By Bob Allen
A Missouri Baptist leader criticized two circuit court judges for granting divorces to females wed in another state that, unlike Missouri, recognizes same-sex marriage.
Don Hinkle, director of public policy for the Missouri Baptist Convention, accused the judges of “mocking the will of Missouri citizens” who voted overwhelmingly in 2004 to define marriages as between one man and one woman in the state constitution.
“Not only has God said that marriage must be between a man and a woman, but common sense dictates it as well,” Hinkle said in a news story in the state convention’s newspaper. “How else can humans be fruitful and multiply?”
“Study after study shows that children do best when they have a father and a mother,” Hinkle said. “It is time for the focus to shift solely from the desires of adults to what is best for children. We are all free to love whomever we please in America; however, the institution of marriage between a man and a woman is time-tested and what is best for society.”
Hinkle, who serves as editor of The Pathway, added an editorial calling the rulings “judicial hubris.”
Hinkle said it is impossible to dissolve a union not legally recognized as a marriage in the first place.
“How can it be a ‘marriage’ if it is not legal?” Hinkle asked. “There may have been a ceremony and deals may have been struck between the parties, but without a marriage license it was never a marriage.”
Hinkle is a party in a lawsuit challenging an executive order by Gov. Jay Nixon that same-sex couples married in other states but living in Missouri can file joint federal tax returns. Other plaintiffs include Justin Mosher, pastor of Fifth Street Baptist Church in Hannibal, Mo., and chairman of the Missouri Baptist Convention’s Christian Life Commission, and Kerry Messer, legislative liaison for the CLC in the Missouri Legislature and founder of the Missouri Family Network.
Missouri Baptist leaders lobbied for the gay marriage ban in 2004, delivering more than 10,000 signatures to state legislators calling for a constitutional amendment.