Green Lake, USA - The governing board of the 1.4 million-member American Baptist Churches in the USA added a stand against gay sex to the denomination's self-definition, but it's unclear whether that will heal a growing split over homosexuality.
The new wording says American Baptists are believers "who submit to the teaching of Scripture that God's design for sexual intimacy places it within the context of marriage between one man and one woman, and acknowledge that the practice of homosexuality is incompatible with biblical teaching."
The General Board approved the wording by a 59-45 vote (with five abstentions) as an addition to the "We Are American Baptists" statement.
The denomination has taken previous stands against gay sex. But it has not disciplined congregations with liberal gay policies, say complaints from the Pacific Southwest region, whose board will decide in December whether to have 300 member congregations vote on ending support for the denomination.
Last month, the West Virginia association, the largest regional group with 465 congregations, defeated by 391-325 a proposal to break with the national denomination.
Liberal policies among some American Baptists were cited as one reason the Southern Baptist Convention voted to quit the Baptist World Alliance, to which both denominations had belonged.