Religious Repsonse To Supreme Court Ruling

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Same-sex marriage bans are no longer legal in America, the US Supreme Court ruled 5-4 today. Not everyone agrees. Faith leaders have responded in kind.

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The president of the Southern Baptist Convention, the largest Protestant denomination in America,  relayed a strong message regarding the Supreme Court decision on same-sex marriage: We will not obey.

Dr Floyd said:

“The Supreme Court of the United States is not the final authority nor is the culture itself,” . “The Bible is God’s final authority about marriage and on this book we stand.”America—we stand believing that marriage is the uniting of one man and one woman in covenant commitment for a lifetime,” he said in a thundering speech. “We have believed this and do believe this and will continue to believe this as a convention of churches. We stand for biblical and traditional marriage.“

The Catholic Bishops Council issued a statement calling it a tragedy. 

“The Supreme Court decision On marriage  is a tragic error. Religious liberty is “the right to live in the truth of one’s faith and in conformity with one’s transcendent dignity as a person. Nobody may be forced to act against his convictions, nor is anyone to be restrained from acting in accordance with his conscience in religious matters in private or in public, alone or in association with others, within due limit. Religious liberty is so important that John Paul II called it the “source and synthesis” of rights considered basic to every human person.Changing the legal term “marriage” is not one change in the law, but rather amounts to thousands of changes at once. The term “marriage” can be found in family law, employment law, trusts and estates, healthcare law, tax law, property law, and many others. These laws affect and pervasively regulate religious institutions, such as churches, religiously-affiliated schools, hospitals, and families. When Church and State agree on what the legal term “marriage” means (the union of one man and one woman), there is harmony between the law and religious institutions. When Church and State disagree on what the term “marriage” means (e.g., if the State redefines marriage in order to recognize so-called same-sex “marriage”), conflict results on a massive scale between the law and religious institutions and families, as the State will apply various sanctions against the Church for its refusal to comply with the State’s definition. Religious liberty is then threatened.

Even the supreme court justices had strong opinions. In his dissent, Chief Justice John Roberts argues that today’s decision “creates serious questions about religious liberty.”

Justice Roberts says:

“Many good and decent people oppose same-sex marriage as a tenet of faith, and their freedom to exercise religion is—unlike the right imagined by the majority—actually spelled out in the Constitution,” he writes. “Respect for sincere religious conviction has led voters and legislators in every State that has adopted same-sex marriage democratically to include accommodations for dissenting religious practice.” But the Supreme Court’s ruling is unable to do likewise. The majority graciously suggests that religious believers may continue to ‘advocate’ and ‘teach’ their views of marriage,” he writes. “The First Amendment guarantees, however, the freedom to ‘exercise’ religion. Ominously, that is not a word the majority uses.”

Evangelicals have increasingly embraced state versions of the federal government’s Religious Freedom Restoration Act, and some have lobbied for same-sex marriage laws to include sufficient religious exemptions. Catholic and Evangelical leaders have started discussing  the stoppage of  signing civil marriage certificates. Denominational lawyers are hard at work right this very minute figuring out what their respective churches should  say and write.

Earlier this month, Alliance Defending Freedom and the Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission of the Southern Baptist Convention released a legal guide to help evangelical Christian institutions avoid lawsuits involving sexual orientation and gender identity.

What has been discussed so far,  is that now, that  same-sex marriage is legal, amending a church’s bylaws to define marriage as between a man and a woman as stated in  Church Law & Tax Report.  Including a statement in a church’s bylaws defining marriage may be of some help should the church’s tax exemptions be challenged, or if the church is sued for violating a public accommodations law due to its refusal to host same-sex marriages, but it is no guaranty of protection.”

A ban of lawyers  committed to religious freedom have created Liberty Institute, which is currently working through the ruling at this moment. Liberty Institute fights to restore religious liberty pursuant to the principles of America’s founders—that religious freedom does not mean confining religious expression to church or home, but that true religious liberty consists of recognizing individuals’ God-given right to follow their conscience and to live and act according to their faith in every area of life.

We will keep you posted on what the team says later today.

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