How Does "Incompatible with Biblical Teaching" Connect with "Spiritual Oasis" and "Resounding Success"? It Doesn't in a Christian Denomination

From "Jayne, Andy" Ajayne@ABC-USA.org
Date Wed, 19 Apr 2006 15:03:06 -0400
Wait On The Lord: A Success In Progress

VALLEY FORGE, PA (ABNS)-The Wait On The Lord Conference in Orlando, FL is still in progress but is already being heralded as a resounding success. Heralded as a "Spiritual Oasis" by ABCUSA General Secretary, Roy Medley, the conference is designed for ministers and lay ministers to foster Christian spiritual formation and rejuvenation . . .

Reading the ABC press release, one would think that this year’s “Wait on the Lord Conference” in Orlando represents a new Pentecost come upon American Baptists. Even before it concludes, the ABNS has dubbed it a “resounding success” and "a success in progress." With 275 attendees and as many as 100 of them representing Valley Forge staffers (if the numbers from the previous conference pencil out similarly this year), Dr. Roy Medley describes it as a “Spiritual Oasis.”

But who are the people being held up as models for ministry in the ABCUSA? The keynoter, Dr. John Kinney, pastors Ebenezer Baptist Church in Beaversdam, VA. In addition to his reputation as a distinguished systematic theologian, Dr. Kinney has been claimed by the Center for Gay and Lesbian Studies in Religion and Ministry as leading one of the “African American Welcoming Churches” in the country (http://www.clgs.org/3/welcoming_churches.html).

Bible study leader, Dr. Jaime Clark-Soles, Assistant Professor of New Testament at Perkins School of Theology, Southern Methodist University, holds ABC ordination and serves as “Scholar in Residence” at the multiply affiliated City Church of Dallas (http://www.citychurchdallas.org/index.php?About_CityChurch:Leadership:Jaime_Clark-Soles). City Church boasts of its “welcoming” stance on its Web site. In explaining how "everyone is valued and accepted," they post a link to A Letter to Louise, "A Biblical Affirmation of Homosexuality" (http://www.citychurchdallas.org/index.php?About_CityChurch:Who_We_Are).

So, let’s get this straight (no pun intended). The ABCUSA has declared that the practice of homosexuality is “incompatible with biblical teaching.” So, when we assemble our pastoral leaders from regions all across the denomination to “Wait on the Lord,” we bring in a keynote speaker and Bible study leader who serve on staff in churches committed to the proposition that homosexuality is to be welcomed and affirmed? Does anyone else see a problem with this picture?

I wonder why the right keeps saying that the national leadership tilts left? Could it be due to breathlessly enthusiastic complicity with the agenda of the AWAB movement if not open advocacy of its position?

"Spirituality" exists in virtually all religious traditions, most of them outside of Christianity. A group does not need to be orthodox for the participants to have a moment of "spiritual ecstasy," even an "oasis" experience. For a "welcoming" crowd it must have been nearly a love fest. His Barking Dog is caught in the literalistic rut of believing that "incompatible with biblical teaching" does not go with "resounding success" and "spiritual oasis," at least not in a Christian denomination. Silly me.

[His Barking Dog is weary of chasing ABC denominational cars but continues to do so without any connection to entities and official positions of the PSW]