Latest news with #SouthernBaptists'
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21 hours ago
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Southern Baptists' call for the US Supreme Court to overturn its same-sex marriage decision is part of a long history of opposing women's and LGBTQ+ people's rights
The Southern Baptist Convention has lost 3.6 million members over the past two decades and faces an ongoing sexual abuse crisis. At its June 2025 annual meeting, however, neither of those issues took up as much time as controversial social issues, including the denomination's stance on same-sex marriage. The group called for the overturning of Obergefell v. Hodges – the Supreme Court decision that legalized same-sex marriage – and the creation of laws that 'affirm marriage between one man and one woman.' Messengers – Southern Baptists' word for delegates from local churches – also asked for laws that would 'reflect the moral order revealed in Scripture and nature.' They also decried declining fertility rates, commercial surrogacy, Planned Parenthood, 'willful childlessness,' the normalization of 'transgender ideology,' and gender-affirming medical care. This detailed list targeting women's and LGBTQ+ rights was justified by an appeal to a God-ordained created order, as defined by Southern Baptists' interpretation of the Bible. In this created order, sex and gender are synonymous and are irrevocably defined by biology. The heterosexual nuclear family is the foundational institution of this order, with the father dominant over his wife and children – and children are a necessity if husbands and wives are to be faithful to God's design for the family. The resolution, On Restoring Moral Clarity through God's Design for Gender, Marriage, and the Family, passed easily in a denomination that was taken over from more moderate Southern Baptists by fundamentalists in the early 1990s, largely in response to women's progress in society and in the denomination. Southern Baptists were always conservative on issues of gender and sexuality. As I was entering a Southern Baptist seminary in the early 1980s, the denomination seemed poised to embrace social progress. I watched the takeover firsthand as a student and then as a professor of women and gender studies who studies Southern Baptists. This new resolution is the latest in a long history of Southern Baptist opposition to the progress of women and LGBTQ+ people. Throughout the late 1960s and early 1970s, many Southern Baptists began to embrace the women's movement. Women started to attend Southern Baptist seminaries in record numbers, many claiming a call to serve as pastors. While Southern Baptist acceptance of LGBTQ+ people lagged far behind its nascent embrace of women's rights, progress did seem possible. Then in 1979, a group of Southern Baptist fundamentalists organized to wrest control of the denomination from the moderates who had led it for decades. Any hope for progress on changes regarding LGBTQ+ rights in the denomination quickly died. Across the next two decades, advances made by women, such as being ordained and serving as senior pastors, eroded and disappeared. The SBC had passed anti-gay resolutions in the 1970s defining homosexuality as 'deviant' and a 'sin.' But under the new fundamentalist rule, the SBC became even more vehemently anti-gay and anti-trans. In 1988, the SBC called homosexuality a 'perversion of divine standards,' 'a violation of nature and natural affections,' 'not a normal lifestyle,' and 'an abomination in the eyes of God.' In 1991, they decried government funding for the National Lesbian and Gay Health Conference as a violation of 'the proper role and responsibility of government' because of its encouragement of 'sexual immorality.' Predictably, across the years, the convention spoke out against every effort to advance LGBTQ+ rights. This included supporting the Boy Scouts' ban of gay scouts, opposing military service by LGBTQ+ people, boycotting Disney for its support of LGBTQ+ people, calling on businesses to deny LGBTQ+ people domestic partner benefits and employment nondiscrimination to protect LGBTQ+ people, and supporting the Defense of Marriage Act that limited marriage to a woman and a man. The gender and sexuality topic, however, that has received the most attention from the convention has been marriage equality. Since 1980, the SBC has passed 22 resolutions that touch on same-sex marriage. The SBC passed its first resolution against same-sex marriage in 1996 after the Hawaii Supreme Court indicated the possibility it could rule in favor of same-sex marriage. The court never decided the issue because Hawaii's Legislature passed a bill defining marriage as between a man and a woman. In 1998, the convention amended its faith statement, the Baptist Faith and Message, to define marriage as 'the uniting of one man and one woman in covenant commitment.' The denomination passed its next resolution in 2003 in response to the Vermont General Assembly's establishment of civil unions. The resolution opposed any efforts to validate same-sex marriages or partnerships, whether legislative, judicial or religious. In 2004, after the Massachusetts Supreme Court allowed same-sex marriages in that state, the convention called for a constitutional amendment to define marriage as between a man and a woman. It reiterated this call in 2006. When the California Supreme Court struck down the state's ban on same-sex marriage, the SBC passed another resolution in 2008 warning of the dire consequences of allowing lesbians and gay men to marry, as people from other states would marry in California and return home to challenge their states' marriage bans. In 2011, the convention offered its support for the Defense of Marriage Act, followed in 2012 by a denunciation of the use of civil rights language to argue for marriage equality. The resolution argues that homosexuality 'does not qualify as a class meriting special protections, like race and gender.' When Obergefell was before the Supreme Court, the SBC called on the court to deny marriage equality. After Obergefell was decided in favor of same-sex marriage, the convention asked for Congress to pass the First Amendment Defense Act, which would have prohibited the federal government from discriminating against people based on their opposition to same-sex marriage. That same resolution also offers its support to state attorneys general challenging transgender rights. This was not the first time the SBC had spoken about transgender issues. As early as 2007, the denomination expressed its opposition to allowing transgender people to constitute a protected class in hate crimes legislation. In 2014, the convention stated its belief that gender is fixed and binary and subsequently that trans people should not be allowed gender-affirming care and that government officials should not validate transgender identity. In 2016, the denomination opposed access for transgender people to bathrooms matching their gender identities. In 2021, the convention invoked women's rights – in a denomination famous for its resistance to women's equality – as a reason to undermine trans rights. In its resolution opposing the proposed Equality Act, which would have added sexual orientation and gender identity as protected classifications, the SBC argued, 'The Equality Act would undermine decades of hard-fought civil rights protections for women and girls by threatening competition in sports and disregarding the privacy concerns women rightly have about sharing sleeping quarters and intimate facilities with members of the opposite sex.' This most recent resolution from June 2025 returns to the themes of fixed and binary gender, a divinely sanctioned hierarchical ordering of gender, and marriage as an institution limited to one woman and one man. While claiming these beliefs are 'universal truths,' the resolution argues that Obergefell is a 'legal fiction' because it denies the biological reality of male and female. Going further, this resolution claims that U.S. law on gender and sexuality should be based on the Bible. The duty of lawmakers, it states, is to 'pass laws that reflect the truth of creation and natural law – about marriage, sex, human life, and family – and to oppose any law that denies or undermines what God has made plain through nature and Scripture.' By taking no action on sexual abuse while focusing its efforts on issues of gender and sexuality, the convention affirmed its decades-long conservative trajectory. It also underlined its willingness to encourage lawmakers to impose these standards on the rest of the nation. This article is republished from The Conversation, a nonprofit, independent news organization bringing you facts and trustworthy analysis to help you make sense of our complex world. It was written by: Susan M. Shaw, Oregon State University Read more: Data on sexual orientation and gender is critical to public health – without it, health crises continue unnoticed Southern Baptist Convention votes to expel two churches with female pastors – a religion scholar explains how far back these battles go How women in the Southern Baptist Convention have fought for decades to be ordained Susan M. Shaw does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.
Yahoo
2 days ago
- Politics
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Southern Baptists repeat feuds over SBC public policy arm, women pastors at Dallas event
The Southern Baptist Convention narrowly retained its public policy arm and showed strong support for a proposed constitutional ban on women pastors despite the measure's failure to receive a supermajority vote, replicating feuds the nation's largest Protestant denomination has dealt with in the past couple of years. Legislative debates about women pastors and about the Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission at this year's SBC annual meeting in Dallas have led some to complain the convention is spinning its wheels. A renewed proposal at the Dallas legislative assembly for a constitutional ban on women pastors failed because it didn't meet a supermajority vote. Sixty percent of delegates, called messengers, voted for the proposal, just short of the required threshold. 'Why do they feel like they need to keep bringing this up over and over again when they already have mechanisms by which they can disfellowship churches,' Meredith Stone, executive director of Baptist Women in Ministry, said at a June 10 event protesting support for banning women pastors. The proposed ban was the central debate at the 2023 and 2024 SBC annual meetings, and this week in Dallas messengers moved to reverse the last year's outcome. If two-thirds majority of messengers approved the measure, it would have required a ratification vote at next year's SBC annual meeting in Orlando. SBC President Clint Pressley doesn't see these recurring debates as necessarily problematic, and in fact says it's a reflection of Southern Baptists' continued commitment to the convention business. "That's the great thing about Southern Baptists is that they have a conversation, don't win a vote, and they still keep coming," Pressley, a North Carolina pastor, said in a June 11 news conference. Pressley said he expects some of the major legislative conversations at this year's SBC annual meeting to reemerge next year. Messengers reelected Pressley to a second term, meaning he will preside over the 2026 SBC annual meeting in Orlando. This year, the convention also approved a resolution calling for the reversal of the U.S. Supreme Court decision Obergefell v. Hodges on the month of the 10-year anniversary of the landmark ruling that legalized same-sex marriage. The Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission advocates for beliefs articulated in SBC resolutions, and is a reason why ERLC president Brent Leatherwood said the commission's work is essential for the denomination. Leatherwood addressed messengers before it debated the proposal to abolish the ERLC, saying eradicating the commission 'means the public square would be abandoned by the SBC, losing a powerful voice for the truth of the gospel and in effect rewarding secular efforts to push religion out.' Critics have accused the ERLC of promoting views on issues like the environment, immigration, and the war in Ukraine that are inconsistent with conventional Southern Baptist values. Leatherwood has been the specifically been a target of those attacks. He nearly lost his job last year when the commission's former board chair acted unilaterally to remove Leatherwood, who shortly before had commended former President Joe Biden for dropping out of the U.S. presidential race. The Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission faced attacks at the 2022, 2023 and 2024 SBC annual meetings, each time narrowly surviving. This year, 56% of messengers voted to reject a proposal to abolish the ERLC. The SBC seemed to settle the fight over women pastors at the 2024 SBC annual meeting in Indianapolis, but controversies since then have emboldened some Southern Baptists to resurrect the proposal. In February, SBC administrative leaders opted not to disfellowship, or oust, a South Carolina megachurch that employs a woman pastor. The SBC Executive Committee did oust an Anchorage, Alaska congregation over an apparent set of beliefs on women pastors at odds with the denomination's position. The South Carolina megachurch, NewSpring Church, ultimately withdrew from the SBC. 'If we don't give them that clarity, we're going to have to come back year after year to debate this indefinitely,' Travis Hartwell, a messenger from Houston, said during a June 11 floor debate. 'I for one do not wish to come to the convention every year to debate female pastors.' Ultimately, the vote outcome at the Dallas meeting mirrored that of the 2024 SBC annual meeting in Indianapolis when a strong majority of messengers supported the proposal, but it was just short of a required supermajority. Baptist Women in Ministry, a nonprofit that advocates for women in church leadership roles, organized the June 10 panel discussion on women pastors. 'What the Southern Baptist Convention is doing today in regards to women… is one of the harshest measures against women in ministry in the western world,' said panelist Beth Allison Barr, a religious historian. 'It's really making it clear to women that 'you belong under male power and there's no way around it.'' This story was updated to include a quote from SBC President Clint Pressley. Liam Adams covers religion for The Tennessean, part of the USA TODAY Network. Reach him at ladams@ or on social media @liamsadams. This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: Southern Baptists repeat public policy, women pastors feuds in Dallas
Yahoo
3 days ago
- Politics
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Southern Baptists move to end same-sex marriage in the US
Southern Baptists, whose faith includes over 12 million members in the US, have endorsed a ban to end same-sex marriage in America. The moment marks the first time the group has officially opposed the ruling in Obergefell v Hodges, the 2015 landmark Supreme Court case backing same-sex marriage. The votes on Tuesday came during the annual Southern Baptist Convention in Dallas, Texas, attended by over 10,000 church representatives. Experts say the evangelical group's values have increasingly shifted to align with the Christian right, a branch of conservatism that has gained momentum under US President Donald Trump. The Southern Baptists' resolution does not use the word "ban" directly. Instead, it calls for the "overturning of laws and court rulings, including Obergefell v. Hodges, that defy God's design for marriage and family". The resolution also calls "for laws that affirm marriage between one man and one woman". Any legal reversal of the Supreme Court's Obergefell decision would not lead automatically to a nationwide ban of same-sex marriage. Thirty-six states had already legalised same-sex marriage at the time of the ruling, and nearly 70% of Americans still support it, polls show. "What we're trying to do is keep the conversation alive," Andrew Walker, an ethicist at a Southern Baptist seminary in Kentucky who wrote the resolution, told the New York Times. Although the resolution is non-binding, it comes from a large, influential faction of President Trump's base and sends a direct message to the White House. Eighty-five percent of white evangelical Protestants are likely to be Republican voters, according to a 2024 Pew Research survey. "I think there is a confidence that (Trump) will have their backs," Kristin Du Mez, a Calvin University history professor specializing in religion and politics, told the BBC. "In some ways, it's an uphill battle," she said. "But I do think they sense that there's been this shift, that there may be a window opening, and that they think this is the right time to press this issue." She described a "transactional element" to the relationship between evangelicals and Trump, whose Supreme Court nominations helped end national abortion rights. Evangelicals also played a "very prominent" role overturning Roe v Wade, the landmark Supreme Court ruling that protected abortion for nearly 50 years before it was overturned in 2022, said Ms Du Mez. She said she believes evangelicals may be using the same blueprint to end same-sex marriage. "I know some of the leaders have pointed to Roe v Wade as a model of the need to play the long game," she said. Trump's message on same-sex marriage has been mixed over the years, telling CNN in 2015 that he supported "traditional marriage" then, in a 60 Minutes interview in 2016, saying he was "fine" with same-sex marriage. In his second term, however, he has launched a campaign against diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) with multiple directives targeting LGBTQ groups. This includes banning transgender people from serving the military, and revoking a Biden-era executive order preventing discrimination "on the basis of gender identity or sexual orientation". Fear and anxiety in LGBTQ communities have grown as a result, leading some international organisations to boycott World Pride in Washington DC this year. And although public support largely remains behind same-sex marriage, the Southern Baptists' resolution has added to LGBTQ groups' sense of alarm. "This is a very visible example of how attacks on the LGBTQ+ community as a whole have intensified, even as politicians take aim at transgender people as a tactic to divide us," Laurel Powell, Human Rights Campaign communications director, said in a statement to the BBC. "We will never stop fighting to love who we love and be who we are."
