A motion filed Tuesday by a former
Southern Baptist Convention (SBC) vice president aims to discipline a
gay-affirming pastor.
Pastor Danny Cortez of New Heart
Community Church of La Miranda, California declared that he no longer
believes that being gay is a sin after his son came out gay.
Instead of removing Cortez, the
congregation voted on May 18 to become a “Third Way” church,
which is neutral on the issue.
(Related: Southern
Baptist pastor reverses opposition to homosexuality; congregation
votes to keep him.)
According to the Associated
Baptist Press, Wiley Drake's motion at this week's SBC annual
meeting in Baltimore asks officers to “prayerfully consider
discipline for the Southern Baptist church and pastor located in La
Miranda, Calif., for their violation of Article 3 of the SBC
constitution when they affirmed, approved and endorsed homosexual
behavior that the Bible describes as the sin of sodomy.”
The 70-year-old Drake, pastor at First
Southern Baptist Church of Buena Park, California, was criticized in
2009 when he publicly stated that he was prayerfully “asking God to
kill President [Barack] Obama.”