GREENSBORO, N.C. — The Southern Baptist Convention has voted to remove a Greensboro church from its rolls for it's support of the LGBTQ community, but church leaders say the congregation voted to leave the SBC in 1999.
The SBC's Executive Committee voted to remove College Park: An American Baptist Church from its rolls for its “open affirmation, approval and endorsement of homosexual behavior.” However, Pastor Michael Usey said the congregation voted to leave the SBC in 1999.
"We wrote a letter and we were gone," said Pastor Michael Usey, the lead pastor at the church. "We didn’t support them. It was pretty clear on our website."
According to the Associated Press, Southern Baptist churches are self-governing, but churches can be affiliates in, “friendly cooperation," if they share its beliefs and support its ministries.
The SBC told the Associated Press they had no record of the church wanting to leave the organization. Usey said the SBC sent them letters over the past year asking to define and defend their stance on homosexuality, but they declined to respond.
"It’s not our denomination anymore. Had we’d gotten letters that said that we were no longer Lutherans I don’t know if we really would’ve responded to those, said Usey. "There is this sense in fundamentalism of always trying to separate from others and we just didn’t want any part of that if they wanted to disfellowship us that’s fine, but we had already left."
Usey said the church has a long history of civil rights action and their website lists them as an "LGBTQIA Affirming Baptist Church."
"One of our tag lines says 'where loving God means loving people,' and I think we try to live that out," Usey said.
According to Usey, the focus of the SBC should be elsewhere.
"There are people dying in Puerto Rico and even from where we sit there are hungry children less than half a mile from here and this is the thing they think is important," said Usey.