Though the Southern Baptist Convention will be asked this week to adopt a statement affirming its opposition to same-sex marriage, the denomination opened its 2016 annual meeting in St. Louis, Mo., with prayer that God might “take that which Satan meant for evil and turn it into good” in the aftermath of the deadliest mass shooting in modern U.S. history.
SBC President Ronnie Floyd, pastor of Cross Church of Northwest Arkansas, told about 6,000 messengers registered for the opening session of the June 14-15 gathering that persons offering each session’s opening prayer would pray specifically for those affected by the June 12 mass shooting at a gay nightclub, which left 50 dead and 53 injured.
Ronnie Floyd
“Please know, for all of you in Orlando, the Southern Baptist Convention is very, very, very committed to praying for you,” Floyd said, pointing to a multi-faith, citywide prayer service scheduled tonight at Orlando’s First Baptist Church.
Floyd asked Southern Baptists attending the convention to think of the spoken prayers not as thoughts of an individual speaker but as “all of us joining in agreement.”
“Let’s discipline ourselves for the next two days to do that,” Floyd said. “Would you do that?”
On Monday Floyd told reporters at his final press conference as SBC president that the Orlando shooting and ongoing racial tension should lead Americans to value all human life.
“This is a great time to remind everyone that each person in this world has been made in the image of God, and we need to value human life,” Floyd said. “What happened in Orlando is inexcusable and deplorable.”
“Since all human beings are made in the image of God, this attack against gay Americans in Orlando is an attack on each of us,” Floyd said in his presidential address Tuesday morning. “As followers of Jesus Christ we stand against any form of bigotry, hatred or violence against our nation and against any people in this world.”
Later in the meeting the convention will vote on a resolution on the Orlando tragedy describing victims “as fellow image-bearers of God and our neighbors.”
But another policy statement being recommended by the SBC Resolutions Committee reaffirms the convention’s view that marriage takes place only between a man and a woman.
A resolution “On Biblical Sexuality and the Freedom of Conscience” dissents from last summer’s Supreme Court decision legalizing same-sex marriage, applauds 11 state attorneys general challenging the Obama administration’s view that transgender students be allowed to use the school restroom of their choice and states solidarity “with those whose jobs, professions, businesses, ministries, schools, and personal freedoms are threatened because their consciences will not allow them to recognize, promote, or participate in activities associated with unbiblical marriage.”