Should we “define” ourselves as Southern Baptists?

At the 2001 CBF General Assembly, a divided CBF battled over whether to retain or rescind an internal funding and hiring policy which prohibits the “purposeful” hiring of practicing homosexuals as staff and as missionaries.  Speaking in favor of retaining the policy, CBF Coordinating Council member David Currie argued that:  “Any organization that sends missionaries must define itself.”  However, when the SBC’s International Mission Board ask their missionaries to affirm the 2000 Baptist Faith & Message (the document approved by Southern Baptists that “defines” who Southern Baptists are), Currie called it an “act of spiritual terrorism.” 

Like David Currie, who heads up the National Mainstream Baptist Network, SBC leaders saw the need to “define itself” in light of the current cultural assault against Biblical truth.  But unlike David Currie, SBC leaders recognized the need for self-definition beyond just the issue of homosexuality.  When an SBC missionary affirms the 2000 Baptist Faith & Message, Southern Baptists are assured that the missionaries they support affirm that the Biblical expression of sexual intimacy is to be between one man and one woman within the confines of marriage, thus negating the idea that homosexuality is a “gift of God.”  Likewise, they also affirm that life, which begins at conception, is a gift from God, thus rejecting the idea that God is “pro-choice.”  But most specifically, Southern Baptists are assured that the missionaries they support affirm that “all Scripture is totally true and trustworthy,” including the Genesis account of creation, the deity of Christ, His virgin birth, His bodily resurrection, the exclusivity of Christ, etc. 

Indeed, it is important for a “missionary sending organization” to define itself.  But because CBF has leaders who have openly rejected and down-played the significance of each of these moral and doctrinal issues, it seems odd that David Currie, would be content to address only the sending of practicing homosexuals as missionaries --  especially in light of the fact that he has served on the board of one of the leading pro-homosexual activist groups in America, The Interfaith Alliance, since 1997.