Today’s United States Supreme Court decision declaring unconstitutional the Defense of Marriage Act “takes us right up to the brink of nationwide same-sex marriage,” R. Albert Mohler Jr., president of The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, told CNN’s Wolf Blitzer shortly after the decision.
“I think it is hard to overestimate the impact of the decisions today,” Mohler said. The Court also declined to uphold California’s Proposition 8, which protected traditional marriage.
The DOMA ruling “will be a devastating thing for this country,” Mohler said. “I believe that marriage is a pre-political institution, that is one of God’s greatest gifts to his human creatures and that it always has been and always must be the union between a man and a woman. To radically transform the institution of marriage is to change the definition of what it means for humans to exist together in community.
“I think when you look at American history, there are many dates that stand in our constitutional history as what you might call stand-out, red letter days. This is one of those days,” he added.
While “there are many people celebrating this, we recognize that this is a major cultural divide over something as basic as marriage. I think it will be very devastating for our country for the long-term, because what it means is the inevitable marginalization of marriage and the subversion of the most essential institution of human existence.”