By Bob Allen
The Missouri Baptist Convention adopted a resolution Oct. 29 criticizing a decision by the state’s attorney general not to appeal a judge’s ruling that Missouri must recognize same-sex marriages performed in other states.
Messengers to the 2014 MBC annual meeting approved a statement terming the Oct. 3 ruling by Jackson County Circuit Judge Dale an attempt “to accomplish by judicial fiat” something the majority of Missouri citizens don’t want. The statement said in his decision not to appeal, Attorney General Chris Koster is “abrogating his constitutional role … to support and defend the Missouri Constitution.”
The resolution urged Missouri Baptists to “call upon their representatives and senators to exert all due influence on the office of the Missouri Attorney General, insisting that he defend our state constitution and appeal Judge Youngs’ legal ruling.”
The Missouri Baptist resolution came on the heels of a three-day national conference on The Gospel, Homosexuality and the Future of Marriage in Nashville, Tenn., sponsored by the Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission of the Southern Baptist Convention.
Many observers viewed the Oct. 27-29 gathering in Nashville, Tenn., as a signal that the nation’s second-largest faith group behind Roman Catholics might be softening its condemnation of homosexuality. Conference speakers apologized for past support of LGBT discrimination and spoke of finding ways to be more loving toward gays in society without compromising the traditional definition of marriage within the church.
The final paragraph of the Missouri Baptist Convention resolution added “that despite our opposition to same-sex marriage on convictional grounds, Missouri Baptists express Christian love and concern for those who struggle with same-sex attraction, or any other sexual activity outside the bounds of God’s creative design, acknowledging that every person is of eternal value to our Creator, and that all of us are sinful and fallen creatures who desperately need the redemption Jesus has provided through His death, burial and resurrection.”
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