By Bob Allen
A gay Baptist preacher suing for the right to marry in Kentucky pledged to continue his fight for marriage equality after the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled against him and 15 other gay and lesbian couples in four states challenging laws banning same-sex marriage.
Other Baptists said the ruling offered hope that the U.S. Supreme Court might permit states to determine the legal status of marriage.
Maurice “Bojangles” Blanchard, a gay-rights activist and ordained Baptist minister who attends Highland Baptist Church in Louisville, Ky., termed a Nov. 6 decision upholding gay marriage bans in Kentucky, Ohio, Michigan and Tennessee “a very sad day” for him and his partner, Dominque James.
“This federal appeals court upheld inequality today, and I’m ashamed of them,” Blanchard posted Thursday night on Facebook. Blanchard said he is “praying for justice tonight” and pledged, “I will never quit fighting for equality, nor will I bow to bigotry cloaked in legislation.”
But Russell Moore, president of the Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission of the Southern Baptist Convention, said, “This circuit split means that the Supreme Court’s ignoring of this issue will not be able to continue,”
“The people of the states have the right to recognize marriage the way virtually every human culture has, as the union of a man and a woman,” said Moore, who recently hosted a national conference on “The Gospel, Homosexuality and the Future of Marriage” attended by 1,300 people in Nashville, Tenn. “The Supreme Court should affirm this right, for all 50 states.”
In a 2-1 decision delivered by Judge Jeffrey Sutton, the Cincinnati-based appeals court said the issue before judges is not whether gay marriage is a good thing, but if courts or the voters should decide on the definition of marriage.
“Better in this instance, we think, to allow change through the customary political processes, in which the people, gay and straight alike, become the heroes of their own stories by meeting each other not as adversaries in a court system but as fellow citizens seeking to resolve a new social issue in a fair-minded way,” the opinion said.
Circuit Judge Martha Craig Daughtrey filed a dissent, saying the majority opinion “would make an engrossing TED Talk” but as a court decision failed to grapple with the relevant constitutional question: whether a state constitution’s prohibition of same-sex marriage violates the Equal Protection Clause of the 14th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.
“In the main, the majority treats both the issues and the litigants here as mere abstractions,” Daughtrey said, “instead of recognizing the plaintiffs as persons, suffering actual harm as a result of being denied the right to marry where they reside or the right to have their valid marriages recognized there.”
The Cincinnati court is the first federal appeals court to rule against gay marriage. In July a federal appeals court in Virginia ruled 2-1 that same-sex couples have a constitutional right to wed. Observers say Thursday’s ruling virtually guarantees a Supreme Court review.
Meanwhile, Barry Lynn, executive director of Americans United for Separation of Church and State, said the Supreme Court should overturn the 6th Circuit decision.
“This ruling isn’t persuasive and is poorly reasoned,” said Lynn, an ordained minister in the United Church of Christ. “The court shows a disturbing willingness to turn individual rights over to a majority vote. Our country doesn’t work that way.”
Paul Chitwood, executive director of the Kentucky Baptist Convention, praised the decision.
“Kentuckians who submit both to the Lord and to government, as God’s word teaches, celebrate the court’s ruling,” Chitwood said. “We are grateful to know that the constitution of our state has been affirmed and rejoice that the sanctity of marriage has been protected.”
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