Cooperative Baptist Fellowship

CBF AIDS Resource Packet

In 1994, the Ethics and Public Policy Ministry Group of the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship published its first resource packet entitled, HIV/AIDS Ministry: Putting A Face on AIDS.  While the 80-page packet devotes much space to justifying “homosexual orientation,” nowhere does it identify homosexual behavior as sin.   

The following are interesting excerpts from the CBF AIDS resource packet:

God Made Us This Way

“During pregnancy, the fetus is developing characteristics that will determine the person’s sexual orientation. Therefore, a person does not choose to be homosexual or heterosexual.” (pg. 16)

“Do we choose our [sexual] orientation? Most persons answer that question with a resounding ‘NO!’ This supports the scientific research. We do not choose our sexual orientation, but rather we ‘awaken’ to it.” (pgs. 17-18)

“…sexuality is a gift from God… We have a responsibility to enhance and educate our children and young people about sexuality, sexual identity, and sexual orientation.” (pg. 20)

What Is Normal?

“The purpose of this section is to discuss ways our presuppositions about what is normal enter into how we, as the Church, treat others outside our own sexual norms. The Church needs to be a place where sexual identity and orientation can be discussed, developed, and fostered. We need to minister to our children, adolescents and our young adults in the church.”(pg. 18)

Celibacy Not Always Possible

“…the writings of Paul, indicates that celibacy is not possible for everyone. It is only for those who have been called to that state by the Holy Spirit. God said, ‘It is not good for human beings to be alone’ (Genesis 2:18). That statement is true for all persons of all sexual orientation.”  (pg. 19)

Redefining The Family

“No longer is family defined as a mother, father, son, daughter a dog, and a station wagon. Such definition has changed through time, circumstances, and disintegration. Family may be defined as a basic, primary group of caring relationships within intimate boundaries… James Nelson Paints a clear picture of his experience with the contemporary family with this word picture, ‘On our floor are nine apartments… in only two of the nine (apartments) are there married couples… There are couples who have no intent of marrying. There are single parent families. There are blended families…gay families and lesbian families…yet they are constituted as families by enduring covenants.’”(pg.25)

Changing Attitudes & Sermons

“If we are serious about changing our attitudes toward sexuality, sexual orientation and HIV/AID, how do we want our sermons to change?” (pg. 22)

CBF Mission Statement – Celebrating God’s Gift Of Diversity

According to the CBF’s proposed mission statement, “we will celebrate God’s gift of diversity among the individuals and churches of the Fellowship.”  However, under a section entitled “Our Priorities,” which stated: “Affirming our racial, ethnic, and gender diversity as a gift of God,” the attendees of the 1995 CBF General Assembly voted to amend that section to allow undefined diversity to be attributed to God, clearly opening the CBF’s doors to the claim that homosexuality is “a gift of God.”  That section was amended to read:

Affirming our diversity as a gift of God, including but not limited to race, ethnicity and gender.” (emphasis ours) (1995 CBF General Assembly Resource Book, pp. D.2-D.3 and Fellowship News, July/August 1995, pg. 10.) 

The motion to amend was made by Ron Serino of Metro Baptist Church in New York, New York.  The pastor of Metro Baptist Church is David Waugh, who at that time was a member of the CBF coordinating council and a member of the Advisory Committee of the CBF-funded Baptist Peace Fellowship of North America, a group which earlier that year had issued a statement advocating, among other things, the ordination of gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgendered persons.  (See BPFNA) 

In a press room interview with CBF General Assembly Committee chairman George Mason after the vote to amend the mission statement, the chief CBF spokesman explained why the CBF Administrative Committee was opposed to the mission statement amendment:

It’s simply a matter of saying that already we had named three things that we had been very intentional about from the very beginning [racial, ethnic, and gender diversity]…  And this question of how do you adjudicate what next gets to be there, once you say ‘not limited to’ --  which we now have --  we don’t know how one is ever going to adjudicate that…whether its ageism, or homosexuality or whatever that case may be. 

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