What happened
Southern Baptists, the largest U.S. Protestant denomination, voted Tuesday to endorse resolutions to ban same-sex marriage and pornography across the U.S. and condemn sports betting. The votes opened the two-day annual meeting of the Southern Baptist Convention, being held in Dallas.
Who said what
The same-sex nuptials measure is part of a "much larger resolution" that urges Christians to "embrace marriage and childbearing," criticizes "willful childlessness" and describes declining U.S. fertility rates as a crisis, The Associated Press said. It "doesn't use the word 'ban,' but it left no room for legal same-sex marriage," calling for the "overturning of laws and court rulings, including Obergefell v. Hodges, that defy God's design for marriage and family," and for the passage of laws limiting marriage to heterosexual unions.
Southern Baptists have "long opposed gay marriage" but this was the "first time its members have voted to work to legally end it," buoyed by the "successful effort that overturned the right to legal abortions," The New York Times said. The SBC is "often seen as a bellwether for conservative evangelicalism writ large," and the resolution's success "suggests that evangelicals have long-term ambitions to dismantle an institution that many Americans now accept as a basic right."
The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
What next?
The 10,500 gathered SBC delegates, or "messengers," plan today to debate amendments to bar churches with women pastors and to abolish the denomination's policy arm, the Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission, "which is staunchly conservative, but according to critics, not enough so," the AP said.
-
Revisionism and division: Franco’s legacy five decades onIn The Spotlight Events to mark 50 years since Franco’s death designed to break young people’s growing fascination with the Spanish dictator
-
Did Cop30 fulfil its promise to Indigenous Brazilians?Today’s Big Question Brazilian president approves 10 new protected territories, following ‘unprecedented’ Indigenous presence at conference, both as delegates and protesters
-
The best Christmas theatre shows across the UKThe Week Recommends Tip-top festive ballets, plays and comedies to book up now
-
God is now just one text away because of AIUnder the radar People can talk to a higher power through AI chatbots
-
Religion: Thiel’s ‘Antichrist’ obsessionFeature Peter Thiel’s new lectures cast critics of tech and AI as “legionnaires of the Antichrist”
-
Pope Leo wants to change the Vatican’s murky financesThe Explainer Leo has been working to change some decisions made by his predecessor
-
Pope Leo canonizes first millennial saintSpeed Read Two young Italians, Carlo Acutis and Pier Giorgio Frassati, were elevated to sainthood
-
Thailand's monk sex scandalIn The Spotlight New accusations involving illicit sex and blackmail have shaken the nation and opened a debate on the privileges monks enjoy
-
Southern Baptists lay out their political road mapThe Explainer The Southern Baptist Convention held major votes on same-sex marriage, pornography and more
-
Where the new Pope Leo XIV stands on social issuesThe Explainer The first American pontiff is expected to continue some of his predecessor's work
-
Prevost elected first US pope, becomes Leo XIVspeed read Cardinal Robert Francis Prevost is a Chicago native who spent decades living in Peru
