c. 1999 Religion News Service

ATLANTA _ Although their annual meeting was quieter than in years past, Southern Baptists continued to take a stand on one of the most contentious social issues in American culture _ homosexuality.

While revving up plans to focus their evangelistic efforts on major cities outside the South, they also rebuked fellow Southern Baptist President Clinton for his affirmation of homosexuality.”The Bible is crystal clear that the practice of homosexuality is a sin just like the practice of heterosexual adultery is a sin,”said Paige Patterson, who was re-elected to a second one-year term as president of the nation’s largest Protestant denomination.”We can’t call right what God said was wrong.” During their two-day meeting, which ended Wednesday (June 16), Southern Baptists overwhelmingly approved a resolution that criticized Clinton for his proclamation of June as”Gay and Lesbian Pride Month.””Our love for our president compels us to rebuke him and publicly to deplore his most public endorsement of that which is contrary to the Word of God,”the resolution said.

Baptists also amended the resolution to criticize Clinton’s recent appointment of gay businessman James Hormel, a former dean of the University of Chicago law school, as U.S. ambassador to Luxembourg.

Motions that would have called on Clinton’s home church in Little Rock, Ark., to discipline him or state whether it agrees with his stance on homosexuality were ruled out of order.

In his presidential address, Patterson urged members of the Southern Baptist Convention to renew their emphasis on evangelism by focusing on the country’s urban centers beyond the Southern cities that long have been dominated by its 15.7 million members.”The great metropolises of our own nation have burgeoned into some of the world’s most demanding mission assignments,”said Patterson, president of Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary in Wake Forest, N.C., and one of the leaders of the SBC’s 20-year-old conservative resurgence.

The denomination plans a strategic focus on six U.S. cities during the next three years: Chicago and Phoenix in 2000, Las Vegas and Boston in 2001, and Philadelphia and Seattle in 2002.

Beyond the focus on specific cities, denominational leaders predict there also will be increased evangelism via the Internet and a television superstation.”Television goes through brick walls and television will leap across oceans and television will go to places where normally a person would never hear of Christ,”said Patterson.

Patterson called for the evangelization and baptism of 1 million people _ 500,000 in this country and 500,000 abroad _ between October 1999 and September 2000.

Religious celebrities Reggie White and Jerry Falwell affirmed the Baptist stances on homosexuality and evangelism.

White, a retired Green Bay Packers football player and ordained minister, reiterated his belief in God’s criticism of homosexuality.”I have no problem with anyone living the way they want to but when you bring it out and you try to push it not only on myself but on my children, I cannot stand back and be quiet,”he told an evening session of the meeting.

White and Falwell, who now supports a new convention of conservative Southern Baptists in Virginia, urged increased evangelistic emphasis.

Falwell, who gave a benediction at the close of one session, prayed that God would”ready us to reclaim America for Christ and to evangelize the world in our generation.” More than 11,000 delegates _ called”messengers”_ attended the meeting, a marked decrease from the times in the 1980s when more than 40,000 delegates gathered during contentious battles over theological differences between conservatives and moderates.

The two-day meeting _ a change from previous three-day sessions _ suffered from a significant drop in attendance on the second day.”It seems like no matter how long a meeting, the last day is departure day,”said Bill Merrell, vice president for convention relations of the SBC Executive Committee.

Beyond the numbers attending the meeting at the Georgia Dome, Southern Baptist officials faced a 1 percent drop in denominational membership, reported earlier this year, the first decrease since 1926.”I don’t think anyone knows exactly why it’s happened,”said Patterson, who added that contributing factors might include the closing of some small, rural churches with inadequate membership and the departure of”somewhere between five and 20″moderate Baptist churches from the denomination over theological differences.”I suspect it’s more of a hiccup than a drop, but we won’t know that for a couple of more years.” The convention _ known for its controversial statements in recent years about boycotting the Walt Disney Co. for its gay-friendly business policies and an affirmation of wives submitting to their husband _ did address a range of other issues.

Many in attendance signed commitment cards pledging”a lifestyle free from substance abuse.” A motion to gauge interest in changing the name from the Southern Baptist Convention to the International Baptist Convention _ to better represent the geographical status of the denomination and improve outreach to minorities _ failed. In its report, the SBC Executive Committee stated it has found”no compelling rationale”for a name change.

Baptists also adopted more than a dozen resolutions, including those that:

_ commended those who affirmed their Christian faith in the midst of school violence.

_ opposed ethnic cleansing and urged Congress and multinational bodies to end regimes that commit such violence.

_ condemned research that destroys human embryos.

_ encouraged reversing”trends of hostility toward religion”in public discourse and land-use decisions.

_ called on the American Psychological Association and other professional organizations to refrain from publishing studies that”attempt to normalize or legitimize immoral behavior, including `adult-child sex.'” _ affirmed the”changelessness of God” _ decried promotion of sexual promiscuity and violence in the entertainment industry.

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