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’.
