Southern Baptist delegates overwhelmingly called to try to reinstitute a ban on same-sex marriage 10 years after the Supreme Court legalized the unions.
While gathered at the 2025 national convention in Dallas on Tuesday, the delegates of the country’s leading Protestant denomination voiced their goal of changing national policy on same-sex marriage.
Southern Baptists have long been opposed to same-sex marriage, but the call this week for the Supreme Court to reverse its 2015 Obergefell v. Hodges ruling has strategists questioning if it was influenced by the 2022 reversal of Roe v. Wade, which was the constitutionally protected right to an abortion.
The convention attracted thousands of pastors and church members from congregations across the country. The vote took place on the first day of the meeting, which gave a glimpse into the denomination’s view on a number of political and cultural issues, The New York Times reported.
The vote comes just after Gallup released survey results about a widening gap between Republicans and Democrats about their support for same-sex marriage.
According to the polling, 68% of U.S. adults support same-sex marriage. Democrats’ support has risen to 88% in 2025, while Republican support has dropped to 41%, the lowest since 2017.
Southern Baptists acknowledged that their support for making same-sex marriage illegal puts them in the minority, but they say the nonbinding resolution puts their views on the map.
While the support for overturning Obergefell may not be a strong sentiment nationwide, the Southern Baptist enthusiasm could lead to political efforts to change the law, as seen in recent years with the support and eventual reversal of Roe.
Several other resolutions and ideas were passed by delegates, including defunding Planned Parenthood, banning pornography and condemning sports betting.
Southern Baptist Convention Resolution Committee Chair Dr. Andrew Walker acknowledged they have an uphill battle to finding broader support for the resolution, but he would “love to see Obergefell overturned” and a marriage definition in the U.S. “restored to the union of one man and one woman.”
“There is very little desire, even on the conservative side, I think, to go to bat for marriage in this particular culture. And I want to stress to the press, while we are making a policy and legal statement, I’m clear eyed about the difficulties and the headwinds in this resolution,” Walker said during a press conference.
Walter said the resolutions passed by the delegates were statements that can and will inform the way policymakers view Southern Baptist sentiment and desires. The Times noted that Southern Baptist values are often viewed as a bellwether for evangelical conservatism.
“I understand that it is largely ingrained in the American psyche at this point,” Walker said of same-sex marriage. “But the role of this resolution was to say Southern Baptists aren’t going anywhere.”