Southern Baptists Leader Russell Moore: Officials Who Won't Comply With Marriage Laws Should Seek Other Employment
The Southern Baptist Convention's top policy official has a message for Alabama Christians wringing their hands over legal same-sex marriage. It was unavoidable, and accepting it doesn't mean you're conceding defeat. Not accepting it means you need to reexamine your faith. Russell Moore, president of the Southern Baptist Convention's Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission, opened the floor to questions Thursday at his group's quarterly luncheon, which draws local evangelical pastors, musicians and a variety of other devout people, mostly men, to downtown Nashville. A luncheon attendee asked Moore if he believed there would come a time when Christians had to practice "civil disobedience" over the issue and cited Alabama Supreme Court Justice Roy Moore, who advised the state's probate judges to refuse to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples. Russell Moore said Christians shouldn't confuse disobeying laws they don't support with appropriate civil disobedience. If Christians can't follow laws in good conscience, he said, they may have to resign as agents of the state and act in accordance with their beliefs as regular citizens.
Labels: Alabama, LGBT rights, marriage equality, religion, Roy Moore, Russell Moore, Southern Baptists Convention
