By The Iowa Statesman
Pop quiz … guess who made the following statement: “Our system of government does not allow a state to defy the law of the land.”
Your possible answers are:
A. President Barack Obama
B. Rev. Al Sharpton
C. Attorney General Eric Holder
D. Russell Moore, president of the South Baptist Convention’s Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission
If you said “D,” you would be right. If not, boy are you in for a surprise!
According to a report yesterday from Baptist Press, Moore not only predicted a pro-gay marriage ruling from the U.S. Supreme Court this summer, he also suggested states can do nothing to stop it. In fact, he said Alabama judges who refuse to comply with a non-binding federal ruling on gay marriage should more or less comply with the federal court’s ruling, or resign their positions.
“In a Christian ethic, there is a time for civil disobedience in cases of unjust laws,” Moore said. “That’s why, for instance, Rosa Parks and Martin Luther King Jr. went to jail. In the case of judges and state Supreme Court justices, though, civil disobedience, even when necessary, cannot happen in their roles as agents of the state. Religious freedom and conscience objections must be balanced with a state’s obligation to discharge the law.”
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