West Virginia Southern Baptists
support marriage amendment

PARKERSBURG, W.Va. (ABP) — The West Virginia Convention of Southern Baptists passed a resolution Nov. 7 calling on church members to support an amendment to the state constitution to ban gay marriage.

The resolution called on members to “avail ourselves of the opportunity to affirm the historic, legal, and reasonable definition of marriage by supporting and promoting an amendment to the state constitution.”

“Same-sex unions are not the same as opposite-sex unions,” the resolution stated. “To believe otherwise is to ignore the uniqueness of each gender’s design and undermines marriage.”

The resolution said changing the definition of marriage has “devastating moral, spiritual, economic, and social effects on the whole society.”

“As ministers of the gospel, we are compelled to defend the institution of marriage as created by God — in church and in culture,” the resolution said.

Messengers resolved to “strongly encourage Christians throughout West Virginia to engage in the civic process in defense of marriage and in support of the government’s leadership in defining marriage as the union of one man and one woman.”

“As Christians, we cannot ignore our duty to speak the truth to culture,” the resolution said.

“West Virginians want to define marriage for themselves,” said Jeremy Dys, president and general counsel of the Family Policy Council of West Virginia, which supported the measure. “They do not want government setting a policy — and they especially do not want a court imposing a system — that knowingly deprives children of a mom or a dad.”

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Text of West Virginia Baptists’ gay-marriage resolution