By Stefan J. Bos, Chief International Correspondent, Worthy News
DALLAS, USA (Worthy News) – Southern Baptist delegates have endorsed a ban on same-sex marriage and agreed to demand that the U.S. Supreme Court overturn a 10-year-old ruling that legalized it in the United States.
They also called for legislators to curtail sports betting and to support policies that promote childbearing, while seeking a ban on pornography.
Tuesday’s votes came during an annual meeting of the Southern Baptist Convention, the nation’s largest Protestant denomination.
More than 10,000 church representatives attended the two-day gathering in Dallas, Texas, to set the Southern Baptists’ agenda.
Tuesday’s resolution doesn’t 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 God’s design for marriage and family.”
The resolution, which was overwhelmingly voted for, called for “laws that affirm marriage between one man and one woman.”
The Southern Baptist denomination has long opposed gay marriage, but Tuesday was the first time its members have voted to work to end it legally, church observers said.
PRIDE MONTH
It comes during Pride Month, a month-long observance in the United States and other countries dedicated to what activists call “the celebration” of the LGBTQ+ “contributions” of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer culture.
Expanding on conservatives’ success in overturning Roe v. Wade in 2022, the Supreme Court ruling that legalized abortion nationwide, Southern Baptists believe they may eventually be able to reverse the same-sex marriage enabling ruling in Obergefell v. Hodges.
Experts say reversing the Supreme Court’s 2015 Obergefell decision would not amount to a nationwide ban.
At the time of that ruling, 36 states had already legalized gay marriage.
However, “What we’re trying to do is keep the conversation alive,” said Andrew Walker, an ethicist at a Southern Baptist seminary in Kentucky who wrote the resolution.
The measure opposing same-sex marriage was part of a long resolution under the title, “On Restoring Moral Clarity through God’s Design for Gender, Marriage, and the Family.”
It includes calls for defunding abortion services provider Planned Parenthood as well as for “parental rights in education and healthcare.”
CONTROVERSIES DISCUSSED
The resolution also demands ensuring “safety and fairness in female athletic competition,” a reference to the debate over transgender women in women’s sports.
The Southern Baptist Convention was also expected to debate internal controversies, including a proposed ban on churches with women pastors.
There are also calls to defund the organization’s public policy arm, whose anti-abortion stance hasn’t extended to supporting criminal charges for women having abortions.
Despite critics questioning its conservative views, Southern Baptists have begun seeing signs of life within their roughly 47,000 congregations.
While there were about 12.7 million members in 2024, a 2 percent decline from the year before, official church data suggested that church attendance and baptisms were up.
The hundreds of thousands of baptisms being reported annually also suggested an ongoing vitality in the pews and part of what evangelical leaders view as a revival in several parts of the U.S. and other nations.
Copyright 1999-2025 Worthy News. This article was originally published on Worthy News and was reproduced with permission.
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