File:Southern Baptist Convention logo (2020); public domain
At the 2025 Southern Baptist Convention in Dallas last month, more than 10,000 delegates adopted a sharply conservative slate of resolutions, firmly opposing sports betting, pornography, abortion pills, and same-sex marriage. In a world of mainline church denominations compromising, this is a welcome victory!
For the first time, the SBC passed a resolution condemning sports betting in particular, describing the industry as “predatory” and harmful—especially to young people and those with addictive tendencies. The accompanying urge to legislative action asks Christians to abstain and governments to regulate more strictly. The convention also pushed for the criminalization of pornography, calling for laws to ban the creation, hosting, and distribution of online porn, including emerging deepfake porn. Leaders praised the recent federal Take It Down Act as a model and urged further protections, such as age verification. Echoing their post-Roe momentum, the SBC called for restrictions on medication abortion, and insisted the FDA revoke approval.
Most notably, the Convention unanimously backed a non-binding resolution seeking to overturn the 2015 Supreme Court ruling Obergefell v. Hodges and ban same-sex marriage. This marks the first time the denomination formally authorized legislative efforts to restore traditional marriage.
In summary, the 2025 Southern Baptist Convention’s annual meeting reinforced a bold and sweeping conservative cultural agenda—combating gambling, pornography, abortion, and the radical progressive sexual agenda. This is all great news for Christians across the country, as it gives us a glimpse of what it looks like when the church steps into their proper role of leadership in our nation. We as Christians ought to lead in cultural, political, and legal discussions. Instead, we’ve been so often bullied into silence.
It’s high time for churches, both at the local and national level, to speak out boldly on wrong policy and wrong legal decisions. I encourage you to take a few moments this weekend or in the coming weeks to ask your pastors where your church stands on these important issues, and what you can all do as a local body of believers to speak truth in your community.
This post originally appeared at https://phyllisschlafly.com/constitution/free-speech/southern-baptists-keep-conservative-positions/
Phyllis Schlafly