Church Directory Politics

I stumbled across this item from the Baptist Press:

FORT WORTH, Texas (BP)--Photo shoots for a pictorial directory have brought to light a dilemma over the acceptance of homosexual couples in a large Baptist church in Texas.

Members of Broadway Baptist Church in Fort Worth are divided over whether homosexual couples should be pictured together in the same way as photos of other couples within the church.

"For decades Broadway has had gay members as part of our membership, but no couple had been pictured as a couple in a church directory," pastor Brett Younger said in a statement to the membership of the church. The possibility of including homosexual couples in the directory "was troubling to many,” Younger acknowledged, “as they saw it as a change of direction and it is understandable that they would feel that way."

For now, Younger said the pictorial directory is on hold and the material that was to be used in it will be considered for inclusion in publications celebrating the church's 125th anniversary next year.

Several church members were reticent to speak to Baptist Press on the record, but confirmed that several people serving on and leading committees within the church are living openly homosexual lifestyles....

In his statement to the church, Younger praised how Broadway has handled the issue of homosexuality among church members in the past.

"Broadway has for years had an amazing policy on including gay people. It's not a policy that a committee came up with, or the staff or the deacons. It's an unwritten policy that came out of the shared life of this congregation, a policy I believe was inspired by the Spirit," he said. "This church has for a long time included both gay people who are committed to Christ and members who aren't affirming and who have serious questions, but who are willing to share the church. This has allowed us to be a congregation where the conversation can take place about being gay and being Christians."

I'd love to hear the opinions of some of the pastors in the audience, especially on the issues raised by the highlighted paragraph above.