LOUISVILLE, Ky.—Southern Baptists both commended President Barack Obama
and expressed opposition to some of his policies in a resolution passed
June 24 at their annual meeting in Louisville.
A resolution commending Obama for his “evident love for his family” and
expressing “pride in our continuing progress toward racial
reconciliation signaled by the election of Barack Hussein Obama” as
president was one of five resolutions approved by 8,731 messengers.
The resolutions committee, chaired by Southeastern Baptist Theological
Seminary President Danny Akin, considered 26 resolutions during three
days of deliberations prior to the annual meeting.
Other resolutions called on Southern Baptists to consider adopting some
of the 150 million orphans who “now languish without families” around
the world; affirmed biblical positions on marriage and sexual purity;
commended Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville on its
150th anniversary; and expressed appreciation for Southern Seminary
personnel and others who worked on all the details to make the annual
meeting run smoothly.
While the Obama resolution commended him for retaining “many foreign
policies that continue to keep our nation safe” it also said Southern
Baptists “deplore” his decision to expand federal funding for
“destructive human embryo research”; “decry” increased funding for
pro-abortion groups; “oppose” any stripping of conscience protections
for health care workers unwilling to participate in abortions; and
“protest” any effort to “eradicate the symbols of our nation’s historic
Judeo-Christian faith from public or private venues.”
In a later press conference, Akin said the Obama resolution “strikes a
really good balance” for prayer for the president, affirming him and
making plain disagreements with some of his policies.
Richard Land, president of the SBC Ethics & Religious Liberty
Commission who served as a staff resource, said, “Race has been the
serpent in the garden of America from the very beginning,” first with
Native Americans, then with African-Americans. But, he said, since the
racial reconciliation resolution passed by the SBC in 1995, the number
of black members in Southern Baptist churches has increased 117 percent
to almost 800,000.
“It would have been irresponsible not to speak to the election of the
first African-American president,” Akin said. “We could affirm his
election without affirming his policies where we have strong, strong
disagreement.”
Southern Baptists have gone from being virtually an all white
denomination “by choice” in 1970 to about 18 percent minority members
now, according to Land.
The sexual purity resolution supports “the biblical definition of
marriage as the exclusive union of a man and a woman:” rejects any
attempt to repeal the Defense of Marriage Act; urges the U.S. Senate
not to pass any legislation that would criminalize “deeply held
religious beliefs and speech about homosexuality and other unbiblical
sexual practices:” and supports the “current military code barring
homosexuality in the military.”
Complete coverage of the 2009 SBC meeting