Southern Baptist Convention's Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission Calls Church to Pray for the Sanctity of Marriage to Be Preserved

Russell Moore
Russell Moore, the president of the Southern Baptist Convention's Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission. |

Russell Moore
(Photo : 'Theology147'/Wikimedia Commons/CC)
Russell Moore, the president of the Southern Baptist Convention's Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission, said that the Supreme Court decision regarding marriage will "matter tremendously to our nation and to future generations."

Russell Moore, the president of the Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission (ERLC) of the Southern Baptist Convention, has called for the national Church to dedicate itself to prayer for the sanctity of marriage on a Supreme Court hearing that will be happening on April 28.

On that day, the Supreme Court will receive oral arguments involving several cases on same-sex marriage for about two and a half hours. The arguments will be mainly dealing with the two questions: 1) Does the Fourteenth Amendment require a state to license a marriage between two people of the same sex? 2) Does the Fourteenth Amendment require a state to recognize a marriage between two people of the same sex when their marriage was lawfully licensed and performed out-of-state?

Russell Moore wrote in his blog that the Christians and the churches across the nation need to pray "because marriage is not just another culture war." He stated that this bill will be one which "matters tremendously to our nation and to future generations."

"Marriage is about the common good and flourishing of society, but is also an icon of the union between Christ and his church, embedded in the creation. Without a Christian vision of marriage, we have no Christian vision of the gospel," he wrote, commenting on the importance of the sanctity of marriage for the Church.

Furthermore, Russell Moore wrote about how believers must confront the "sexual revolution" and how a gospel-believing Christian will need to proceed in interacting with the people involved in the recent movement. "We must learn from our Savior, who was neither shocked by the Samaritan woman's sexual sin nor afraid to speak a word of repentance to her conscience. 'Woman, go get your husband and come here' is our model: an unashamed assessment of sin and an unrestrained invitation to come to Jesus."

Andrew Walker, the director of policy studies at ERLC, also wrote on The Gospel Coalition about how Christians will need to respond after the ruling of the supreme Court in June: "Continue to assault the foundations of the Sexual Revolution, love your neighbor who may strongly disagree, build strong families, vote, get connected to a local church, worship weekly, and remember that Jesus, not Justice Kennedy, sits at the right hand of the Father. Remember also that a church in exile is never a church in retreat."

On the #PrayForMarriage page for the Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission website, the commission comments that the cases on same-sex marriage will be quite historic like Roe v. Wade case on abortion. The commission asks that Christians set aside time for prayer "on the morning of April 28 at 10 a.m. EDT to appeal to God to preserve marriage in our land." The website lays out sample prayer guides for anyone who would be interested in praying for the cause. The commission is also looking for more support through social media by having believers change their avatar with the one they have created and posting it with a hashtag #PrayForMarriage.

For more information, visit: http://erlc.com/article/prayformarriage.

Joo Heon Lee is a volunteer student writer from the University of California, Irvine.