Southern Baptist delegates at national meeting overwhelmingly call for
banning same-sex marriage
[June 11, 2025]
By PETER SMITH
DALLAS (AP) — Southern Baptist delegates at their national meeting
overwhelmingly endorsed a ban on same-sex marriage — including a call
for a reversal of the U.S. Supreme Court's 10-year-old precedent
legalizing it nationwide.
They also called for legislators to curtail sports betting and to
support policies that promote childbearing.
The votes Tuesday came at the gathering of more than 10,000 church
representatives at the annual meeting of the nation's largest Protestant
denomination.
The wide-ranging resolution doesn’t use the word “ban,” but it left no
room for legal same-sex marriage in calling for the “overturning of laws
and court rulings, including Obergefell v. Hodges, that defy God’s
design for marriage and family.” Further, the resolution affirmatively
calls “for laws that affirm marriage between one man and one women.”
A reversal of the Supreme Court's 2015 Obergefell decision wouldn’t in
and of itself amount to a nationwide ban. At the time of that ruling, 36
states had already legalized same-sex marriage, and support remains
strong in many areas.
However, if the convention got its wish, not only would Obergefell be
overturned, but so would every law and court ruling that affirmed
same-sex marriage.
There was no debate on the marriage resolution. That in itself is not
surprising in the solidly conservative denomination, which has long
defined marriage as between one man and one woman. However, it marks an
especially assertive step in its call for the reversal of a decade-old
Supreme Court ruling, as well as any other legal pillars to same-sex
marriage in law and court precedent.
Gender identity, fertility and other issues
The marriage issue was incorporated into a much larger resolution on
marriage and family — one that calls for civil law to be based on what
the convention says is the divinely created order as stated in the
Bible.
The resolution says legislators 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 contradicting “what God has made plain
through nature and Scripture.”
The same resolution calls for recognizing “the biological reality of
male and female” and opposes "any law or policy that compels people to
speak falsehoods about sex and gender."
It urges Christians to “embrace marriage and childbearing” and to see
children “as blessings rather than burdens."
But it also frames that issue as one of public policy. It calls for “for
renewed moral clarity in public discourse regarding the crisis of
declining fertility and for policies that support the bearing and
raising of children within intact, married families.”
It laments that modern culture is “pursuing willful childlessness which
contributes to a declining fertility rate,” echoing a growing subject of
discourse on the religious and political right.
The pornography resolution, which had no debate, calls such material
destructive, addictive and exploitive and says governments have the
power to ban it.
The sports betting resolution draws on Southern Baptists' historic
opposition to gambling. It called sports betting “harmful and
predatory.” One pastor urged an amendment to distinguish between
low-stakes, recreational gambling and predatory, addictive gambling
activities. But his proposed amendment failed.
Andrew Walker, chair of the Committee on Resolutions, said at a news
conference that the marriage resolution shows that Southern Baptists
aren’t going along with the widespread social acceptance of same-sex
marriage.
But Walker, a professor at Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in
Louisville, Kentucky, acknowledged that a realistic rollback strategy
would require incremental steps, such as seeking to overturn Obergefell.
“I’m clear-eyed about the difficulties and the headwinds in this
resolution,” he said.
Whistleblower's death casts pall on Dallas meeting
The two-day annual meeting began Tuesday morning with praise sessions
and optimistic reports about growing numbers of baptisms. But casting a
pall over the gathering is the recent death of one of the most
high-profile whistleblowers in the Southern Baptists' scandal of sexual
abuse.
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Southern Baptist Convention President Clint Pressley gives the
President's Address during the 2025 SBC Annual Meeting, Tuesday,
June 10, 2025, in Dallas. (AP Photo/Richard W. Rodriguez)
Jennifer Lyell, a onetime denominational publishing executive who
went public in 2019 with allegations that she had been sexually
abused by a seminary professor while a student, died Saturday at 47.
She “suffered catastrophic strokes," a friend and fellow advocate,
Rachael Denhollander, posted Sunday on X.
Friends reported that the backlash Lyell received after going public
with her report took a devastating toll on her.
Several abuse survivors and advocates for reform, who previously had
a prominent presence in recent SBC meetings, are skipping this
year’s gathering, citing lack of progress by the convention.
Two people sought to fill that void, standing vigil outside of the
meeting at the Kay Bailey Hutchison Convention Center Dallas as
attendees walked by. The pair held up signs with photos of Lyell and
of Gareld Duane Rollins, who died earlier this spring and who was
among those who accused longtime SBC power broker Paul Pressler of
sexual abuse.
“It’s not a healthy thing for them (survivors) to be here,” said
Johnna Harris, host of a podcast on abuse in evangelical ministries.
“I felt like it was important for someone to show up. I want people
to know there are people who care.”
Past attempts at reforms in the SBC
The SBC Executive Committee, in a 2022 apology, acknowledged “its
failure to adequately listen, protect, and care for Jennifer Lyell
when she came forward to share her story.” It also acknowledged the
denomination’s official news agency had not accurately reported the
situation as “sexual abuse by a trusted minister in a position of
power at a Southern Baptist seminary."
SBC officials issued statements this week lamenting Lyell's death,
but her fellow advocates have denounced what they say is a failure
to implement reforms.
The SBC's 2022 meeting voted overwhelmingly to create a way to track
pastors and other church workers credibly accused of sex abuse. That
came shortly after the release of a blockbuster report by an outside
consultant, which said Southern Baptist leaders mishandled abuse
cases and stonewalled victims for years.
But the denomination's Executive Committee president, Jeff Iorg,
said earlier this year that creating a database is not a focus and
that the committee instead plans to refer churches to existing
databases of sex offenders and focus on education about abuse
prevention. The committee administers the denomination's day-to-day
business.
Advocates for reform don't see those approaches as adequate.
It is the latest instance of “officials trailing out hollow words,
impotent task forces and phony dog-and-pony shows of reform,” abuse
survivor and longtime advocate Christa Brown wrote on Baptist News
Global, which is not SBC-affiliated.
In a related action, the Executive Committee will also be seeking $3
million in convention funding for ongoing legal expenses related to
abuse cases.
What else is on the agenda?
As of late Tuesday afternoon, attendance was at 10,541 church
representatives (known as messengers). That is less than a quarter
of the total that thronged the SBC's annual meeting 40 years ago
this month in a Dallas showdown that marked the height of battles
over control of the convention, ultimately won by the more
conservative-fundamentalist side led by Pressler and his allies.
Messengers will also debate whether to institute a constitutional
ban on churches with women pastors and to abolish its public-policy
arm, the Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission — which is
staunchly conservative, but according to critics, not enough so.
Brent Leatherwood, president of the ERLC, said Tuesday he would
address the “turbulence” during his scheduled remarks Wednesday but
was confident in the messengers' support.
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