Baylor University – a historically Baptist-affiliated university – will be spending hundreds of thousands of dollars to find ways to make homosexuals more accepted in churches. The school reports that its Center for Church and Community Impact (C3I) has been given more than $643,000 to develop "trauma-sensitive" training materials to "foster inclusion and belonging" of LGBT individuals in the Church.
The emphasis of the research? To understand "the disenfranchisement and exclusion of LGBTQIA+ individuals and women within congregations to nurture institutional courage and foster change."
Dr. Richard Land, president emeritus of Southern Evangelical Seminary & Bible College, says the real story is where the money is coming from and who will be doing the research at the largest Baptist college in America. According to GoodFaithMedia, the money came in the form of a grant from the Eula Mae and John Baugh Foundation.
Land remembers John Baugh. "John Baugh was one of the men who was most involved in funding the moderate and liberal Southern Baptist movement, trying to move the [Southern Baptist] Convention in a different direction," he tells AFN.
The research will be done at Baylor's Diana R. Garland School of Social Work.
Land remembers that research group. "The Diana Garland School of Social Work left Southern Seminary because it would not conform to the biblical conservatism of Southern Seminary's new president, Al Mohler," he offers.
According to Land, both Baugh and Garland were on the losing side of what was labeled the "Conservative Resurgence" of the SBC in the 1980s. He says the fingerprints of the failed attempt to move the Convention in a different direction are all over this research.
"If the moderates and liberals had won, the whole Convention would be doing what Baylor's doing instead of reaffirming Baptist values and biblical values," he adds.
In announcing the grant, Baylor stated: "Social work values and competence through the ethical integration of faith and practice prompt C3I to constantly and consistently nudge faith-based organizations to be proactive in establishing institutional courage."
