Female pastors on the rise in progressive Baptist bodies

The number of female pastors in Baptist churches has grown by a third in the past five years, according to a recent report covered in the Associated Baptist Press.

Baptist Women in Ministry found that women’s involvement in ordained ministry is slowly growing among organizations like the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship and the Baptist General Convention of Texas. The Southern Baptist Convention’s position is that Scripture forbids women from serving as pastors.

National Council of Churches logo represents the church as ecumenical ship, serving the world

2000 NCC News Archives

Statement Of NCC General Secretary Regarding Return Of Elian Gonzalez To His Father

The National Council of Churches of Christ in the USA sent a mission to Cuba at the invitation of the Cuba Council of Churches to discover ways to return Elian Gonzalez to his father and family in Cuba. On the trip, representing the NCC, are The Rev. Dr. Joan Brown Campbell, who retired as General Secretary on Dec. 31, 1999, and The Rev. Oscar Bolioli, Director of the Latin America and Caribbean Office. Ms. Carol Fouke, News Director for the NCC, is the media officer for the trip which began on Sunday, January 2, 2000. The mission was undertaken with the full knowledge of the U.S. Government.

January 4, 2000, Havana,Cuba

Rev. Dr. Joan Brown Campbell, former General Secretary of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the USA, representing the NCC in an effort to reunite Elian Gonzalez with his father in Cuba.

We believe Elian Gonzalez should immediately be reunited with his father in Cuba. The value of that kind of family life is vitally important to his well-being, as is being raised in a loving family, is crucial for any child.

We visited for some time with the family in Cardenas and any child would be lucky to have a family that is this loving and caring. There is a full set of grandparents, a great grandmother, uncles and aunts. Elian’s father lives in a very modest, but very immaculately and well taken care of, home with Elian’s own room and his toys there waiting for him.

Our visit was very emotional. The father and the rest of the family are very sad. There is some anger since they don’t understand why no one will tell them when their son, this little six year-old boy, will be returned. They feel very strongly that everyone should know that this is where they believe the boy should be. They are distressed about rumors that the father is happy that the boy is in Miami. This isn’t true. They want Elian to be at home with them. They are a very strong Cuban family and they want to bring him back into the fold of his close family.

We saw his school and his schoolmates look very, very tiny. They reminded us of how little a boy he is. The students talked about how he had missed his lessons and that he was going to be behind in his math, just like kids always do. They were especially concerned that he had missed his tetanus shot and his class was very concerned about how he was going to catch up with his work.

Juan Miguel Gonzalez expressed real concern that as Elian starts school in Miami, he will have to learn in English and that is not the father’s wish. As he said, “I should be in charge of my child’s education, where he goes to school, and what kind of schooling he receives.”

The fact is this is such a strong family values argument for the well-being of the boy. This is a very connected and sharing family. They live very close to each other and are a part of each other’s lives.

Particularly poignant for me was when I met the mother of Elian’s mother. She lost her daughter at sea and now she says, “Elian is all I have left.” None of them knew that the mother was leaving with Elian. They were all shocked and surprised that she left. And there’s a bit more to this story than first appears to be there. The mother had fallen in love with a man whose business was taking people from Cuba to the United States. And they had packed a boat designed for six with fourteen people. So I think there is a lot more to the story than has first been reported.

The mother’s mother wants him back with his father. And for me, that tells you everything. When the mother of the mother wants her former son-in-law to raise this child, that tells you a lot about both the family relationships and the respect for this young man as a father. The great grandmother was very teary and during our visit the family kept asking her if she was tired. And she said, “No, not for Elian.”

There’s nothing programmed about this. This is just a simple family coming together in a time of trouble. You can feel that. It’s hard to communicate it because it sounds too rote. But it’s very real. I couldn’t see any governmental influence in what was said. In fact, it would be impossible to get such a diverse and large group to speak and act in such a natural and touching way.

I would feel very good about advocating that Elian Gonzalez come back to his father and family in Cuba. I have no qualms about that.

(The NCC mission to Cuba participants are meeting on Tuesday with Vicki Huddleston, Principal Officer U.S. Interests Section in Havana, with Ricardo Alarcon, President of the Popular Assembly, and with religious leaders in Cuba. They return to the U.S. on Wednesday, January 5.)

-end-

Contact: NCC News

NC Council of Churches installs homosexual leader
By
gcmwatch
– January 11, 2011Posted in: African American, black church, denominations, diapraxy, gay churches, gay clerics, GCMW Exclusive, Headline, homosexuality, Unity Fellowships
NC Council of Churches installs homosexual leader

Apostasy and collusion with apostates continue to dismantle the already morally bankrupt American church system. The North Carolina Council of Churches, an aggregation of various denominations which advocate mostly liberal social causes, has elected a homosexual cleric as the leader of the organization according to news reports.

Among the members of the NCCC is are three historic and predominately African American denominations, the African Methodist Episcopal Church (AME), the Christian Methodist Episcopal Church (CME), and the African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church (AMEZ).

The national headquarters of the National Council of Churches has been attempting for years to admit MCC, a Los Angeles based homosexual christian denomination but has been unsuccessful. Instead, they have incorporated clerics of the MCC which have had a devastating effect of the organization’s biblical views.

The council selected 55-year-old Stan Kimer(left), a lay leader in the Metropolitan Community Churches — a denomination that ministers to homosexual men and women.

The council’s executive director, the Rev. George Reed, says this is the first time a southern state church council has been led by an openly homosexual person.

The state branch of the Southern Baptist Convention does not belong to the North Carolina Council of churches, but North Carolina’s Roman Catholic dioceses are members. The council promotes left-leaning legislative goals on policies including immigration, guns, and the death penalty. Kimer, a retired IBM sales executive, says he wants young people more involved in inter-church activism.

A Christian renewal group says by electing an open homosexual to be its leader, an alliance of North Carolina churches has undermined its own purpose.

The North Carolina Council of Churches has chosen an open homosexual as its president-elect. He is 55-year-old Stan Kimer, a lay leader in the Metropolitan Community Church, which consists largely of homosexuals and lesbians.

According to its website, the purpose of the ecumenical organization is to promote “Christian unity.” But the vote in favor of Kimer, says Alan Wisdom of the Washington, DC-based Institute on Religion & Democracy, accomplishes just the opposite.

“All major branches of the Christian church — the Roman Catholics, the Eastern Orthodox, the evangelicals, the African-Americans, the historic Protestant denominations for the most part — agree that God’s standard of sexual morality is the marriage of man and woman and that homosexual relationships are not in accord with Christian teaching,” he explains.

Yet the Metropolitan Community Church with which Kimer is affiliated affirms homosexuality.

According to Wisdom, the Council has often pushed agendas not held in common by Christians. “It has pushed liberal positions on issues like immigration and the death penalty where there is not consensus among Christians,” he says, “but this is a further step in that same direction.”

GCM Watch contacted officials with the AME, CME and AMEZ denominations but none have responded as of publication. The story will be updated if that information becomes available.

Statements made by members of the council’s executive board suggest that denominational officials were not aware of the vote and may not have even participated in the vote installing Kimer man.

“A lot of our member denominations have internal battles about this,” said the Rev. George Reed, the council’s executive director. “But the governing board felt the fact that he is a gay man was not a disqualifying factor.”

The Rev. Steve Hickle, a Methodist pastor who sits on the governing board, said Kimer’s election was possible because the council does not require theological agreement. Members work together on social issues where they can find common ground.

“The point of interreligious conversation is to continue to find common ground and understanding,” Hickle said. “We want to work together on social justice whenever we can.”

The group’s governing board does not list any members of the three African American denominations. African Americans are only “members at large”.

Hickle and Reed are referring to a diaprax (false unity). tactics liberal denominations are using with greater frequency to draw in those whose biblical beliefs are against homosexuality. Membership is not based on moral beliefs just “social justice” issues. The Raleigh Observer said the coven “signals an acceptance among member denominations – Episcopalians, Lutherans, Methodists, Presbyterians and Roman Catholics – that even if they have theological differences about homosexuality, they are OK with a gay man at the helm. Or at least, they don’t see it as an issue worth fighting.”

Ecumenical unity and the false church

No sooner than the NCCC elected the homosexual cleric as its leader, it moved to accept into its membership the North Carolina branch of the Unity Fellowship Movement.

“In her letter seeking membership on behalf of her judicatory, Bishop Tonyia M. Rawls wrote, “We would consider it an honor to join in your efforts to ‘enable denominations, congregations, and people of faith to individually and collectively impact our state on issues such as economic justice and development, human well-being, equality, compassion and peace, following the example and mission of Jesus Christ’.”

We’ve reported on this bizarre group here, here and here.

The scriptures do not lie. The goal of the apostate church is to gain influence and power. Once they are in the seats of influence they will open doors for every other demon and foul spirit who applies.

The bible uses Babylon to symbolize the false church. It is growing now and will in time come to dominant religion in the world with its false prophet. But it will fall and be violently destroyed. That’s why the Spirit of God is calling the saints to come out while you can still hear his voice.

And he called out with a mighty voice, “Fallen, fallen is Babylon the great! She has become a dwelling place for demons, a haunt for every unclean spirit, a haunt for every unclean bird, a haunt for every unclean and detestable beast. Rev 18:2 ESV

We urge God’s people to come from among them and separate yourself. Light cannot have fellowship with darkness and the spirit of God will not sanctify that which God has condemned.

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