GREENSBORO, N.C.—Messengers to the 2006 Southern Baptist Convention adopted resolutions on such currently controversial topics as immigration and the environment June 14, but the debate time was dominated by an issue addressed repeatedly in the convention’s 161-year history—alcohol.

A lengthy debate on a recommendation concerning the use of alcoholic beverages consumed the Resolution Committee’s report in the morning session. In a departure from recent years, the committee needed the evening session to complete its report.

When the back-and-forth on alcohol finally ended, the messengers passed with about a four-fifths majority a resolution not only opposing the manufacture and consumption of alcohol but urging the exclusion from election to the convention’s boards, committees and entities those Southern Baptists who drink. Like other resolutions, it is not binding on SBC churches and entities.

The resolution’s supporters contended the action was needed because some Christians believe they may drink based on a wrong interpretation of the believer’s “freedom in Christ.” They said abstaining from alcohol preserves a Christian’s purity and testimony, while drinking can be a “stumbling block” for others and has destructive results.

Opponents argued that the resolution promoted a position based on Southern Baptist tradition instead of Scripture, which describes the use of wine in the Old and New Testaments. Concern also was expressed that a resolution excluding those who drink alcohol could be the start of a list of sins that would disqualify people from serving in the convention.

The passage of the resolution marked the first time the SBC had approved an alcohol-related recommendation since 1991, according to the records of the convention’s Executive Committee. The 15-year gap is the longest between approved resolutions on alcohol since the convention adopted its first such recorded measure on the topic in 1886. In all, the SBC has approved 57 resolutions related to alcohol since that year.

T.C. French, chairman of the Resolutions Committee, acknowledged afterward that the panel was a “little surprised” the alcohol measure dominated debate, considering some of the other issues addressed in the 15 resolutions.

“Since we had not presented [a resolution] on alcohol in a number of years, we felt like we needed to get that done,” French told reporters.

SBTC Executive Director Jim Richards, a messenger from First Baptist Church of Fort Worth, introduced on the floor an amendment calling for abstinence among those serving SBC entities, and the Resolutions Committee endorsed his recommendation. Passed with about four-fifths of messengers in favor, the amendment stated: “Resolved, that we urge that no one be elected to serve as a trustee or a member of any entity or committee of the Southern Baptist Convention that is a user of alcoholic beverages.”

First to speak against the original motion prior to amendment was Arlington pastor Benjamin Cole of Parkview Baptist Church. While noting he does not advocate drinking, Cole said he feared the convention was in danger of “misstepping” if it adopted “a position that is contrary to what the Bible teaches in the flexibility of the scriptural admonitions as they relate to the consumption of alcoholic beverages.”

Cole said his father died at the age of 39 from a liver disease brought on by alcoholism. “My father did not die because he drank alcohol; my father died because he drank alcohol in excess,” said Cole, who said as a 13-year-old he cared for his father during the last six months of his life. 

“We don’t have a single messenger here suffering from heart disease and diabetes because they eat. They’re suffering those things because they over eat and eat in excess. By adopting the resolution that speaks against the sins that this body does not commit in order to forsake resolutions that may speak to the sins that this body may commit is sounding an uncertain sound and in that circumstance, who can prepare for battle?”

In defense of the resolution, committee member Dwa