Baptists warn Vatican conference of dangers to marriage, family

VATICAN CITY (RNS)—Two prominent Southern Baptists, Russell Moore and Rick Warren, blasted the sexual revolution at a Vatican conference, saying it is destroying the institution of marriage.

Moore, president of the Southern Baptist Convention’s Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission, said sexual liberation created “a culture obsessed with sex” that simply led to a “boredom of sex shorn of mystery.”

Rick Warren, pastor of Saddleback Church in Southern California, told the Vatican conference the church “cannot cower in silence” as marriage is redefined. (YouTube video image)“Western culture now celebrates casual sexuality, cohabitation, no-fault divorce, family redefinition and abortion rights as part of a sexual revolution that can tear down old patriarchal systems,” Moore told a global gathering of leaders from Catholic, Jewish, Muslim and other faiths as part of the “Complementarity of Man and Woman” conference convened by Pope Francis.

The sexual revolution appeared to have imposed a new patriarchy that enabled men to “pursue a Darwinian fantasy of the predatory alpha male” for the pursuit of “power, prestige and personal pleasure,” Moore said.

“Does anyone really believe these things will empower women and children?” he asked. “We see the wreckage of sexuality as self-expression all around us, and we will see more yet.”

Rick Warren, pastor of Saddleback Church in Southern California, said marriage is being “ridiculed, resented, rejected and even redefined,” and it is time for the church to be a “proponent of what’s right.”

“The church cannot cower in silence,” Warren told the conference. “There is too much at stake.”

Churches should celebrate successful marriages during services, schedule annual reviews of wedding vows, offer marriage courses and promote marriage via the media, he said.

“The church cannot be salt and light in a crumbling culture if it caves in to the sexual revolution,” he said.