June 11 (UPI) — The Southern Baptists Convention easily passed a resolution that called for the reversal of same-sex marriage in the United States along with supporting other long-existing conservative hot topics.
On Tuesday in Dallas at its annual convention, SBC delegates in America’s largest Protestant denomination signed off on the broad resolution that called for the “overturning of laws and court rulings, including Obergefell v Hodges, that defy God’s design for marriage and family” as the SBC doubled down on gender issues.
It arrived as the U.S. Supreme Court’s landmark 2015 Obergefell ruling nears its 10-year anniversary in which it officially legalized gay marriage.
The SBC resolution also affirmed, among other things, the organization’s opinion on the existence of only two genders, officially defined marriage as an act between a man and woman. SBC adherents also opposed commercial parental surrogacy and denounced a perceived normalization of “transgender ideology.”
“Our culture is increasingly rejecting and distorting these truths by redefining marriage, pursuing willful childlessness which contributes to a declining fertility rate, ignoring and suppressing the biological differences between male and female, encouraging gender confusion, undermining parental rights and denying the value and dignity of children,” the SBC resolution reads in part.
Despite the denomination’s hardline conservative views, scores of independent polls suggest gay marriage has enjoyed a broad and ever-growing support among a majority of U.S. citizens.
“What we’re trying to do is keep the conversation alive,” Andrew Walker, an ethicist at a Kentucky Southern Baptist seminary who penned the resolution, told The New York Times.
Last year, the convention voted in Indianapolis to reject a proposal to restrict women in pastoral roles amid a crackdown on the same day delegates elected a new SBC president
The 2025 Southern Baptist resolution, meanwhile, was similarly denounced Wednesday by scores of human rights activists and organizations.
“Marriage equality is settled law,” Laurel Powell, communications director of Human Rights Campaign, told the Guardian.
“Love is love, and the right for LGBTQ+ couples to marry is supported by an overwhelming majority of the American public,” Powell added in the HRC’s statement.
