Pastors oppose lesbian bishop speaker at Baptist college

Jordan Buie | The Tennessean, Nashville

NASHVILLE — A Baptist college president in Nashville said Tuesday evening that people should not use "idolatry of the Bible" to discriminate against homosexuals.

"It's sad that people use religion and idolatry of the Bible to demoralize same-gender-loving people," American Baptist College President Forrest Harris said in response to criticism involving the decision to allow a lesbian bishop to speak there.

What does Harris define as "idolatry of the Bible?"

"When people say (the Bible) is synonymous with God and the truth," he said. "We can't be guided and dictated by a first-century world view."

The decision by the Nashville college to schedule a married, lesbian bishop to speak at the school next week has enraged some conservative black preachers who believe homosexuality is a sin and have called for the college president to rescind the invitation.

The National Baptist Convention, the largest predominantly African-American Christian denomination in the United States and the one with which the Nashville college is affiliated, has promoted the event on its official website.

American Baptist College has defended its decision to invite Bishop Yvette Flunder to speak at the annual Garnett Nabrit Lecture Series at the school March 15-18. She is scheduled to speak about her work advocating for the rights and needs of people suffering from HIV and AIDS. The event will be the second time Flunder has spoken at the school, a historically black college with many connections to leaders in the civil rights movement.

The National Baptist Fellowship of Concerned Pastors, also affiliated with the National Baptist Convention, questioned Harris and the president of the National Baptist Convention.

"For a Baptist college president to invite a lesbian bishop legally married to a woman, to be a guest speaker and worship leader on a Baptist college campus is irresponsible, scandalous, non-biblical, and certainly displeasing to God," the news release said.

The group asked Harris to rescind Flunder's invitation, for National Baptist Convention President Jerry Young to release a statement revealing his stance on Flunder and for Young to remove promotion of Flunder's appearance at the college from the National Baptist Convention website. If Harris and Young refuse to rescind Flunder's invitation, the groups asked that the event be moved from American Baptist College facilities.

Reverends Randy Vaughn and Dwight McKissick, co-coordinators of the conservative pastor group called Harris' words "disheartening" "heretical," and said he "trampled on the beliefs of the school's founders."

"It is so disappointing and disheartening that at the American Baptist College, where the land was bought and paid for by Baptists who took the Bible literally, their blood, sweat and tears are being trampled on," said McKissick, senior pastor of the Cornerstone Baptist Church in Arlington, Texas. "We believe the Bible and its teachings. We believe homosexuality — as a matter of fact all the Bible talks about as sin — is sin."

Vaughn, pastor of the Mt. Sinai Missionary Baptist Church in Port Arthur, Texas, said the moment can't go forward without there being a recorded protest.

Both pastors said more than 150 conservative National Baptist Convention Christians have joined their group.

But Harris said the group of pastors that has criticized his decision does not understand and has misinterpreted the theology of the large Baptist denomination to which they belong.

"I think they have misappropriated the theology of the National Baptist Convention which says that churches and individuals can hold their own theological beliefs about what they think is right and wrong," Harris said. "It's tragic these conservative pastors are in opposition to what education ought to be about, to expose students to critical moral thinkers and a broad education."

The concerned pastors want Young and Harris to alert students, parents, alumni and all National Baptist Convention pastors and churches that Flunder has been invited to the school for two years.

Harris has said the demands of the group of pastors and their requests "fly in the face of everything that ABC stands for as an institution of higher education rooted in the cause of social justice and equality for all," according to a news release sent to The Tennessean on behalf of the of the school Tuesday.

Harris also said the American Baptist College has received federal funding and expresses "neither favor nor disfavor of positions, groups or individuals (who speak at the school) in accordance with state and federal laws prohibiting discrimination."