Southern Baptists, in a resolution, warned against a cultural rebranding of assisted suicide as a form of medical care and reaffirmed their commitment to the sanctity of life from conception until natural death at the 2026 SBC Annual Meeting in Orlando June 10.
Assisted suicide has expanded significantly in the United States and is now legal in at least 13 states and the District of Columbia with more pending, leading messengers to reiterate their stance against “euthanasia and assisted suicide in all its forms.”
Glenn LaRue of Ohio offered a friendly amendment, which passed, noting “a person outside of Christ immediately enters into intensified eternal misery upon death, and a person in Christ has the help of the Lord to persevere faithfully in suffering and bring glory to God.”
The amendment is a “vital, direct counterargument” to the reframing of assisted suicide as compassionate “because it cannot be compassionate if we are accelerating and sealing someone’s eternal destiny in hell if they are lost,” LaRue said.
Disability ministry
People with disabilities and their families were the focus of a resolution affirming that every human is made in the image of God with inherent dignity and worth, “undiminished by physical, intellectual, or developmental differences.”
Research suggesting families of those with disabilities are significantly less likely to attend church regularly because of “a lack of accessibility, programming, or sense of belonging” led Southern Baptists to urge churches to develop or expand ministry to people with disabilities.
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EDITOR’S NOTE — This story was originally published by Baptist Press.
