Tag Archives: southern baptist

A Handy Religious Groups’ Transgender Acceptance Chart

The Pew Research Center has published a handy chart which details the transgender acceptance policies of several major United States religions. This may be used as a quick reference guide for transgender persons who are considering looking into a new or another religion.

There is much more specific information at the link below, including a separate chart showing the results of a survey conducted on 1,197 LGBT persons asking them how they feel society accepts them. Unsurprisingly, transgender persons reported by far the lowest rate of acceptance, with 80 percent of respondents reporting little or no support. (Thank you for the link, Lisa).

Source: Religious groups’ policies on transgender members vary widely | Pew Research Center

UPDATED: Southern Baptists Double Down on Intolerance

Baptists
The Southern Baptist Convention is currently in full swing, and a college professor and “ethicist” is pushing for the Southern Baptist Convention to broadly condemn “the transgender lifestyle.”

“The public consequences of normalizing transgender are upon us,” Burk explained. “School systems across the country are beginning to allow boys who identify as transgender to make use of girls’ restrooms and locker rooms. The state of New Jersey has made it illegal for licensed counselors to help a child embrace a gender identity that matches his sex. Medical professionals recommend sex-change surgeries for some transgender persons, and some parents are pursuing surgeries for minor children who experience conflict between their gender and bodily identity.

“Just last Friday [May 30] Medicare lifted its ban on sex reassignment surgeries. The Employment Non-Discrimination Act (ENDA) has at different times seen majority support in both houses of Congress and would make it illegal for employers to make personnel decisions based on gender identity — a measure that would restrict the religious liberty of Christian employers.”

Sure it will. If your version of Christianity means being a disgusting bigot, then yes your liberties will be restricted. Guess what, people used the same arguments when they were forced to take down signs proclaiming “White Only.” Or when homes associations were forced to allow Jews, African Americans, Hispanic Americans, and all the other “undesirables” out there.

The proposed resolution, which may or may not be reported out of committee and if it is could be altered before presented for vote on the convention floor, affirms “God’s good design that gender identity should be determined by biological sex and not by one’s self-perception — a perception which is often influenced by fallen human nature in ways contrary to God’s design.”

It condemns “efforts to alter one’s bodily identity (e.g., cross-sex hormone therapy, gender reassignment surgery) to bring it into line with one’s perceived gender identity.” It also opposes “all efforts by any court or state legislature to validate transgender identity as morally praiseworthy” and attempts “by media and entertainment outlets and public schools to mainstream transgender identity in the eyes of our children.”

I’ve read many screeds by these folks. They are completely blinded with a selective totalitarian reading of their version of the Bible, and they cannot be reasoned with. At some point it is rumored the Southern Poverty Law center is going to list the Southern Baptist Convention as a hate group.

Transgender resolution proposed to SBC.

UPDATE

On 11 June, 2014, the Southern Baptist Convention did approve the condemnation of transgender persons. You can read some details at this link.

HATE ALERT: Conservative Christianity and the Transgender Question

ROMANIA-ANTI-GAY-PROTESTA deceptively hateful message from Southern Baptist “Ethics and Religious Liberty President” Russell Moore. The gist of it is, if you’re trans, you are violating the direct orders of both the Old Testament and Jesus, but Conservative Christians should take pity on you and teach you the Right Way. In other words, “we should try to convince you that you’re deluded or crazy, rather than set your house on fire or murder you.” See, that’s progress…right?

The photograph above is from an anti-LGBT protest in Romania, driven by church leaders who whipped their congregations into a frenzy to go forth and fight the LGBT Satan in clouds of sulfur.

Conservative Christianity and the transgender question.