Wilshire Baptist Church, located on Abrams Road just north of Mockingbird Lane in Dallas, voted November 14, 2016 to include gay and lesbians for full membership, including rights to serve in leadership positions and marry in the church. The measure passed with a vote of 61% of the membership in favor of inclusion. As soon as the church completed its vote, the Baptist General Convention started proceedings to remove the church out of the group because, in its view, gay and lesbians should not be members of a Baptist church.

The pastor of Wilshire Baptist Church, Rev. George Mason, studied the issue of God’s view of gay and lesbians for several months before reaching his own personal decision. He concluded that the passages actually do not say loving homosexual relationships are sinful, but actually condemn abusive sexual practices. He concluded that he would “err on the side of love and grace” in accepting gay members.

Unfortunately, the controversial issue may result in the loss of 100 members who stood in disagreement with the issue.

The Baptist Standard, a weekly digital news journal affiliated with the Baptist General Convention of Texas, reports that the BGCT position is that the Bible teaches any sexual relations outside the bounds of a male/female marriage are sinful. So, any church that affirms other types of sexual relationships choose to withdraw from the convention. (See Two churches face removal from BGCT due to gay issue.)

For more reading, see A Dallas church voted to perform gay marriages, and it’s getting kicked out of the Texas Baptists from the Washington Post and UPDATE: Wilshire Baptist Church votes on accepting LGBT members.