Ever since the Baptist World Congress in Atlanta in 1939 the Baptist World Alliance has spoken out with regularity on behalf of religious freedom for all persons, and in more recent years on behalf of civil liberties generally.
While we acknowledge that there are strong cultural and theological differences about the role of women in the church, we wish to affirm the teaching of Galatians 3:28 that in Christ, male and female are equal.
We encourage the churches to affirm this truth in the life and thereby reflect integrity in our Christian witness.
We celebrate the multiple gifts and sensitivities women bring to the service of Jesus Christ and the work of the Baptist family around the world.
Women make up approximately two-thirds of the membership of the church. In society at large, opportunities for the involvement of women are increasing in government, social, economic and educational areas.
WHEREAS, humanity everywhere is undergoing a revolution in sexual morality as evidenced by changing mores, promiscuity, marital infidelity and a preoccupation of the media and advertising with a crass commercialization of sex, and
ACKNOWLEDGES the actions of Baptists in our own generation in championing religious freedom for all people, especially those who find themselves in a minority situation;
VIEWS WITH ALARM the denial of the right of religious liberty to minority groups such as evangelicals in Bulgaria, Albania, Iran, Ethiopia and the republics of Central Asia, Christians in China, Indonesia and East Timor; and to the Coptic Orthodox and other Christians in Egypt;
The General Council of the Baptist World Alliance, meeting in Mexico City, July 3-8, 2006:
Recognizes that women and children are victims of violence that include exploitation in the sex industry, which includes sexual trafficking, labor exploitation, domestic conflict, recruitment into military conflict, rape, many other forms of violence because of precarious and vulnerable situations.
The General Council of the Baptist World Alliance Annual Gathering, meeting in Accra, Ghana, July 2-7, 2007:
Renews its decision made at the General Council in Seoul, Korea, 2004, to strengthen the capacity of aid and development agencies, such as Baptist World Aid, to make a biblically- shaped response to the needs of the poor and oppressed in line with the Micah Challenge campaign to support the UN initiative of 2000 on the Millennium Development Goals to halve the level of world poverty by 2015;