North Carolina Baptists concluded their annual meeting Wednesday after addressing division and expelling a church for welcoming and affirming homosexuals into church leadership.
Nearly 3,000 delegates, or "messengers," of the N.C. Baptist State Convention, voted overwhelmingly on Tuesday to expel Myers Park Baptist Church in Charlotte for violating the Baptist group's constitution.
The liberal church consisting of about 1,970 members was the first to be kicked out of the state convention under new rules passed at the 2006 meeting that considers any Baptist church that welcomed gays and lesbians without trying to change their orientation to be “not in friendly cooperation” with the state convention. Six other churches left the state convention in protest of the new rules, saying the new rule violated local autonomy, according to The Associated Press....