Southern Baptist Seminary to discuss transgender “crisis”

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (AP) – A conference hosted by the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary will focus on what it calls the “present crisis” of gay and transgender issues.
The conservative seminary says it’s their first-ever conference on transgender issues. Heath Lambert, a speaker at the conference, says in a release that issues like cross-gender bathrooms and children choosing their gender require an urgent Christian response.

Lambert is executive director of The Association of Certified Biblical Counselors. He says the goal of the conference is to “help the church respond in the present crisis with the wisdom and love of Jesus Christ.”
The conference titled “Transgender Confusion and Transformational Christianity” began on Monday, featuring Rev. R. Albert Mohler Jr., president of Southern Baptist Theological Seminary.

According to the Associated Press, he opened the conference by advocating against homosexual conversion therapy, saying that the “sin” of being attracted to ones own gender could only be remedied by turning to the Bible’s teachings.
The Fairness Campaign, a Louisville gay-rights advocacy group, set up a protest across the street, accompanied by several other clergy members who disagreed with the message being sent by the conference.

The Rev. Maurice Blanchard, a Baptist minister, sad “These folks here are already OK with God, they don’t need fixing. They don’t need correcting. They’re just as they’re supposed to be.”

Derek Penwell, another minister protesting outside, said “Any movement that takes as its organizing principle the fact that people are somehow defective … is wrong and it’s destructive. And it adds to the kind of abuse that a group of people have faced for too long.”

(All information from Associated Press)