The on-line conversation over Broadway Baptist continues (go to Jesus Politics and see all the links to various blogs, plus the comments).

Another point that I want to make is about the hermeneutic of moderate baptist churches.

Historically the easiest way to pick out the moderate churches from the conservative and fundamentalist was that the moderates ordained women. In so many ways the result of the split after the fundamentalist takeover of the SBC was a group of baptist who had adopted a hermeneutic that allowed them to stay true to scripture, while also ordaining women.

The point I want to make is that once one had adopted this hermeneutic, its full implications must be adopted as well. And that includes the welcome, inclusion, and full sacramental equality of LGBT folk. If you find scripture to be culturally conditioned (and, as an aside, every intelligent person must) and that the interpretation of scripture is conditioned by changes in culture, then you simply can't retreat to a conservative hermeneutic when an issue that makes you uncomfortable arises.

Fundamentalists often made this sort of argument against moderates, saying that you can't just be moderate, you are or end up a liberal. And, on that point, I agree with the fundamentalists. If you are going to consistently apply a hermeneutic that allows for women in ministry, then that hermeneutic can't close off the sacramental equality of LGBT folk.