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Posted by Kindgo (Member # 2) on :

Protesters Disrupt Baptist Meeting
www.firstcoastnews.com
By JIM SALTER
Associated Press Writer

ST. LOUIS (AP) -- About 200 gay-rights protesters tried to march inside the Southern Baptist Convention on Tuesday, an effort thwarted when police locked down the convention center and blocked the entry. By groups of four, 38 protesters walked to a police line and asked to go inside. When police refused and protesters would not leave, they were arrested, placed in plastic handcuffs and put on a police bus.

About 50 officers in riot gear stood near the main doorway, but the protest was peaceful. Meanwhile, several dozen Baptists standing near the protest sang "Amazing Grace" and other hymns. Several thousand Baptists are gathered here for a two-day national convention that ends Wednesday.

Inside the America's Center convention facility, 12 people planted by the gay-rights group Soulforce stood up. "Stop killing us," one man shouted as police dragged him behind the curtains at America's Center. "Stop the spiritual violence." All 12 -- six men and six women -- were charged with felony ethnic intimidation and misdemeanor trespassing, police said. They were being held at police headquarters.

Those arrested outside were charged with failing to adhere to the directive of a police officer and trespassing, Rutt said. Soulforce had sought a meeting with Southern Baptist president James Merritt, who is pastor of the First Baptist Church in Snellville, Ga., over concerns that the nation's largest Protestant denomination's comments and policies promote hatred against homosexuals.

Several protesters held large pictures of people who either died as a result of anti-gay violence or committed suicide.

"I grew up Baptist," said Jeff Miner, pastor of the Jesus Metropolitan Community Church in Indianapolis, which he said has a mostly gay membership. "It is a consistent and constant teaching that if you are gay, it is an abomination. You can imagine what that does to your sense of self-worth."

Ken Hester, a Baptist preacher from Pontotoc, Miss., watched the protest from a nearby sidewalk. "The homosexuality is a sin, the homosexual is somebody trapped in sin," he said. "Jesus wants to deliver these people from sin. There definitely is not any hatred against those who practice homosexual behavior."

Soulforce also protested at Southern Baptist conventions in 2000 and 2001, and has protested outside gatherings of other religious organizations, but this was the first time members tried to go inside. At the root of this year's protest is a legal opinion written by Alabama Supreme Court Chief Justice Roy Moore, a Southern Baptist.

In February, the Alabama Supreme Court reversed a lower court decision that awarded custody of three children to their lesbian mother rather than their heterosexual father. As part of the ruling, Moore wrote that homosexuality makes a person unfit to be a parent.

In the opinion, Moore noted that Alabama criminal laws prohibit sodomy, and said the state "carries the power of the sword ... to prohibit conduct with physical penalties, such as confinement and even execution."

Moore's spokesman, Scott Barnett, said, "The chief justice was merely quoting Alabama law. He never said homosexuals are evil people. "These groups just clearly do not like the truth. It's a valid, legal opinion. Under the civil and criminal laws of the state of Alabama, it (homosexuality) is prohibited."

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• Muslims angered by comments at gathering of Southern Baptists

Updated: June 11, 2002 7:21 PM

Posted by TK421 (Member # 7) on :

I was wondering where did you get that?

Posted by njclary (Member # 4) on :

You know , there are certain inalienable rights, we have as citizens of this Country, and sometimes I wonder, where did we go wrong. I did read this and I believe I saw a news item on TV about it. It seems that only the 'oppressed' have the right to believe in their way and no one has the right to disagree. This Gay rally is set up by trouble makers, but it did get a point across---- that is will the Church capitulate to this kind of pressure??? will the Church modify its stance on homosexuality???

This is the time that the Church MUST STAND UNITED in teaching, praying, counselling, against this sinful life style. In what happened there, a message must be sent to the world that the Christian Church will not be cowwed, but will reaffirm their stance against Homosexuality. and will redouble their efforts to counsel these peoiple and pray for these people out of this Lifstyle.