SHREVEPORT, La. — Louisiana Baptists’ 2024 Committee on Resolutions reported at the convention’s 2024 annual meeting that it had declined to recommend a resolution it had received, “The Abolition of Self-Managed Abortion in Louisiana,” from Brian Gunter, a messenger and pastor with First Baptist Church, Livingston.

During a time of discussion about the resolutions report, Gunter asked messengers to vote to pull his proposed resolution out of committee, leading to a floor debate. Gunter shared that this is the third year he had come before the messengers, asking them to adopt a statement on the matter.

“I’m going to bring this matter to your attention year after year, because some in our state convention of churches have repeatedly opposed our efforts to unify our churches in calling for the abolition of all abortion in our state,” he said. “So, the question for us today is this — should every human life be equally protected by law in the state of Louisiana? My answer is a resounding yes, and yet some have stood against me in the fight for life.

“Maybe someone would like to come before this microphone and explain why he believes that children in the womb should not have the same right to life as you and me,” he continued. “Please come explain why you believe that self-managed abortion must remain legal for women in Louisiana. Please explain why you believe that a child’s life should not be fully protected until after that child is born.

“Oh, and don’t forget, we aren’t a convention of politicians,” he said. “We are a convention of churches. [If] you want to convince us that self-managed abortion should remain legal for women in the state of Louisiana, then you’ll have to make your case from the Bible. But you can’t do that, and we all know it. The Bible is extremely clear — ‘you shall not murder.’ There are no exceptions. Murdering anyone should be illegal for everyone, and frankly it’s shameful that it has taken us three years to make such a statement.”

Speaking against the motion, Committee on Resolutions Chairman Fieldon Thigpen, pastor of Memorial Baptist Church in Bogalusa, shared that the committee decided not to bring Gunter’s resolution out of committee after the group had researched the abortion abolitionist movement (Abolitionists Rising) with which Gunter has aligned. (That movement and others like it call for criminal prosecution of women who obtain abortions.)

Thigpen noted that Louisiana Baptists have a long track record of defending the sanctity of human life, promoting efforts to preserve the lives of the unborn and offering support for expectant mothers. He mentioned six pro-life resolutions that messengers have adopted in just the last 10 years on issues such as Planned Parenthood, abortifacients, the overturn of Roe v. Wade and others.

“In contrast, the LBC has voted down proposed abolitionist resolutions,” he said. “As the Resolutions Committee, we are not the voice of the Convention. We seek to provide words for the voice of the Convention … words of which we believe you will be resolved about. In light of these facts, we are confident that Louisiana Baptists are resolved on the sanctity of human life and desiring to see all babies in our state live, but do not believe Louisiana Baptists are unitedly resolved with the abolitionist movement about the methods by which we hope to accomplish this.”

Joel Williams, pastor with First Baptist Church, St. Francisville, spoke in favor of Gunter’s motion.

Williams identified himself as “generationally, a Louisiana Baptist” with both his father and great-grandfather serving as pastors, and his father also leading the “Louisiana Baptist Children’s Home for years until he retired.”

“I’ve been a pastor at First Baptist for 12 years, and as far as I know, in my life, in my family’s life, we have always been pro-life,” he said.

“For me, the issue is really simple: Life begins at conception,” he said. “All life created in the image of God deserves equal protection under the law. The intentional taking of life is murder. Babies in their mothers’ wombs deserve equal protection as much as babies in their mothers’ arms.”

Williams said Gunter’s public statements at the Southern Baptist Convention and the Louisiana Baptist Convention had convinced him that despite the victory claimed by pro-life forces in the overturning of Roe v. Wade, “it is easier to get an abortion in Louisiana than ever before” because of access to mail-order abortion pills.

He said that some Baptist leaders say “they long for a day when abortion becomes unimaginable. It’s already an unimaginable horror to us as Christians. But it will never be unimaginable to the lost, sinful human heart. I’ll settle for illegal.”

Williams added that for him that meant “equal protection for human life in the womb” and justice for “whoever is responsible” for an abortion.

“If we as Louisiana Baptists don’t make a stand on God’s Word against self-managed abortion in Louisiana, what are we doing?” he asked.

“If we’re not willing to call for equal protection of babies in the womb, who will? Please vote yes for this resolution today to simply say that self- managed abortion should be illegal. Period. That is absolutely biblical. It is not at all complicated.”

Tommy Middleton, associational mission strategist for the Baptist Association of Greater Baton Rouge, spoke against the motion.

“I believe that all of us in this body, 100%, are opposed to abortion and desire for it to end. But how do we achieve this practically, spiritually and legally? That is where we differ,” he said.

“Our differences on this should not be considered a basis of fellowship, because that’s based on Christology and Soteriology,” he added.

“I believe that this will be perceived as a punitive measure toward women who have had an abortion at whatever age, from teenager to adult, and the Louisiana Baptist Convention will lose our voice of compassion and mercy in our current culture. We cannot shut the door to those who make bad choices, wrong choices … that is the very nature of ministry to the lost.

“Will this not necessitate that we as pastors and staff members to police our own flocks, and if we discover that there may be those who have had abortions, do we turn them in, call for their prosecution, imprisonment or even worse?” he asked. “Who will trust a pastor if he is perceived as an arm of the state or even an extension of it?

“Our pro-life clinics will no longer be considered as safe places of confidentiality and hope. That being said, if this resolution were to be somehow codified in the civil law, it may in reality be antithetical to our mission as the church and counterintuitive to our calling and convictions as followers of Jesus Christ. This resolution does not unify us in a way that advances the compassion of the gospel or enables us to do ministry more effectively in a broken world.”

After the discussion, the motion to adopt Gunter’s resolution did not receive the required two-thirds majority needed to pass.

(EDITOR’S NOTE — Reported by the staff of the Baptist Message, news journal of the Louisiana Baptist Convention.)