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First Baptist Church, Dallas, Texas, May 2024
The largest Protestant denomination in the U.S. will consider a measure this week in support of banning marriage equality.
The Southern Baptist Convention, meeting in Dallas, Texas this week is expected to pass resolutions in support of legally banning pornography, sports betting, and marriage equality.
Representatives from the largest Protestant denomination in the U.S. will consider the measures Tuesday and Wednesday, as well as an internal proposal seeking to ban churches with women pastors and one that would rescind funding for the organization's public policy branch over its failure to endorse criminal charges for people who have abortions.
One proposed resolution reported by ABC in essence tells legislators to ignore separation of church and state because they 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 that supposedly go against “what God has made plain through nature and Scripture.”
The vast majority of Americans — 68 percent — support marriage equality, according to a recent poll from Gallup. This includes 88 percent of Democrats, compared to only 41 percent of Republicans. Southern Baptists overwhelmingly vote Republican.
If the Supreme Court reverses Obergefell v. Hodges, marriages between same-sex couples would still be recognized federally under the Respect for Marriage Act, which mandates that the federal government recognize same-sex and interracial marriages, and that all states recognize those performed in other states. However, the act does not require states to allow marriages between same-sex couples, allowing them to enact bans.
While the Supreme Court has made no official move to reconsider marriage equality, nine states have recently introduced resolutions asking the court to hear the case again. None have yet passed, and even if they were to, the resolutions are nonbinding — meaning they carry no legal weight, and the court is not obligated to hear them.
However, some justices have voiced opposition to Obergefell even after the ruling. When the conservative majority created by Donald Trump overturned Roe v. Wade, Clarence Thomas wrote in his concurring opinion at the time that the court should also revisit and overrule decisions that prevent state restrictions on contraception, marriage equality, sodomy, and other private consensual sex acts, calling the rulings "demonstrably erroneous."
