Southern Baptists Remove Alexandria, Virginia, Church From ‘Friendly Cooperation’ Status, Pass IVF Resolution

More than 10,000 Southern Baptists gathered in Indianapolis for the annual meeting of the Southern Baptist Convention. Messengers, the term for those sent by member churches, faced what R. Albert Mohler Jr. described as an unusually urgent set of decisions, along with a full agenda that included reports from the convention’s ministries and boards.

The meeting also included a presidential election. Conservative North Carolina pastor Clint Pressley was elected the convention’s next president on the third ballot, after six candidates were nominated, a number Mohler noted had not been seen at a single convention in a long time. Outgoing president Bart Barber of Texas presided over the meeting before his term ended.

Messengers also voted on the historic First Baptist Church of Alexandria, Va., which was removed from “friendly cooperation” status after its congregation expressed support for women serving as pastors. The removal passed by a very large margin. A proposed constitutional amendment that would have made the use of the title “pastor” for any woman grounds to find a church no longer in friendly cooperation failed on a second vote, falling short by a few percentage points after it had passed the previous year by a large margin. Mohler wrote that the convention’s confession of faith states that “the office of pastor is limited to men as qualified by Scripture.” He added that the constitutional question is likely to arise again.

The convention also acted on sex abuse prevention and expressed support for Israel in its war against Hamas. Mohler wrote that the IVF resolution drew the most unexpected attention. According to his account, it passed by a large margin after open debate on the convention floor. The resolution recognized that many Christian couples “experience the searing pain of infertility” and affirmed that “all children are a gift from the Lord regardless of the circumstances of their conception.” It also stated that “not all technological means of assisting human reproduction are equally God-honoring or morally justified.”

The resolution listed concerns about IVF, including the creation of large numbers of “excess” human embryos destined for destruction, the selection of embryos by quality or preference, possible human experimentation on embryos, and the marketing of embryos to single women, same-sex couples and others within what it described as a large reproduction industry. Mohler wrote that the resolution calls on believers “to only utilize reproductive technologies consistent with” the affirmation of “the unconditional value and right to life of every human being, including those in an embryonic stage.” Protecting those who cannot defend themselves is the concern at the center of this resolution (Proverbs 31:8-9).

Mohler reported responses from outside the convention. MSNBC host Joe Scarborough described the resolution as “very judgmental” and “very driven by politics.” Mohler disputed the political characterization, writing that the convention gains nothing politically by speaking for human embryos. Eugene Robinson of The Washington Post, whom Mohler quoted as saying that Mohler “speaks for a minority that believes all abortion, from the moment of conception, is murder,” argued for a woman’s right “to decide whether to terminate her pregnancy.”

Mohler wrote that he and Managing Editor Andrew T. Walker authored the IVF resolution and submitted it to the Resolutions Committee, which brought it to the floor.

Source: Read the original report