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.
