The president of the Southern Baptist
Convention called on pastors to resist an upcoming Supreme Court
ruling on state gay marriage bans, saying “this is a Bonhoeffer
moment for every pastor in the United States.”
In his speech before thousands of
Southern Baptist messengers gathered in Columbus, Ohio, Ronnie Floyd
quoted German theologian Dietrich Bonhoeffer, who is best known for
his staunch resistance to the Nazi dictatorship: “Silence in the
face of evil is itself evil. God will not hold us guiltless. Not to
speak is to speak. Not to act is to act.”
He warned that the time had come for
every pastor to speak out against the upcoming ruling.
“That's what Bonhoeffer did,” he
said.
The nation's highest court is expected
to hand down its ruling at any moment. The decision could strike
down the nation's remaining 13 bans, which would lead to nationwide
marriage equality.
“The Supreme Court of the United
States is not the final authority nor is the culture itself,” Floyd
said. “The Bible is God's final authority about marriage and on
this book we stand.”
A resolution before conventioneers
states that “Southern Baptists recognize that no governing
institution has the authority to negate or usurp God's definition of
marriage.”