The Southern Baptists plan to vote this week in overtaking Obergefell v. Hodges, the decision of the Supreme Court which legalized gay marriage 10 years ago this month.
The stage is part of an increasing effort of evangelicals nationally to reverse Obergefell, and coincides with a campaign renewed in the legislatures of the States to challenge the widely accepted opinion that homosexual marriage has become an established civil law.
While the Baptiste of the South Convention has long opposed gay marriage, the vote at its annual meeting in Dallas will be the first time that the largest Protestant name in America will ask representatives of its tens of thousands of member churches to work to end it.
Conservative Christian activists hope to rely on the success of their movement in the reversal of Roe v. Wade, the decision of the Supreme Court now disappeared which legalized abortion in 2022, and to apply the legal and political strategies that have proven to be effective for this victory. Public support for legal homosexual marriage remains high, with more than two -thirds of American adults who support it. As with abortion, activists hope to gain political power despite their minority views.
“Christians are called upon to play the long match,” said Andrew T. Walker, an ethician in a Baptist seminar in southern Kentucky who wrote the resolution. He heads the Southern Baptist Convention resolution committee, which coordinates Baptist’s proposals across the country to be voted at the annual meeting.
