Wendell Griffen, the circuit judge and Baptist preacher whose penchant for free speech regularly gets in trouble with legislators, is taking on a church establishment now, though the topic likely would rile the same lawmakers who don’t like him speaking out on capital punishment.
In his latest blog post, Griffen takes issue with the recent adoption of a policy by the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship, an organization in which his church participates, to bans LGBTQ married people from working as missionaries or in supervisory positions.
This policy is unjust. It reinforces bigotry towards LGBTQ people. It violates the Great Commandment of Jesus that we love our neighbors as ourselves. As pastor of New Millennium, I denounce the announced policy as unworthy of our support.
He has much more to say here on his blog. He said he’d no longer support the organization financially.
There’s a touch of irony here. For those who need a religion scorecard, the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship is theologically moderate. It withdrew from the Southern Baptist Convention after a conservative takeover of SBC. Among its core beliefs is
The Arkansas legislature has passed and the governor signed a law that allows people to discriminate against LGBTQ people by asserting a religious pretext.