Christians, gather around—because it’s once again time for someone to tell LGBTQ Christians they’re apparently doing Christianity wrong. If there’s one thing more reliable than your favorite pop diva dropping a surprise remix, it’s this annual Pride Month tradition.
This year’s sermon-from-the-timeline comes courtesy of the Southern Baptist Convention’s Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission (ERLC), which released a social media reel arguing that Christians shouldn’t identify as “gay Christians” or “transgender Christians.” Affirming Baptists, however, had something to say.
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Apparently, labels are out… unless they’re the approved ones
RaShan Frost, the ERLC’s director of research and senior fellow, tackled the question head-on.
“The short answer to the question of whether or not it’s OK to identify as a transgender or a gay Christian is no. We do not categorize our identities as Christians with sinful activity,” Frost states.
He explained that, in the ERLC’s view, there’s an important distinction between experiencing same-sex attraction or gender dysphoria and identifying as gay or transgender.
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“However, there is a distinction between saying, ‘I am a Christian who suffers from gender dysphoria or same-sex attraction’ and ‘I’m a Christian who identifies as transgender or gay.’ Any ongoing identification with sinful behavior should cause any individual to prayerfully repent and question whether they have been fully obedient to Christ and laying aside their sins.
“For the Christian who struggles and yet is faithfully seeking to obey Christ there should be a recognition that this ongoing work of sanctification will not be uniform in all cases and will instead be characterized by an ongoing life of repentance as with all of our struggles against sinful behavior,” he says.
In short, the ERLC argues that Christians shouldn’t make sexuality or gender identity part of how they describe themselves. It’s a position the organization has held for years—and one that continues to draw plenty of criticism.
This wasn’t exactly a plot twist
Anyone expecting the Southern Baptist Convention to suddenly debut an “Everyone Is Welcome” era may have wandered into the wrong denomination. The SBC has consistently opposed LGBTQ inclusion for decades, and the ERLC has repeatedly argued against recognizing transgender identities.
The denomination has already dominated headlines this month for doubling down on its opposition to women serving as pastors in either title or function. LGBTQ issues remain another line the convention has shown no interest in redrawing. The ERLC recently published an article criticizing Pride Month while supporting legislation that would prohibit legal recognition of transgender people.
Earlier this year, it also applauded President Donald Trump’s rollback of Biden-era transgender protections, writing:
“For many opponents of our nation’s cultural embrace of radical gender ideology, the past several months have been a welcomed reprieve from the madness and a return to truth. Once sworn into office, President Trump began repealing Biden-era policies that pushed gender ideology into every corner of the federal government.”
This is hardly new territory. Since the 1970s, delegates at Southern Baptist annual meetings have approved more than 40 resolutions dealing with sexuality and gender. One 2014 resolution declared that gender identity is determined by biological sex rather than self-perception.
So yes, this is less “breaking news” and more “season renewal.”
LGBTQ Baptists say God already knows who they are
Not every Baptist church reads from the same script. The Association of Welcoming and Affirming Baptists (AWAB) responded with a very different message—one that argues LGBTQ identity and Christian faith are not mutually exclusive.
“For countless LGBTQ Baptists, identifying as a queer LGBTQ Christian is not an attempt to place one’s sexuality or gender identity above one’s faith. Rather, it is an honest acknowledgment that God meets us not in some imagined version of ourselves, but in the fullness of who we are,” said executive director Brian Henderson.
“To claim that a person’s sexual orientation or gender identity is inherently sinful is not simply mistaken — it distorts the gospel and bears false witness against the lives of countless faithful Christians. LGBTQ people have existed throughout history, across every culture, family and faith tradition. We are not deviations from God’s creation; we are part of it.
“The suggestion that LGBTQ Christians must continually question the legitimacy of their faith simply because they acknowledge who they are has caused immeasurable spiritual harm. Too many have been driven from congregations, estranged from their families or taught to distrust the very gifts with which they live. This is not the good news AWAB knows the gospel to proclaim.”
The pews are full of LGBTQ people—whether some churches like it or not
Here’s the thing: LGBTQ Christians have always existed. They sing in choirs, teach Sunday school, organize potlucks, volunteer at shelters, and somehow still manage to survive church committee meetings—a miracle worthy of its own scripture. The bigger debate isn’t whether LGBTQ Christians exist. They do. The debate is whether certain denominations are willing to acknowledge them without asking them to edit themselves first.
For many gay and transgender believers, faith was never about pretending to be someone else. It’s about believing that the God who supposedly knows every hair on their head probably isn’t surprised by who they’re attracted to—or how they understand themselves. And judging by the reaction to the ERLC’s latest video, plenty of Christians agree.
Source: Baptist News