Dant’s personally believes the Bible has no family value system for the 21^st century. He dismisses Old Testament condemnation of homosexuality as part of Levitical law which Christians no longer practice particularly with regard to regulation of slavery and men treating their wives and daughters as property.

GREENVILLE, S.C. (Christian Examiner) – A new non-discrimination policy at First Baptist Church in Greenville will offer same-sex marriage ceremonies and allow membership, leadership positions, church ordinances, and ordination to openly gay and transgender individuals without telling them their lifestyles contradict biblical teaching.

“It’s going to open up a space for evangelical gay people to have a place again,” Pastor Jim Dant said of his church’s recent consensus to “not discriminate based on sexual orientation and gender identity.”

First Baptist Church of Greenville has a storied history dating back to its 1831 founding when William Bullein Johnson led fundraising efforts to start the church. Johnson later served as the first president of the Southern Baptist Convention upon its organization in 1845. The church was the original home of Furman University and Southern Baptist Theological Seminary.

In 1999, First Baptist Greenville broke ties with the Southern Baptist Convention and aligned itself with the more moderate Cooperative Baptist Fellowship which hosted a breakout session at its 2015 annual meeting in June in which two CBF pastors presented opposing views on the issue – but agreed leadership did not consider the matter theological.

The policy was enacted following a six-month “discernment process” that began in November 2014 during which more than 200 church members discussed their personal experiences, their interpretations of Scripture, and who they believed they were as Christians and as Baptists, according to Dant.

The congregation reached a consensus that “being open and welcoming to all people is part of the essential nature of our community of faith,” Dant said.

He told Greenville Online a crucial step of the process was assuring church members no one would tell them their personal convictions were wrong.

The process did not bring the church to reach a conclusion on whether homosexuality is right or wrong but to instead answer a question: “Can you worship and live with the LGBT community in the church?”

Dant’s personally believes the Bible has no family value system for the 21^st century. He dismisses Old Testament condemnation of homosexuality as part of Levitical law which Christians no longer practice particularly with regard to regulation of slavery and men treating their wives and daughters as property.

“What we believe about marriage and family is culturally driven, not biblically driven,” Dant said.

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