A top Southern Baptist leader is comparing laws allowing same-sex marriage to unjust racial segregation laws fought by Martin Luther King, Jr.
One of the top leaders of America’s 16 million Southern Baptists is comparing laws that allow same-sex couples the right to marry to “unjust” laws that mandated racial segregation.Â
Russell D. Moore, President of the Southern Baptist Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission, in a statement advised Christians to resign from their jobs rather than violate their deeply held religious beliefs by assisting same-sex couples marry. And he compared laws that let same-sex couples marry to the laws Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and Rosa Parks went to jail to protest.
“In a Christian ethic, there is a time for civil disobedience in cases of unjust laws. That’s why, for instance, Rosa Parks and Martin Luther King Jr. went to jail,” Dr. Moore wrote last week. “Religious freedom and conscience objections must be balanced with a state’s obligation to discharge the law,” Moore wrote, arguing against civil disobedience.
“We shouldn’t have officials breaking the law, but civil servants don’t surrender their conscience simply by serving in government. While these details are being worked out, in the absence of any conscience protections, a government employee faced with a decision of violating his conscience or upholding the law, would need to resign and protest against it as a citizen if he could not discharge the duties of his office required by law in good conscience.”
“Given the high bar required for civil disobedience, the way to address same-sex marriage in this circumstance is not by defying the rule of law, but by making our case before the legitimate authorities.”
Moore also said Justice Clarence Thomas was “probably right,” that the Supreme Court will extend the institution of marriage to same-sex couples.
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