c. 1997 Religion News Service

DALLAS _ Southern Baptists affirmed the display of the Ten Commandments in public buildings and urged Bible publishers to hold to”historic principles of biblical translation”in resolutions passed Thursday (June 19), the final day of their annual national meeting.

The measures were approved the day after delegates to the Southern Baptist Convention (SBC) overwhelmingly passed by a show of hands a resolution encouraging a boycott of the Walt Disney Co. and its holdings because it is believed they promote”immoral ideologies.” The Disney boycott is indicative of a growing discomfort among many evangelicals with the entertainment giant they believe has moved away from its”family-friendly”image by adopting”gay-friendly”policies and airing programs featuring homosexuals, such as ABC TV’s”Ellen.”The Assemblies of God and the American Family Association also have urged boycotts of Disney and its subsidiaries.

But the decision to boycott Disney was not without opposition.

Some of the more than 12,000 Southern Baptists attending the meeting expressed concern over the possible negative fallout for the denomination over the boycott. Others questioned whether church members will be able to stop supporting all of Disney’s vast array of holdings _ ranging from TV networks to theme parks to publications.

Disney responded to the boycott with a brief statement declaring its pride in creating”more family entertainment of every kind than anyone else in the world.” The resolution concerning displaying the Ten Commandments on public property is connected with current litigation involving Judge Roy Moore, who has been ordered to remove a plaque of the Ten Commandments from his Alabama courtroom.

Richard Land, president of the SBC’s Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission (formerly the Christian Life Commission), said his agency’s continuing work on the proposed Religious Freedom Amendment, also supported in the Ten Commandments resolution, could help keep the biblical mandates in public places.”Judge Moore is recognizing his religious beliefs by putting the Ten Commandments up in his courtroom according to the dictates of his conscience as an individual American citizen,”Land said in a news conference following the adoption of the resolutions.”This (Religious Freedom) amendment, if it became part of the Constitution, would … give him the right to do that without question.” The Bible-translation issue came to a head in late May after the International Bible Society, under heavy criticism from evangelicals, decided to scrap its plans to publish a”gender-inclusive”version of the popular New International Version of the Bible, substituting gender-neutral words, such as people, for gender-specific words, such as mankind.”Bible publishers and translators are consistently faced with the tension of accuracy and readability along with the pressure from those who do not hold a high view of Scripture to take license with the use of particular terms, including, but not limited to, the use of so-called gender-inclusive language,”the resolution stated.

Baptists urged Bible translators and publishers to”refrain from any deviation to seek to accommodate contemporary cultural pressures.” Another resolution passed Thursday urged the United States and other nations to ban human cloning. However, it also stressed the”importance of genetic research”aimed at curing genetic diseases.

Baptists also passed resolutions supporting home-schooling and efforts to combat drug abuse, gambling, extending benefits to the”domestic partners”of employees.

Evangelist Luis Palau closed the convention, speaking on the meeting’s theme,”To the Cross,”encouraging Baptists to move beyond their protest of Disney to evangelism.”You were thoroughly concerned about Disney and you made a strong statement yesterday,”Palau said.”But that won’t change people. What will change people is the preaching of the cross in the power of the spirit when people repent and are converted.” Among other highlights of the three-day convention:

_ Officials of the Implementation Task Force that was charged with overseeing the restructuring of the denomination gave their final report. The SBC’s streamlining of its agencies from 19 to 12 and the cutting of 217 jobs is expected to result in a net savings of $34 million during the next five years.

_ SBC President Tom Elliff of Oklahoma was re-elected to a traditional second one-year term. He ran unopposed.

_ Resolutions passed earlier in the convention urged increased education about world hunger and opposed religious persecution.

_ The delegates approved the appointment of a committee to review the”Baptist Faith and Message,”a statement of beliefs adopted by the SBC in 1963, to consider adding a section on the family, due to concern the term has been redefined by contemporary culture.

_ Presidents of the denomination’s six seminaries signed a covenant with Southern Baptist churches reaffirming their commitment to teach”the authority, inspiration, inerrancy, and infallibility of the Bible.”

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