More Top Stories of 2007 - ABC as Seen by SBC

Will Hall, the executive editor of Baptist Press, offered his own take on the news of the year, including the following comments about the ECUSA and ABC conflicts:

Some conservatives defected demonstrably from the American Baptist Churches, USA and the Episcopal Church, USA because of liberalism within their respective mainline denominations.

In May, the American Baptist Churches Pacific Southwest region (California, Hawaii, Nevada and Arizona) withdrew from its covenant relationship with the ABC, USA, citing theological differences with the denomination, in particular, the refusal of the national body to discipline churches and regional bodies over acceptance of unrepentant homosexuals as members and even as leaders. Other regions, including West Virginia (reportedly, the ABC,USA’s region with the largest number of churches) and Indiana-Kentucky have expressed discontent with the denomination’s failure to enforce its 1992 position statement on homosexuality.

The ABC, USA is a longtime member of the Baptist World Alliance, a global Baptist fellowship. The Southern Baptist Convention withdrew from the BWA in 2005, in part, after the organization refused to address the issue of the acceptance of homosexuality in the American Baptist churches.

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