"It's going to open up a space for evangelical gay people to have a place again," Pastor Jim Dant said of his church's recent consensus to "not discriminate based on sexual orientation and gender identity."
First Baptist Church of Greenville has a storied history dating back to its 1831 founding when William Bullein Johnson led fundraising efforts to start the church. Johnson later served as the first president of the Southern Baptist Convention upon its organization in 1845. The church was the original home of Furman University and Southern Baptist Theological Seminary.
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Pastor Dant rationalized this way:
- "We ended up with a consensus statement that essentially says, to put it simply, that we are a diverse people that hold a lot of diverse views of Scripture, but we also want to be a non-discriminatory people because it's really not up to us who the Spirit of God falls on."
In other words, interpret the Bible the way you want. If you "feel" the Spirit of God tells you to be a homosexual and get married, then it's OK with us.
SOURCE: Christian Examiner