As the Supreme Court prepares to take up another same-sex marriage case, other states are still fighting to defend their bans on same-sex couples marrying. One of those states is Missouri, where a federal court overturned the ban in November. With the case now before the Eighth Circuit on appeal, the nation’s largest religious organizations have chimed in to express their support for upholding Missouri’s ban.
An amicus brief has been filed in the case by a coalition representing the largest Christian denominations in the country: the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, the National Association of Evangelicals, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS), the Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission (ERLC) of the Southern Baptist Convention, and the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod. Recognizing their similar position on the issue, these religious groups argue that support for a ban on same-sex marriage has nothing to do with homosexuality nor any intent to discriminate against the gay community.
They assert this claim over a dozen times throughout the brief. Here are some examples:
- “The accusation [of “ignorance or actual hostility”] is false and offensive. It is intended to suppress rational dialogue and civil conversation, to win by insult and intimidation rather than by persuasion, experience, and fact.”
- “Our support for the historic meaning of marriage arises from a positive vision of ‘the family’… and not from animosity toward anyone.”
- “Our teachings seldom focus on sexual orientation or homosexuality.”
- “Our faith communities bear no ill will toward same-sex couples.”
- “Faith communities like amici have long histories of upholding traditional marriage for reasons that have nothing to do with homosexuality.”
- “These fundamental Catholic teachings about marriage do not mention and have nothing to do with same-sex attraction.”
- “Homosexuality is not central to Evangelical teachings on marriage.”
- “Here again [in Mormon doctrine], homosexuality is remote from teachings about marriage and family.”