Alabama Baptists critical of gay marriage ruling, back ABC Board, call for ban on Planned Parenthood
By Greg Garrison | ggarrison@al.com AL.com
Daphne, AL
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The Alabama Baptist Convention, meeting this week at Eastern Shore Baptist Church in Daphne, called for a ban on government funding of Planned Parenthood and opposed privatizing alcohol sales.
The state's largest Baptist group also criticized the U.S. Supreme Court ruling on gay marriage.
A resolution in defense of religious liberty called the United States Supreme Court ruling on June 26, making gay marriage legal nationwide, "a turning point in history" that departed "from the centuries-old understanding of marriage as practiced by civilized people – that is, between one man and one woman."
A resolution on abortion passed Wednesday supports a ban on all public funding for Planned Parenthood, and called on the state legislature to prioritize passage of the Unborn Child Protection from Dismemberment Abortion Act, a law passed in other states to ban abortion by dismemberment of the fetus.
A resolution on alcohol sales credited state control of the liquor industry, through the Alabama Beverage Control Board, with Alabama having the second-lowest alcohol consumption rate in the country.
"Privatizing liquor sales in Alabama would likely result in stores being open late at night and on Sundays and thus result in an expansion of liquor sales through increased availability," the resolution said.
Baptists urged the legislature to reject privatization of the alcohol industry or any other legislation that would expand alcohol sales.
The resolutions are non-binding, but express the views of those attending the annual state convention, a meeting of ministers and members of Southern Baptist churches across the state. There are more than a million Southern Baptists in Alabama, the largest religious denomination in the state.
Read the entire text of the 2015 resolutions of the State Baptist Convention here.