Ronnie Floyd says God has already defined marriage as a covenant between one man and one woman.
God–not the Supreme Court– has the final say on same-sex marriage, said Southern Baptist Convention president Ronnie Floyd. Pastor Floyd urged the highest judicial body in the land to not make same-sex marriage a Constitutional right, reported the Huffington Post.
Speaking to the annual meeting of SBC delegates and referencing the Bible, Floyd said that God has already defined marriage as a covenant between one man and one woman.
@ronniefloyd Make sure you read your bible and follow all versions of #marriage the bible approves of #1m1w pic.twitter.com/iMSvVbt9YV
— SipsnTips (@SipsnTips) June 27, 2015
Supporting the theme “now is the time to lead,” Floyd told the 5,000 in attendance at the meeting in Columbus, Ohio that in addition to fighting same-sex marriage Christians also need to continue to strongly oppose abortion, even though he recognizes that abortion rates are down nationally.
Also down is membership in the SBC, but Floyd still thinks his denomination of 15 million is strong and urged all Christians to “decry all racism and prejudice, denouncing it as a sin against God and a sin against one another.”
But Floyd’s strongest stand of the day came against same-sex marriage, reported Fox News. He declared to the crowd as a “minister of the Gospel—I will not officiate over any same-sex unions or same-sex marriage ceremonies. I completely refuse.”
Even though these comments will draw ire from many nationwide, Floyd continued saying that we should “love and respect” people who have a different opinions. However, he made it clear that this love and respect does not transcend the sanctity of “God’s design for marriage,” and should help those “struggling with same-sex attractions,” reported the Christian Post.
Led by Ronnie Floyd, the delegates later passed a resolution that called for the Supreme Court to defend the rights of Americans to define marriage as the union between one man and one woman, and that doing otherwise would disregard the religious liberties of both citizens and institutions.