WHEREAS, God has ordained government to do good works; and
WHEREAS, Southern Baptists have historically supported the constitutional rights of free speech and have opposed undue censorship; and
WHEREAS, Regulation of government funding of art or certain types of expression claimed to be art is not censorship of the arts; and
WHEREAS, The Supreme Court recently stated in Rust v. Sullivan that government may regulate expressive activity to conform to public policy as a condition for obtaining public funding; and
WHEREAS, The National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) has, increasingly in recent years, demonstrated a pattern of support for obscene, offensive, morally repugnant, and sac-religious “art”; and
WHEREAS, The Chairman of the NEA, who is appointed by the President, has demonstrated a clear lack of sensitivity to the concerns of evangelical Christians and others regarding the funding abuses of the NEA; and
WHEREAS, Last year, despite pleas from evangelical Christians and others, Congress and the President failed to support legislation which would have placed meaningful restrictions on what the NEA is permitted to fund but instead adopted an ineffectual standard calling for “general standards of decency”; and
WHEREAS, Since last year’s ineffectual action by Congress, additional homoerotic, pornographic, and sacreligious “art” has been funded by the NEA with the explicit approval of its Chairman; and
WHEREAS, Some members of Congress and the President continue to oppose content restrictions on NEA funding; Now, therefore,
BE IT RESOLVED, That we the messengers to the Southern Baptist Convention meeting in Atlanta, Georgia, June 4-6, 1991, recognizing the influence which the NEA has on our culture, deplore the lack of initiative by the President and Congress in addressing the continuing abuses of the NEA; and
BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, That we urge the President to act immediately to remove the current Chairman of the NEA and replace him with an individual who will stop funding obscene, offensive, morally repugnant, and sacrilegious “art”; and
BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, That we call on Congress and the President to set standards which will prevent the funding the obscene, offensive, morally repugnant and sacrilegious “art,” or, if that is not done, to cease funding the National Endowment for the Arts.