptist Church in Ravenna, Texas, said the older members of the SBC had won the battle to proclaim the Bible is “authoritative and sufficient, but when we pass extra-biblical resolutions such as this, we pull the rug out from underneath that teaching.”
My baptist church is overwhelmingly of the position that scripture forbids all alcohol. I actually quietly boycott a regular summer speakers' series because of repeated invitations to a speaker that insists on arguing that scripture makes abstention obligatory. I have no problem with people listening to the Holy Spirit and choosing to abstain because they do not want to handle the potential problems of alcohol, but I cannot honestly interpret the texts to advise anything other than avoiding drunkenness.
I most appreciate Charles Spurgeon's position on the related issue of tobacco use: the non-addicted (i.e., non-idolatrous) smoking of cigars "to the glory of God" is not a sin. http://www.spurgeon.org/misc/cigars.htm
The sin lies in replacing God's primacy with that of some other habit, such as smoking, drinking, whoring, gambling, eating, and making non-scriptural rules against disfavored subjects.
"Granted, alot of that is stereotype, but that's how it was when I was growing up, and I think it's still like that today."
True enough, but they did so based on private moral grounds or pressures from their local churches. Today it's starting to be handed down from the Convention level as extra-Biblical direction, in order to distinguish those who are "real" Christians (having passed denominational muster) from those who only think they are Christians. That's my concern.
Alas, every denomination, Baptist, Roman Catholic, Anglican, whatever, has their theologal flaws.
Until Christ comes back, all churches will fall short.
I got the courage to witness to a friend with a good glass of Scotch (McAllen 25).
"I got the courage to witness to a friend with a good glass of Scotch."
Praise the Lord and bring us another round.
Some times I thin SB get so caught yo in the alcohol issue. I was raised in strong SB family, but honestly they need to get over this issue. Lot's of people drink wine and it does not make them alcoholics!
Well said. See the scripture quoted above in confirmation.
God in his goodness
sent the grape
To cheer both great and small
Little fools sometimes drink too much
and great fools not at all
Actually, I think a lot of Baptist could stand to have a glass of wine or two....... my parents included!
Why won't Baptist couples make love standing up?
Someone might see them and think they are dancing.
[The joke is actually told about Church of Christ (Southern version) who actually teach dancing is a sin. Some Baptists may go that far as well (and include movies, playing cards, pinball, etc.) regarding prohibited "sins", but most Baptists these days stick with considering drinking and smoking (and all the usual violations of the Ten Commandments) as sins.]
And if you take two they just stare at each other.
When I first read this I thought it was about drinking DURING the committee's meeting.
I guess I've been reading too many reports of the Episcopal Church's Convention now going on in Columbus. Of course, one needs a few drinks to even read about the Episcopal Convention, let alone attend it.
Oh and how about the use of the word "consumed" in the above-quoted sentence?
Someone might think they are dancing. /rimshot
See, I don't just pick on the Roman Catholic Church.
It's pretty funny that even Jesus Christ would be excluded from serving on the boards, committees and entities of southern baptist convention....
Jesus's first miracle was turning water into wine.
I agree. In one breath they're saying you can't drink (dance, etc.), and in the next breath it's "the free will of man" and "I'm not under law, but under grace". So which is it?
"It's pretty funny that even Jesus Christ would be excluded from serving on the boards, committees and entities of southern baptist convention...."
Hmmm. I guess I hadn't thought about it that way...
In (slight) defense, free will does not include free will to sin.
The flaw with the SBC, however, is that they espouse that having a drink is forbidden scripturally, which is bunk.
A true position from the SBC (which I would respect), is that temperance is a traditional value of the SBC and the safest route to avoid temptation and a weakening of the will.
But to pretend that the rule is anything more than a tradition of man is to add to the Bible, which is expressly forbidden in the last 3-4 sentences of Revelations.
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