The Southern Baptist Convention, the largest Protestant body in the US, claiming 15 mil members, gathered at their annual convention this week in Baltimore, Maryland. Well, 5000 of them did.
They passed resolutions block voting to tell people how to live their lives. Nothing new there. A few resolutions do help answer the question found in the Diary title.
That's next.
These resolutions were passed at the Baltimore convention. The first without discussion.
(SBC) opposes hormone therapy, gender reassignment surgery and other efforts to "alter one's bodily identity." According to the resolution, "God's design was the creation of two distinct and complementary sexes, male and female." The resolution expresses opposition to government efforts to "validate transgender identify as morally praiseworthy."
I think there was an uptick within the resolution. I think.
The resolution also condemns the bullying and abuse of transgender people and expresses love and compassion for "those whose sexual self-understanding is shaped by a distressing conflict between their biological sex and their gender identity."
Was that an uptick? We denounce you, but won't bully you. We judge you, but love you. Did I get that right? "Distressing conflict" indeed. Vintage Southern Baptist.
If you care to read the entire Resolution it is here
But, before I move on we need one "resolve" for the road.
RESOLVED, That we (SBC) oppose all cultural efforts to validate claims to transgender identity…"
In other resolution news from the SBC as it faces continued declines in membership, baptisms etc, comes the following don't likes:
…approved a denunciation of government sponsorship of casinos and lotteries as exploiting "poor, vulnerable, and disadvantaged citizens by promoting participation in highly addictive behaviors which often result in financial disadvantage or ruin."
…approved a resolution that denounces predatory payday lending and urges churches and individuals to "provide viable solutions for meeting short-term financial needs within their local communities."
But, next the SBC back pedals hard while confessing it's involvment in racial segregation.
RESOLVED, That the messengers to the Southern Baptist Convention meeting in Baltimore, Maryland, June 10–11, 2014, lament and repudiate this nation’s long history of racial segregation as well as the complicity of Southern Baptists who resisted or opposed the dismantling of the evil of racial hierarchy in our churches or society; …
The SBC has to be the poster organization for institutional schizophrenia.