Fundies Dial It Back

After months of vows about civil disobedience, a coalition of over 100 evangelicals organized by the Southern Baptist Convention have signed onto a statement that discourages "outrage and panic" about the Supreme Court ruling on marriage. An excerpt:

The gospel of Jesus Christ determines the shape and tone of our ministry. Christian theology considers its teachings about marriage both timeless and unchanging, and therefore we must stand firm in this belief. Outrage and panic are not the responses of those confident in the promises of a reigning Christ Jesus. While we believe the Supreme Court has erred in its ruling, we pledge to stand steadfastly, faithfully witnessing to the biblical teaching that marriage is the chief cornerstone of society, designed to unite men, women, and children. We promise to proclaim and live this truth at all costs, with convictions that are communicated with kindness and love.

Among the signatories are Manhattan Declaration head Eric Teetsel, Focus On The Family president Jim Daly, and SBC president Ronnie Floyd.

Southern Baptist Leader Russell Moore: Take Down The Confederate Battle Flag

"The Confederate Battle Flag may mean many things, but with those things it represents a defiance against abolition and against civil rights. The symbol was used to enslave the little brothers and sisters of Jesus, to bomb little girls in church buildings, to terrorize preachers of the gospel and their families with burning crosses on front lawns by night. That sort of symbolism is out of step with the justice of Jesus Christ. The cross and the Confederate flag cannot co-exist without one setting the other on fire. White Christians, let’s listen to our African-American brothers and sisters. Let’s care not just about our own history, but also about our shared history with them. In Christ, we were slaves in Egypt—and as part of the Body of Christ we were all slaves too in Mississippi. Let’s watch our hearts, pray for wisdom, work for justice, love our neighbors. Let’s take down that flag." - Russell Moore, president Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission of the Southern Baptists Convention.

Todd Starnes is ever so pissed.

RELATED:  The Southern Baptist Convention formed in 1845 expressly to support slavery after Baptists in northern states joined the abolitionist movement. But it wasn't until 1995 that the SBC marked its 150th anniversary by issuing a formal apology. An excerpt:

WHEREAS, Our relationship to African-Americans has been hindered from the beginning by the role that slavery played in the formation of the Southern Baptist Convention; and

WHEREAS, Many of our Southern Baptist forbears defended the right to own slaves, and either participated in, supported, or acquiesced in the particularly inhumane nature of American slavery; and

WHEREAS, In later years Southern Baptists failed, in many cases, to support, and in some cases opposed, legitimate initiatives to secure the civil rights of African-Americans; and

Therefore, be it RESOLVED, That we, the messengers to the Sesquicentennial meeting of the Southern Baptist Convention, assembled in Atlanta, Georgia, June 20-22, 1995, unwaveringly denounce racism, in all its forms, as deplorable sin; and

Be it further RESOLVED, That we apologize to all African-Americans for condoning and/or perpetuating individual and systemic racism in our lifetime; and we genuinely repent of racism of which we have been guilty, whether consciously (Psalm 19:13) or unconsciously (Leviticus 4:27); and

Be it further RESOLVED, That we ask forgiveness from our African-American brothers and sisters, acknowledging that our own healing is at stake.

ALSO RELATED: Several days ago the Southern Baptist Convention issued a formal declaration of civil disobedience against the Supreme Court should it rule in favor of same-sex marriage.

Southern Baptists Issue Call For Civil Disobedience Against Same-Sex Marriage

The Southern Baptist Convention closed out this week's annual meeting by issuing a formal call for civil disobedience against same-sex marriage. The statement was issued jointly by current SBC president Ronnie Floyd and 16 former SBC presidents.

As Southern Baptist Christians, we are committed to Biblical faith and ethics. As a result, this body of Believers stands on the authority of Scripture and God's Truth as central to our lives.

What the Bible says about marriage is clear, definitive and unchanging. We affirm biblical, traditional, natural marriage as the uniting of one man and one woman in covenant commitment for a lifetime. The Scriptures' teaching on marriage is not negotiable. We stake our lives upon the Word of God and the testimony of Jesus.

Consequently, we will not accept, nor adhere to, any legal redefinition of marriage issued by any political or judicial body including the United States Supreme Court. We will not recognize same-sex "marriages", our churches will not host same-sex ceremonies, and we will not perform such ceremonies.

While we affirm our love for all people, including those struggling with same-sex attraction, we cannot and will not affirm the moral acceptability of homosexual behavior or any behavior that deviates from God's design for marriage. We also believe religious freedom is at stake within this critical issue – that our first duty is to love and obey God, not man.

Therefore, we strongly encourage all Southern Baptist pastors, leaders, educators, and churches to openly reject any mandated legal definition of marriage and to use their influence to affirm God's design for life and relationships. As the nation's largest non-Catholic denomination with over 16 million members, we stake our very lives and future on the Truth of God's Word.

We also join together to support those who stand for natural marriage in the corporate world, the marketplace, education, entertainment, media and elsewhere with our prayers and influence, and resources.

Earlier this week Floyd declared that God will punish any Christian who does not oppose same-sex marriage.

Southern Baptist Convention Leader Albert Mohler Admits: Clergy Won't Be Arrested Or Sued Over Same-Sex Marriage

"It's really important that you and every other pastor needs to say 'I'm not going to perform a same-sex wedding,' but let's be honest, there's not really a danger that the sheriff's gonna show up and say, 'you have to do this.' So far as I know, no pastor has been sued successfully for refusing to marry someone on other grounds- that's not the real danger. The real danger is we're going to pay an enormous social, cultural price for not doing a same-sex ceremony. We're going to be considered morally deficient. Let's admit it. We're much more accustomed to being accused of being morally superior. They've said we've been 'stand-offish' meaning better than them, now a large part of this culture thinks we are morally deficient."- Albert Mohler, speaking this week at a meeting for the Southern Baptist Convention. Mohler was appointed president of the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in 1993. (Via Good As You)

Former Southern Baptist Head Jack Graham: Prepare For Massive Christian Civil Disobedience Over Gay Marriage

Todd Starnes writes at Fox News:

Prepare for civil disobedience. That’s the message one prominent pastor is sending to some 16 million members of the Southern Baptist Convention. Jack Graham, pastor of Prestonwood Baptist Church in Texas, said American Christians should be prepared for massive fallout if the Supreme Court legalizes same-sex unions. “We want to stay in the system,” Graham told me in a telephone interview. “We want to work in the system. We want to support our government. We want to obey its laws.” But. “But there’s a coming a day, I believe, that many Christians personally and churches corporately will need to practice civil disobedience on this issue.”

So what would it look like if 16 million Southern Baptists engaged in civil disobedience? “I hope we never live to find out what that looks like,” Graham told me. “There are many Christians today who are preparing if necessary to go to jail.” I’ve known Pastor Graham for years and I’ve never known him to use hyperbole. His words and his predictions are sobering. And he hopes the Supreme Court and Washington, D.C. hear what Southern Baptists are saying. “We want them to know our voices will be heard,” he declared. Graham said they are calling on Southern Baptist business owners and public sector workers to stand together as well – knowing full well they could lose their jobs and careers. “We are concerned about Southern Baptist Christians in the marketplace – in the media and corporate world,” he said.

Jack Graham was president of the Southern Baptist Convention from 2003-2004. His Plano megachurch claims 38,000 members. He is unrelated to the more infamous Graham family.

Southern Baptists Head: God Will Punish Us If We Don't Fight Same-Sex Marriage

"While some evangelicals may be bowing down to the deception of the inclusiveness of same-sex marriage, we will not bow down nor will we be silent. We do not need to redefine what God Himself has defined already. America – we stand believing that marriage is the uniting of one man and one woman in covenant commitment for a lifetime. 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. 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." - Southern Baptists Convention president Ronnie Floyd, speaking today at their convention in Columbus, Ohio.

Former Southern Baptists Head: Gays Are Stealing America's Cultural Icons

Southern Baptists Turn On Ben Carson

Via the Washington Post:

Southern Baptists find themselves in the midst of another political controversy over the upcoming appearance — now canceled — of Ben Carson at their Pastors’ Conference. Carson is a celebrated neurosurgeon, conservative commentator and likely presidential candidate. A number of Baptist pastors, especially those affiliated with Baptist21, spoke out against Carson’s appearance. Their concerns were primarily that Carson, as a Seventh-Day Adventist, presumably holds doctrines that fit uneasily with evangelical theology. Carson has also made statements about Muslims, Jews and Christians all being “God’s children,” perhaps implying that there are multiple paths to God. Hosting Carson and other Republican candidates, the critics said, continues to convey the impression that the Southern Baptist Convention (SBC) is “in bed with the Republican Party,” as Baptist21 put it. Leaders of the Pastors’ Conference “mutually agreed” with Carson that he would withdraw.

When Ben Carson isn't fundie enough for the fundies...I don't even know how to finish this sentence.

Southern Baptists Leader Russell Moore: Officials Who Won't Comply With Marriage Laws Should Seek Other Employment

Via the Tennessean:

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.

(Tipped by JMG reader Str8 Grandmother)

VATICAN: American Anti-Gay Religious Leaders To Attend Meeting On Marriage

Miranda Blue writes at Right Wing Watch:

Next week, American Religious Right leaders including the Southern Baptist Convention’s Russell Moore, pastor Rick Warren, Archbishop of Philadelphia Charles Chaput, and Latter-Day Saints official Henry Eyring will be joining opponents of LGBT equality from around the world at an interfaith conference on the “complementarity of man and woman in marriage” hosted by the Vatican. The conference follows a synod at which Catholic bishops considered, but ultimately rejected, proposals to soften the church’s stances on homosexuality, as well as those who have been divorced. Although he is not listed as a speaker, another prominent American opponent of LGBT equality will also be attending the conference. Family Research Council President Tony Perkins said in an interview on Newsmax TV today that he plans to attend the conference in Rome and expects the Catholic Church to “make a very clear statement that pertains to marriage and what the Church views marriage to be” to provide “clarity” to the confusion coming out of the recent synod.

They must be very worried about something.

Former Southern Baptists Head Calls For Blocking All Judicial Nominations Until President Obama Is Out Of Offfice

Richard Land is now the editor of the Christian Post.

"Ex-Gay" Nutter Slams Southern Baptist Leader For Denouncing Torture Therapy

"Homosexual feelings are often the result of underlying sexual trauma or emotional detachment from same-sex peers and parents – when individuals realize the source of their feelings and pursue healing in their lives, change happens. In my work with the International Healing Foundation, so much of our ministry is dedicated to working with church leadership to help them better understand how to minister to those who experience SSA – we're helping them transform their pews from one of judgment and condemnation to hope and healing. This is not a 'utopian idea' of changing people, but rather, loving them where they are at and helping them pursue healing. My desire is for Russell Moore to sit down with me and so many of these men that I know who's lives have been transformed because of Christian therapists who understand how to help those struggling with unwanted SSA so we can better help the church in their ministry towards those struggling with homosexuality." - Christopher Doyle, head of Voice Of The Voiceless, in a letter published by the Christian P.ost.

RELATED: The International Healing Foundation is headed by Richard Cohen, who in 2006 appeared on CNN to demonstrate his gay cure which involves beating a pillow with a tennis racket while screaming, "Mom! Mom! Mom! Why did you do that to me?"

Janet Mefferd Slams Southern Baptist Leader For Denouncing "Ex-Gay" Torture

"Homosexuals can change and have changed through all types of helpful Christian therapy, Dr. Moore. I've met them. I Cor. 6 also clearly tells us that redeemed sinners of all stripes can change, else why the reference, 'such WERE some of you?' What galls me the most is how he's playing right into the hands of Big Gay, which is on a totalitarian course to rub out personal autonomy and liberty to choose whatever you want in the way of therapy for unwanted same-sex attraction. And he's playing right into their hands." - Christian radio host Janet Mefferd, in a Facebook slam against Southern Baptist leader Russell Moore, who earlier this week denounced "ex-gay" torture.

Southern Baptist Leader Russell Moore Denounces "Ex-Gay" Torture Therapy

This morning Russell Moore, the president of the Southern Baptists’ Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission, denounced "ex-gay" torture at the group's Nashville convention on sexuality.

“The utopian idea if you come to Christ and if you go through our program, you’re going to be immediately set free from attraction or anything you’re struggling with, I don’t think that’s a Christian idea,” Moore told journalists. “Faithfulness to Christ means obedience to Christ. It does not necessarily mean that someone’s attractions are going to change.” Moore said evangelicals had an “inadequate view” of what same-sex attraction looks like. “The Bible doesn’t promise us freedom from temptation,” Moore said. “The Bible promises us the power of the spirit to walk through temptation.” Moore gave similar remarks to an audience of 1,300 people at the conference. The same morning, the conference featured three speakers who once considered themselves gay or lesbian. Moore joins a chorus of psychologists and religious leaders who have departed from the once-popular therapy.

The theme of the convention seems to be that while it's impossible to "cure" people of being gay, at least they should continue to try to stop people from acting on their natural sexuality.

In his address Monday, traditional marriage advocate Sherif Girgis plugged the website Spiritual Friendship, intended for Catholics and Protestants who identify as gay and celibate. Some Christians are debating whether identifying as gay or having a same-sex orientation is itself unbiblical. Another conference speaker and Moody Bible Institute professor Christopher Yuan teaches a more traditional message of celibacy for those who, like him, are attracted to the same sex. He shuns labels, but he believes more younger Christians are self-identifying as gay and celibate. “I’m kind of label-less,” Yuan said before his address. “I think I’m a dying breed, though.”

Moore: "The idea that one is simply the sum of one’s sexual identity is something that is psychologically harmful ultimately, And I think also we have a situation where gay and lesbian people have been treated really, really badly. The response is not shunning, putting them out on the street. The answer is loving your child."

In June of this year the 50,000-member American Association of Christian Counselors changed its code of ethics to express opposition to "ex-gay" torture and to endorse celibacy for homosexuals. Because it's better to suffer a lifetime of untouched, unloved solitude than disobey Jesus. Or something. It remains to be seen if the full Southern Baptist Convention will adopt Moore's position, which is already being attacked on Twitter by "ex-gay" torture advocates.

Southern Baptists Convention: How We Fight Against Same-Sex Marriage

The Ethics & Religious Liberties Commission of the Southern Baptists Convention has issued the below slick five-minute video detailing all the ways that they are fighting against same-sex marriage, abortion rights, and the alleged persecution of Christians. Two weeks ago the group filed a SCOTUS brief in support of Utah's ban on gay marriage.

Mormons, Catholics, & Evangelicals Ask SCOTUS To Uphold Utah Gay Marriage Ban

The above-named religious groups have filed an amicus brief asking the Supreme Court to uphold Utah's ban on same-sex marriage. Via the Associated Press:

The religious groups urged the Supreme Court on the basis of tradition and religious freedom to uphold a state's right to disallow gay and lesbian couples to wed. "Legal uncertainty is especially burdensome for religious organizations and religious believers increasingly confronted with thorny questions," the brief says. "Is their right to refrain from participating in, recognizing or facilitating marriages between persons of the same sex, contrary to their religious convictions, adequately shielded by the First Amendment and other legal protections? Or is further legislation needed to guard religious liberties in these and other sensitive areas?" Last month, attorneys for three Utah gay and lesbian couples formally asked the U.S. Supreme Court to take Utah's appeal of a favorable gay marriage ruling.

The brief is relatively short. Equality Case Files has the full filing.

TENNESSEE: Hate Groups To Hold "Moral Revolution" Convention On Marriage

A coalition of anti-gay groups will hold a convention in Nashville to plot the next stages of their opposition to same-sex marriage.

The ERLC National Conference will address “The Gospel, Homosexuality, and the Future of Marriage” to equip Christians to apply the gospel on these issues with convictional kindness in their communities, their families and their churches. This event will be held at the iconic Opryland Hotel on October 27-29, 2014. Are you and your church prepared for the moral revolution surrounding homosexuality and same-sex marriage happening across America? While human sexuality and social institutions are being redefined before our very eyes, the Bible presents marriage as an unchanging picture of the gospel through the union of one man and one woman. The gospel announces that the story of Jesus is greater than the sum total of our sexual desires.

Among the event's sponsors are Alliance Defending Freedom, Focus On The Family, Concerned Women For America, Christianity Today, numerous Christian colleges, and the Manhattan Declaration, whose signees vow to disobey laws that protect LGBT people from discrimination. The event's title host is the Southern Baptists Convention.

Tweet Of The Day - Rachel Held Evans

Evans, a Christian writer, was tweeting from a panel discussion held at the Southern Baptist Convention's Ethics & Religious Liberty forum. Here's the "ironic" history of how the Southern Baptist Convention came to be:

Largely comprised of slaveholders, the gathering at the First Baptist Church of Augusta, Georgia, in May 1845 publicly pled their case. Slavery was biblical. Therefore abolition was sinful, and Baptists of the North were wrong to oppose slavery. Abolitionists of the North were responsible for the Baptist division; southern Baptists had been patient with the agitators, but enough was enough. Pledging allegiance to slavery, they vowed “we will never interfere with what is Caesar’s” (a biblical allusion implying it was their moral and legal responsibility to uphold the legal institution of slavery). And for good measure, the delegates expressed outrage that a northern Baptist missionary had “actually remitted money to the United States to aid in the assisting of slaves to ‘run away from their masters.’” (See Proceedings of the Southern Baptist Convention, 1845.) From this point forward, white Baptist leaders in the South through the end of the Civil War openly and insistently championed and defended white supremacy and black slavery, along the way migrating into a form of Christian nationalism heretofore foreign to the very Christian denomination that had been the most vocal champions, since the seventeenth century, of the separation of church and state.

In 1995 the SBC finally issued a formal apology to African-Americans for having supported slavery and for having supported segregation right through the civil rights era.

RELATED: One of the panelists at the SBC's forum was Mark Regnerus. The event closed with the announcement that in October the SBC will "hold a conference exclusively focusing on homosexuality."

VIRGINIA: Haters File 21 Marriage Ban Defense Briefs With Fourth Circuit Court

Twenty-one amicus briefs were filed yesterday with the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals in defense of Virginia's ban on same-sex marriage. The briefs were filed on behalf of the usual axis of evil: the Concernstipated Women, the Liberty Counsel, Phyllis Schlafy's Eagle Forum, the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, the Mormon Church, the Southern Baptists Convention, the Heritage Foundation, the Virginia Catholic Conference, David Barton's WallBuilders, the Family Research Council, the North Carolina Values Coalition, and the (completely fake) American College of Pediatrics. Also filing briefs are the states of West Virginia and Indiana.

Individuals filing briefs include former NOM chairman Robert George and nutbag homocon Voldemort horcrux Robert Oscar Lopez, who claims that authorities are too afraid of the gay mafia to investigate reports of molestation by gay parents.

Another of the individual filings is from some crackpot named David Boyle who argues, among other deranged claims, that gay people should not be allowed to marry because there was this one time when a lesbian died from "vaginal fisting." Seriously. Equality Case Files has posted all of the briefs at the first link. There's surely nothing worth worrying about in any of them since these are pretty much all the same dirtbags who have lost everywhere else. But if you want to amuse yourself, dig into the briefs and recap what you find in the comments. A better way to waste your Saturday, of course, would be to commit some delicious deviant sodomy. But hey, it's your weekend.

Southern Baptist Head: Gays Need To Know That Satan Is Controlling Them

"We do need to pray for our enemies, those that oppose us, because they’re victims. Our enemy is the Devil, our enemy is that old lion that walks about seeking whom he may devour and who is the god of this age and the prince of the power of the air and he has these people in their thrall. It’s not that we hate gays, it’s that we love scripture and love gays enough to tell them what the truth is. And the truth is that God does not condone same-sex sexual relations, period. They are an abomination to him and if we really love these people we are going to tell them the truth.” - Southern Baptist head Richard Land, speaking the radio show of the Family Research Council.