Dr. Don Moore, retired executive director of the Arkansas Baptist State Convention, was recruited by the ABSC’s executive & administrative team in 2014 with the task of enlisting senior adults to pray for spiritual awakening. In an email to his constituency on April 22, Dr. Moore issued a call urging all pastors to preach on Biblical marriage on Sunday, April 26, and to lead prayer emphases & services on Tuesday, April 28, beginning at 10:00AM. That is the day & time the United States Supreme Court begins hearing oral arguments involving same-sex marriage. The justices expect to issue an opinion by late June or early July.
The Southern Baptist Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission (ERLC) stressed the importance of the high court’s decision by stating on its website: “Before the Court is an up or down vote to redefine marriage…what the Supreme Court decides regarding whether to redefine marriage will be on the same historic level” as the 1973 Roe v. Wade opinion, which legalized abortion in our country. “The outcome of this decision will shape the landscape of the church’s ministry in the United States for generations to come, and it will have significant consequences on the future of religious liberty,” says the ERLC. The commission has signed on to friend-of-the-court briefs urging the justices to uphold the authority of states to limit marriage to a man and a woman.
Dr. Moore and the ERLC have emphasized the following points of prayer being urged:
• Pray that all people, including governing authorities, would honor the institution of marriage.
• Pray for the Supreme Court justices, that they would be receptive to the arguments being made passionately before them.
• Pray for lead attorneys who will be arguing on behalf of the states seeking to uphold marriage. Ask God to give them clarity and wisdom, for their arguments to be persuasive, and for God to give them favor before the justices.
• Pray for those who disagree with us, that God would help them understand and respect the opinions of those whose definition of marriage is grounded in the biblical witness.
• Pray and hope for the best but plan for an adverse ruling. Even in the event of a bad decision, marriage will always be what marriage truly is.
In an April 8, 2015 article issued by Baptist Press, “The Supreme Court’s oral arguments will come in a case from the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals, which became in November the first federal appellate court to rule that states have the authority to define marriage as only a heterosexual union. Five other appeals courts have invalidated state laws that prohibited gay marriage. The opinion by the Sixth Circuit Court, based in Cincinnati, took place in challenges to laws in the states of Kentucky, Michigan, Ohio and Tennessee.
Same-sex marriage is now legal in 37 states, nearly tripling the 13 states where it was legal in mid-2013. It also is legal in the District of Columbia. Court rulings have produced legal gay marriage in more than two-thirds of those states.
The expansion of same-sex marriage has resulted in a growing clash between the rights of gay couples and the religious freedom of individuals and organizations. Florists, bakers, photographers and other business owners who have conscientious objections to providing their services for same-sex ceremonies have been penalized or are facing penalties for their refusal.”
This will become a defining moment in the history of our nation. The Biblical design of marriage is divinely established and not the right or liberty of any culture or country to altar. Christian pastors, preachers and lay people are being challenged to take a stand for God’s Word and God’s institution in this demonic debate. I urge you to join me in doing so.
Pastor Rick