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The president of the Southern Baptist Convention said today that the church was engaged in "spiritual warfare" against gay marriage, and that it would not back down should the Supreme Court declare it legal.
Speaking to several thousand members at its annual convention in Columbus, Ohio, Rev. Ronnie Floyd sounded defiant in the face of the cultural shift toward accepting same-sex marriage and an upcoming high court opinion widely suspected to favor such unions.
“We are in a spiritual warfare,” said Floyd, a pastor from Arkansas. “This is not a time for Southern Baptists to stand back.”
He said the court decision could mark the most significant religion-related court decision since the 1973 abortion rule of Roe v. Wade, in that it could alter the nation’s structure of marriage and compromise religious liberty.
“It would add fuel, more fuel, to the already sweeping wildfire of sexual revolution and move it beyond all control,” he said.
The Bible makes it clear: Marriage is meant to be between a man and a woman, he said. And refusing to recoil from what has been attacks on this church belief, he said it is time for southern Baptists to lead on the issue.
“The Supreme Court is not the final authority, nor is the culture itself,” Floyd said. And to sustained applause he asserted, “I will not officiate over any same-sex unions or same-sex marriage ceremonies.”
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