Baptists close out meetings with call for honor

SEX ABUSE

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Southern Baptist Convention: www.sbc.net

U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops: www.usccb.org

By Laura Johnston ~ Southeast Missourian

ST. LOUIS, Mo. - Southern Baptists are calling for greater sexual and moral integrity from their ministers and church leaders as they watch the Roman Catholic Church deal with a clergy sex abuse scandal that has rocked the nation.

Convention messengers adopted a resolution Wednesday that encourages churches to deal with sexual abuse of minors as both a sin and a crime.

The resolution was one of nine approved during the business sessions on the final day of the Southern Baptist Convention's annual national gathering. More than 9,500 people attended the meeting held at the America's Center.

One the eve of a national gathering of Catholic bishops in Dallas, Baptists urged their six seminaries to make ministerial integrity an emphasis in training new pastors and church leaders.

The resolution is a "message to ourselves that we want to have the highest standards and accountability," said Frank Harver, chairman of the resolutions committee.

The statement was not meant to belittle the crisis in the Catholic Church, "but is an alert to our ministers," Harver said.

The idea of pedophilia in a church would be "a virtual, professional death penalty" for a pastor, said Bill Merrell, vice president of convention relations for the Southern Baptist Convention.

Setting the example

Dr. Derek Staples, pastor of Lynwood Baptist Church in Cape Girardeau, agreed. Ministers must set the example for the church and allowing them to continue in abusive situations only worsens the crisis.

The Southern Baptist Convention has no fixed requirements for serving as a pastor; each local church sets those standards. But the denomination's publishing arm will help raise the visibility of the integrity issue in its materials, Merrell said.

Staples said that church members should see that ministers are "raising the bar." Any new staff members at Lynwood are asked whether they would have any problems with a background check, more to get their reaction than necessarily for permission, Staples said. He believes anyone who would refuse such a request likely has something to hide.

Religion cannot serve as a cloak for nefarious behavior and as difficult as the current situation is, it "gives us a great opportunity to reveal what it means to be religious and to have the respect of a culture as a religious entity," Merrell said.

Dr. Richard Land, head of the denomination's Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission, said the Roman Catholic scandal could end up harming all faiths.

"A scandal of this magnitude has an impact on anyone who identifies with religion," he said.

Churches must conduct background checks on ministers and staff because they have a legal and moral responsibility to report any suspected sexual abuse. "That's being taught at all seminaries," he said. "That's one place where our Roman Catholic friends made a huge mistake. They treated it as just a church matter."The Baptists would urge churches to turn the matters over to law enforcement rather than handling the matters internally, as Catholics have done in the past, Land said.

Catholic gathering

Roman Catholic bishops have the nation's attention as they gather for a meeting today through Saturday in Dallas.

Monsignor Richard Rolwing of St. Mary's Cathedral in Cape Girardeau said that Catholics welcome the support and prayers of other denominations and the work of the Holy Spirit.

He knows that other denominations are watching the bishops' conference with great interest because how the Catholic Church deals with its sexual abuse scandal will provide a model for others.

"The decision we make will be helpful for all people, not just our denomination," he said. "We need to have respect for the victims and the people who are the victimizers."

Because ministers serve as trusted members of their communities, sexual infidelity can have tragic consequences, the Baptist resolution said. It urged spiritual leaders to hold one another accountable, and to rid their ranks of sexual predators and discipline those guilty of sexual abuse.

Other resolutions approved Wednesday addressed the war on terrorism, called for prayer for peace in the Middle East and condemned a gender-neutral Bible translation.

The Today's New International Version translation is not appropriate for a convention that believes in the inerrancy of Scripture, said Dr. Russell Moore of Southern Theological Seminary in Louisville, Ky.

In other business Wednesday, several motions were referred to committees for study. The motions will be considered at next year's convention in Phoenix, Ariz. The motions included one that would have required the Southern Baptist Convention to recognize and receive funds from only one convention per state and another that would have revoked the endorsement of any ordained women serving as chaplains. Chaplains carry out all pastoral functions, Baptists say, except they do not serve as the head of a church congregation.Southern Baptists previously have said that women can serve in many roles in the church except as deacons or pastors.

Next year's Southern Baptist Convention meeting is scheduled for June 17-81 in Phoenix.

ljohnston@semissourian.com

335-6611, extension 126