The Baptist Union of Great Britain (BUGB) recently issued a statement, in response to the changes in marriage law, which allows for a minister and his congregation to divert from the biblical view on same-sex relationships.
Although affirming ‘the traditionally accepted biblical understanding of Christian marriage, as a union between a man and a woman, as the continuing foundation of belief in our Baptist Churches’, the statement contains the following: ‘We also recognise the freedom of a minister to respond to the wishes of their church, where their conscience permits, without breach of disciplinary guidelines’.
The statement concluded: ‘A Baptist minister is required to live and work within the guidelines adopted by BUGB regarding sexuality’, and that ‘a sexual relationship outside of Christian marriage (as defined between a man and a woman) is deemed conduct unbecoming for a minister’.
BUGB churches are independent of each other and able to decide matters alone. The BUGB binds the churches together with common statements of doctrine. It is because of this that the argument has been made that freedom needs to be affirmed for individual congregations, whilst reiterating the Union’s continuing belief that marriage is as the Bible defines it.
Stephen Keyworth, a spokesman for the BUGB said that: ‘Over the last year or so we have encouraged churches, ministers and associations to engage in conversations and [the statement] was an update from the Baptist steering group – which in essence said to the wider Baptist community, this is what we believe to be your view on this matter. We do not want you to vote on it, or adopt it as a policy. We want you to absorb it, think about it again and then let us know if we’ve got it right’.
