NASHVILLE (BP) -- Noted Southern Baptist leaders have
signed a Liberty Institute friend-of-the-court brief defending the freedom of
speech of those who support and teach the Scriptural truth that marriage is
between a man and a woman.
The brief was filed in the case of Obergefell v.
Hodges, a consolidation of four individual cases challenging biblically based
marriage laws in Kentucky, Michigan, Ohio and Tennessee. The case could answer
questions left standing after the U.S. Supreme Court in 2013 overturned the
Defense of Marriage Act, appearing to leave individual states the right to
define marriage within individual state jurisdictions.
Liberty Institute filed the brief April 2, naming a
religiously diverse list of individuals penalized for conducting themselves in
the public square based on their views on marriage, including former Atlanta
Fire Chief Kelvin Cochran, a Southern Baptist; former United States Navy
Chaplain Wes Modder, a member of the Assemblies of God; former Georgia
Department of Public Health Director Eric Walsh, a Seventh-day Adventist; and
five pastors whose sermons were subpoenaed by the city of Houston. Baptist Press.
