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WHEREAS, The President of the United States has proclaimed the month of June in the year of our Lord nineteen hundred and ninety-nine as Gay and Lesbian Pride Month; and WHEREAS, The President's proclamation not only calls on Americans to show tolerance toward the practice of homosexual and lesbian sexual activity in our country, but to affirm, celebrate, and glorify such practices; and WHEREAS, The Bible clearly teaches that homosexual behavior is an abomination and shameful before God; and WHEREAS, The President's proclamation calls upon Americans to endorse, honor, and celebrate such abominable behavior which is for millions of Americans an offense to their sensibilities and an affront to their religious heritage and convictions; and WHEREAS, The President has called on citizens in every corner of our nation to violate historic religious beliefs and their own consciences, in order to embrace and extol that which the Bible condemns; and WHEREAS, God loves and calls on us to love all people, regardless of the condition of their hearts or the sinfulness of their lives; and WHEREAS, God's love requires us to discipline and rebuke as a necessary component of exhortation and encouragement. Therefore be it RESOLVED, that we, the messengers to the Southern Baptist Convention, meeting in Atlanta, Georgia, on June 15-16, 1999, proclaim our love for our President and our love for people enslaved in sins of all types, including homosexual sins; and Be it further RESOLVED, that 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 and of that which places millions of citizens in the untenable position of either denying a presidential proclamation or rejecting their own deeply-held religious convictions; and Be it further RESOLVED, that because of these deeply-held religious convictions we call on our President to rescind his appointment of an openly professed homosexual as U.S. Ambassador to Luxembourge. Be it further RESOLVED, that we ourselves do hereby proclaim that the same Jesus who was crucified, was buried, and was raised from the dead on the third day, so that whosoever believes in him should not perish but should have eternal life, is the one through whom we might receive forgiveness and release from the bondage of sin; and Be it further RESOLVED, that the forgiveness of and freedom from sin offered by Jesus Christ includes forgiveness of and freedom from homosexuality; and Be it further RESOLVED, that we publicly denounce and deplore all violent attacks upon homosexuals, and that we express our abhorrence of the teaching that God hates any person on account of an immoral lifestyle. Be it finally RESOLVED, that as we express great gratitude to our Lord Jesus Christ for His forgiveness, we hereby call upon the President to rescind his proclamation endorsing homosexuality. SBC Resolutions |
