In yet another glaring example of how some people simply can’t understand that they don’t get to impose their religious beliefs on everybody else, Dallas Southern Baptists voted overwhelmingly this week to call for the U.S. Supreme Court to reverse its 2015 ruling in Obergefell v. Hodges, the decision that made marriage equality the law of the land, according to reports from multiple sources.
The vote came during the Southern Baptist Convention’s annual meeting, which opened Sunday, June 8, at the Kay Bailey Hutchinson Convention Center here in Dallas. More than 10,000 Southern Baptist Church representatives are attending the gathering.
According to Politico.com, the call to reverse marriage equality was part of “a wide-ranging resolution that calls for the ‘overturning of laws and court rulings, including Obergefell v. Hodges, that defy God’s design for marriage and family.’”
Th resolution also calls for legislators across the country to “curtail sports betting and to support policies that promote childbearing,” Politico.com notes.
Even as those Southern Baptists inside the convention center cast their hypocritical votes, protesters outside the center served as a reminder of the sexual abuse and misconduct that continues to plague the Southern Baptist denomination.
“Several abuse survivors and advocates for reform, who previously had a prominent presence in SBC meetings, are skipping this year’s gathering, citing lack of progress by the convention,” Politico.com notes, adding that two individuals stood vigil outside the center with signs bearing photos of Jennifer Lyell, a one-time denomination publishing executive who in 2019 went public with allegations that, as a student, she was sexually abused by a seminary professor, and Gareld Duane Rollins, who had accused “longtime SBC powerbroker Paul Pressler” of sexual abuse.
Rollins died of cardiac arrest on May 23 at the age of 60. His attorney told the Houston Chronicle at the time that the cardiac arrest was “caused by complications of everything he’s been through.”
Lyell died Saturday, June 7, after she “suffered catastrophic stokes,” according to friends who also said that the backlash she encountered after going public with her allegations “took a devastating toll on her,” Politico.com noted. She was 47 years old.
Johnna Harris, host of a podcast on abuse in evangelical ministries, was one of the two people standing vigil outside the convention center. She told Politico, “It’s not a healthy thing for[survivors] to be here. I felt like it was important for someone to show up. I want people to know there are people who care.”
— Tammye Nash