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Texas Baptist Church Suspends Musician For Officiating Same-Sex Wedding
A Southern Baptist church in Texas has suspended a paid musician for officiating a same-sex wedding.
Johnny Griffith (above left) has been a band musician at Mobberly Baptist Church in Longview, Texas, for the last four years.
On Saturday, Griffith, who’s also a licensed minister, officiated one of the first same-sex weddings in Gregg County, at a park in Kilgore. On Sunday, the church told him he would not be needed for the congregation’s contemporary worship service.
From The Longview News-Journal:
In a statement released Sunday night, Mobberly Baptist Church spokesman Mickey Seward said the church holds to Biblical authority for all beliefs and ministry actions and champions what it called Biblical marriage, “which is defined as marriage between one man and one woman.”
“We invite anyone to worship with us, regardless of beliefs and values,” he said. “However, upholding the core values of the church is an essential responsibility of men and women in leadership positions, whether full-time or part-time employees, contract workers or volunteers.” …
Griffith said that although he understands Mobberly’s point of view on the matter, he respectfully disagrees.
“(The church) has the right, as a private, religious organization, to exercise their freedoms as they see fit,” he said. “I knew going into this that it would put me at odds with the position they have taken as an organization and that this could potentially be the outcome — thus putting my status as a paid musician for them in jeopardy — even though I did not in any way do this as a representative of Mobberly Baptist Church.”
“We invite anyone to worship with us, regardless of beliefs and values,” he said. “However, upholding the core values of the church is an essential responsibility of men and women in leadership positions, whether full-time or part-time employees, contract workers or volunteers.” …
Griffith said that although he understands Mobberly’s point of view on the matter, he respectfully disagrees.
“(The church) has the right, as a private, religious organization, to exercise their freedoms as they see fit,” he said. “I knew going into this that it would put me at odds with the position they have taken as an organization and that this could potentially be the outcome — thus putting my status as a paid musician for them in jeopardy — even though I did not in any way do this as a representative of Mobberly Baptist Church.”
Read more: http://www.towleroad.com/2015/07/texas-baptist-church-suspends-musician-officiating-sex-wedding-video/
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