Mark S Caldwell

As a Southern Baptist pastor for over 30 years, I have a continuing concern about the unwillingness of many Southern Baptists to recognize the moral example of Jesus as portrayed in the Gospels.

A recent resolution of the Southern Baptist Convention meeting in New Orleans as reported by The Tennessean states that gays and lesbians lack the “distinguishing features of classes entitled to special protections.” The resolution goes on to regret that “homosexual rights activists … have misappropriated the rhetoric of the Civil Rights Movement.”

While civil rights should be everybody’s concern in a civil society of laws, Southern Baptists and other Christians should be morally motivated primarily not by the rhetoric of the civil rights movement, but by the language of the Gospels. Frankly, the fundamental moral question for Christians should be, “What would Jesus do?” For Southern Baptists, questions of law, utility, reasonable duty, social contract or any other theoretical concern should not trump the example of how Jesus lived and related to others.

-full report at  The Tennessean