The two gay men whose baptism led to their church being kicked out of the Cabarrus Baptist Association said Sunday they were only trying to show their commitment to God and McGill Baptist when they made their now-controversial profession of faith.
Speaking publicly for the first time since McGill's expulsion Monday, the two men said they never meant to cause any trouble for their Concord church or make a political statement about homosexuality by being baptized there.
"It was a ceremonial thing to me and our commitment to McGill," one of the men told The Observer after attending 11 a.m. worship with his partner. "What is the church supposed to do in the community except proclaim God's love?"
His partner of six years, with whom he shares a Kannapolis home, agreed about the positive feelings that inspired their baptism at the 11 a.m. service March 16. "We feel like we are part of a family," he said. "We've seen it in the love of this congregation."
The two men, one 40 and the other 55, asked that their names not be made public. One said he has a teenage son from a previous relationship whose privacy he wants to protect. "We want to be left alone," he said. The other said: "I don't want to find my windows busted out."
The two men, both N.C. natives who were raised Southern Baptist, agreed that the baptism was a high point in their faith life. "I just really felt like part of the church," the younger man said. "Very inspirational."
The two men's comments follow an extraordinary week for McGill, a century-old church of 800 members on Poplar Tent Road off Interstate 85.
Monday night, the Cabarrus association of 81 Southern Baptist churches voted overwhelmingly to sever ties with McGill. The Rev. Randy Wadford, the association's missions director, read a statement after the vote in which he said "the homosexual lifestyle is contrary to God's will and plan for mankind. ...To allow individuals into the membership of a local church without evidence or testimony of true repentance is to condone the old lifestyle."
Mostly positive calls
The baptism and expulsion have sparked 500 calls, letters and e-mails to McGill -- about 10-1 in favor of the church, said the Rev. Steve Ayers. He said they haven't received any threats "other than, `You're going to hell.' I guess that's a threat."Sunday morning, as 360 gathered for worship at 8:45 and 11 a.m., two TV news crews and The Observer visited the church. A plainclothes police officer stood watch in the parking lot, partly in response to plans by the pastor of a small Albemarle church to visit McGill Sunday with anti-gay literature. The Rev. Dennis Briggs of The Church at Albemarle dropped his plans when Ayers contacted Concord authorities.
Before the 11 a.m. service, Ayers said McGill Baptist will re-examine its relationship with outside associations, including the Southern Baptist Convention, which condemns homosexuality. Ayers said McGill still sends money to the convention.
At the 11 a.m. service, Ayers drew a few chuckles when he addressed the crowd as "fellow sinners." Then he grew serious, preaching that repenting means turning toward Christ -- and turning toward your neighbor.
"We are all sinners," Ayers told the congregation. "God's grace saves us. ...God's love is for all people. We must open our eyes and our minds and our hearts to see Christ in our world."
New focus on baptism
The McGill controversy has turned the spotlight on baptism, the sacred act of sprinkling or immersion in water in which Christians profess their faith in Christ as they pledge to turn away from their sinful past.
While the practice varies among the nation's 42,700 Southern Baptist churches, many seek to first make sure the believers are serious about breaking away from their pasts before allowing them to be baptized.
The Rev. Coy Privette, a Cabarrus Baptist Association member who voted against McGill, said becoming "a new creature in Jesus Christ" means old things pass away. "Everybody is welcome," he said, "but you've got requirements for membership in churches."
Other denominations, though, generally make baptism available to all.
The Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), for example, forbids non-celibate gays from serving as clergy and ordained lay leaders. But few churches will refuse, or even question, those who come forward for baptism.
"I'm not going to go and do a research project on their lives," said the Rev. Kevin Wainwright of First Presbyterian in Monroe.
Plenty of other sins
Why single out homosexuality, he asked. "Sin and evil is also cheating on your taxes, gossiping about your neighbors. Frankly, sin and evil is not tithing."
While the social principles of the United Methodist Church state that homosexuality is "incompatible with Christian teaching, we affirm that God's grace is available to all."
The Rev. Tim McClendon of St. John's United Methodist in Rock Hill said he might counsel a gay who comes forward for baptism. He added, "I could not say no to baptizing them."
National spokesmen for the Roman Catholic Church and the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America said those who seek baptism are welcome.
"In the baptism rite," said Lutheran spokesman John Brooks of Chicago, "the person being baptized is asked if he or she professes faith in Jesus Christ, renounces evil and the devil, believes in God, believes in Jesus Christ and believes in the holy spirit. If the person responds positively to these questions, he or she is baptized and received as a member of the church.
"No other conditions."
Said Bill Ryan of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops in Washington: "The sacraments are not to be used to make some sort of a statement."
While believing in the Christian tenet that all are sinners in need of God's forgiveness, the gay couple from McGill doesn't believe their relationship makes them sinners. As he stood and greeted fellow church members after worship, the older man's eyes welled as he explained.
"I don't even like to hear it in the same sentence as a sin," he said, adding that he had lost touch with God. Then his partner came into his life. "God sent me (him) after that."