DALLAS Southern Baptist delegates at their national meeting overwhelmingly endorsed a ban on same-sex marriage including a call for a reversal of the U.S. Supreme Courts 10-year-old precedent legalizing it nationwide.
They also called for legislators to curtail sports betting and to support policies that promote childbearing.
The votes Tuesday came at the gathering of more than 10,000 church representatives at the annual meeting of the nations largest Protestant denomination.
The wide-ranging resolution doesnt use the word ban, but it left no room for legal same-sex marriage in calling for the overturning of laws and court rulings, including Obergefell v. Hodges, that defy Gods design for marriage and family. Further, the resolution affirmatively calls for laws that affirm marriage between one man and one women.
A reversal of the Supreme Courts 2015 Obergefell decision wouldnt in and of itself amount to a nationwide ban. At the time of that ruling, 36 states had already legalized same-sex marriage, and support remains strong in many areas.
However, if the convention got its wish, not only would Obergefell be overturned, but so would every law and court ruling that affirmed same-sex marriage.
There was no debate on the marriage resolution. That in itself is not surprising in the solidly conservative denomination, which has long defined marriage as between one man and one woman. However, it marks an especially assertive step in its call for the reversal of a decade-old Supreme Court ruling, as well as any other legal pillars to same-sex marriage in law and court precedent.
Gender identity, fertility and other issues
The marriage issue was incorporated into a much larger resolution on marriage and family one that calls for civil law to be based on what the convention says is the divinely created order as stated in the Bible.
The resolution says legislators have a duty to pass laws that reflect the truth of creation and natural law about marriage, sex, human life, and family and to oppose laws contradicting what God has made plain through nature and Scripture.
The same resolution calls for recognizing the biological reality of male and female and opposes any law or policy that compels people to speak falsehoods about sex and gender.
It urges Christians to embrace marriage and childbearing and to see children as blessings rather than burdens.
But it also frames that issue as one of public policy. It calls for for renewed moral clarity in public discourse regarding the crisis of declining fertility and for policies that support the bearing and raising of children within intact, married families.
It laments that modern culture is pursuing willful childlessness which contributes to a declining fertility rate, echoing a growing subject of discourse on the religious and political right.
The pornography resolution, which had no debate, calls such material destructive, addictive and exploitive and says governments have the power to ban it.
The sports betting resolution draws on Southern Baptists historic opposition to gambling. It called sports betting harmful and predatory. One pastor urged an amendment to distinguish between low-stakes, recreational gambling and predatory, addictive gambling activities. But his proposed amendment failed.
Andrew Walker, chair of the Committee on Resolutions, said at a news conference that the marriage resolution shows that Southern Baptists arent going along with the widespread social acceptance of same-sex marriage.
But Walker, a professor at Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, Kentucky, acknowledged that a realistic rollback strategy would require incremental steps, such as seeking to overturn Obergefell.
Im clear-eyed about the difficulties and the headwinds in this resolution, he said.
Whistleblowers death casts pall on Dallas meeting
The two-dayannual meetingbegan Tuesday morning with praise sessions and optimistic reports about growing numbers of baptisms. But casting a pall over the gathering is the recent death of one of the most high-profile whistleblowers in the Southern Baptists’ scandal of sexual abuse.
Jennifer Lyell, a onetime denominational publishing executive who went public in 2019 with allegations that she had been sexually abused by a seminary professor while a student, died Saturday at 47. She suffered catastrophic strokes,” a friend and fellow advocate,Rachael Denhollander, posted Sunday on X.
Friends reported that the backlash Lyell received after going public with her report took a devastating toll on her.
Several abuse survivors and advocates for reform, who previously had a prominent presence in recent SBC meetings, are skipping this years gathering, citing lack of progress by the convention.
Two people sought to fill that void, standing vigil outside of the meeting at the Kay Bailey Hutchison Convention Center Dallas as attendees walked by. The pair held up signs with photos of Lyell and of Gareld Duane Rollins, who died earlier this spring and who was among those who accused longtime SBC power brokerPaul Presslerof sexual abuse.
Its not a healthy thing for them (survivors) to be here, said Johnna Harris, host of a podcast on abuse in evangelical ministries. I felt like it was important for someone to show up. I want people to know there are people who care.
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