Church Dumped By Baptists For Ministering To Gays

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Church Dumped By Baptists For Ministering To Gays

by 365Gay.com Newscenter Staff

September 1, 2006 - 3:00 pm ET

(Flint, Michigan) A Flint, Michigan church that opened its doors to gays and lesbians has been ordered out of the Baptist denomination.

Woodside Baptist Church - the oldest Baptist church in the region - began ministering to gays and lesbians five years ago.

Other Baptist churches in area denounced the move, and over the past five years the situation has grown progressively worse.

This week the North Region of the American Baptist Churches of Michigan voted to sever all ties with Woodside. The decision will be presented to the American Baptist USA Churches regional meeting next month for affirmation.

Pastor Deborah Kohler says the action was not unexpected. Still, she says that the Region is honoring Christ's teachings of loving one another without judgment.

Kohler said her 270 parishioners would like to remain part of the Baptist churches, but not at the expense of ending its open-door policy.

Meanwhile, in Oklahoma, a megachurch in Tulsa has voted to quit the Presbyterian Church U-S-A. over the denomination's the support for gay pastors.

The Kirk of the Hills Presbyterian Church, with just over three-thousand members voted 967-to-36 to leave.

The church elders had recommended the departure. Church members also accepted a recommendation to join the Evangelical Presbyterian Church which does not permit gay clergy.

©365Gay.com 2006

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