The Southern Baptist Convention (SBC), the nation’s largest protestant denomination, gathered for their annual two-day meeting in early June. Discussing a wide variety of topics, ranging from transgender youth to gambling, the convention ultimately endorsed resolutions to ban same-sex marriages, calling for a reversal of the ten-year-old Supreme Court precedent. This decision signals the SBC’s goal of replicating their previously successful campaign to overturn Roe v. Wade.
One resolution called upon legislators to uphold their duty in passing “laws that reflect the truth of creation and natural law” and opposing laws that contradict “what God has made plain through nature and Scripture.” Another resolution simply calls for the overruling of Obergefell, the 2015 precedent that equates same-sex marriage with opposite-sex marriage under the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment.
This ruling also affirms the SBC’s definition of gender and marriage, solidifying the gender binary and opposite-sex marriage.
The SBC feels emboldened by the current administration and right-leaning Supreme Court. Their resolutions are well within the realm of possibility at a time where their allies hold major positions of power in our government. The Speaker of the House, Mike Johnson, a Southern Baptist himself, is placed third in line for the presidency. Additionally, Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas has already called to revisit Obergefell.
Nancy Ammerman, a professor of religion at Boston University and attendee at the SBC, told AP, “…[t]here’s not a lot of room for people who don’t have the same understanding of who God is and how God operates in the world.” Southern Baptists are feeling confident in their place in society and feel as if they’ve been given an “opportunity” to “take back” their country.
Casting a shadow over the otherwise optimistic atmosphere of the SBC is the recent death of one of the most prominent whistleblowers of the Southern Baptists’ sexual abuse scandal. Jennifer Lyell went public in 2019 with her sexual abuse allegations against David Sills, her seminary professor while she was a student. Sills admitted to the misconduct and resigned from his post, but no details were made public. Lyell received devastating backlash from the public and media, including the SBC media outlet, the Baptist Press, portraying her claims as a “morally inappropriate relationship” rather than abuse.
Lyell died Saturday, June 7, from catastrophic strokes. The SBC began on Tuesday, June 10, with no mention of Lyell’s passing. Relatedly, the SBC Executive Committee is seeking $3 million in convention funding for legal expenses for ongoing abuse cases.
Previous members of the SBC have come forward with other allegations and calls for reform. In 2022, the convention agreed to create a database of all alleged abusers in their denomination. Earlier this year, though, Executive Committee President Jeff Iorg stated that this database was not a priority and the SBC made no remarks about it at this year’s convention. Several abuse reform advocates that were previously a prominent presence at the SBC are choosing to skip this year’s convention in solidarity with survivors.
Despite recent controversies, the SBC was solely focused on their resolutions to prohibit same-sex marriage in America and design legislation “…based on what they say is the biblically stated order of divine creation,” an AP source reported.
The SBC’s resolutions reflect the denomination’s interpretation of religious doctrine and their approach to engaging with contemporary legal and social issues. These positions represent one perspective in ongoing national debates about marriage, gender, and the intersection of religious beliefs with civil law.
