In a nutshell, the SBC’s key problem:
They act as if their initials stand for Smug Bigot Confederation, not Southern Baptist Convention
Caveat: I know, respect, and love a great many individual Southern Baptists. Southern Baptists, as unique human beings, are among the kindest, most loving, most generous, most tolerant, and most forgiving people I know.
Their convention, however, is led by a bunch of thundering asshats.
The most recent proof of this is located here: A Resolution On Transgender For The SBC by Denny Burk
Denny…shut up. Just…shut up.
You don’t know what you’re talking about. Period. End. Of. Dis. Cussion.
I don’t know what I’m talking about either when it comes to transgender and transsexual issues.
I know the people going through such problems are torn by feelings and emotions that I can only vaguely empathize with. I know they feel it on a level so deep and profound and visceral that I have no way of fully & equally accessing it.
So that right there marks it as territory I’m not competent to pass judgment on. All I can do is listen to their stories, try to be as empathetic as possible, oppose efforts to deny them their civil rights, and not get in the way of their attempts to find means of coping with their situation.
And by “not get in the way of their attempts to find means of coping with their situation” I mean most pointedly to let them come to God in the manner He sees fit, not the manner that makes the vacuous squishbags of the SBC leadership feel comfortable and clean.
How can anyone look at this resolution and not see the incoherent hypocrisy of the SBC on the one hand claiming it wants parents to be able to raise their children as they see fit then on the other hand vehemently arguing against letting them do that very thing?
Denny, seriously: Shut up.
You are on specious theological ground, anyway. And, yeah, I know you've got a degree and a nice prestigious job: You're still as flat out wrong as flat out wrong can be on this issue.
- If matching biological configuration with mental gender identification is so flipping important to God, then why doesn’t He make absolutely sure we don’t have any people who are genetic chimeras, or who are born with external sexual features that fall betwixt & between common sexual dimorphism?
- If human sexuality could be expressed in one fashion and one fashion only (i.e., hetronormative) then why did Jesus teach us that some people are born asexual, some become asexual (strongly implying that castration & emasculation was an acceptable route to this end goal), and that those people had an advantage over straights because they weren’t distracted from their love of God by sexual urges?
- If God doesn’t want us fiddling with our physical forms in order to feel more comfortable in our own skins, then why did Jesus restore withered limbs, cleanse leprosy, restore sight, staunch gynecological problems, cure the sick, raise the dead? Why not just put a mental whammy on them to make them feel comfortable with their twisted limbs, pustulent skin, deteriorating bodies?*
I’ll give you the benefit of a doubt, Denny, and presume you thought you were really coming up with a good idea to present to the SBC, one that would let them say they were loving the sinner while hating the sin.
But Denny, that ain’t how it’s gonna be read by the rest of the world. The SBC has spent the last two centuries doing a really great job of convincing people that they like to feel smug and superior to n[egroe]s then -- when it became socially unacceptable to play the racial bigotry card -- of convincing people they like to feel smug and superior to gays & lesbians.
Now that gays & lesbians are on a roll, with marriage equality and other civil rights within sight, even the old hardline gay bashers realize their “Adam & Steve” schtick is only playing to the most backward (read least affluent and graying) segment of society.
Whatever the future is going to be, it ain’t gonna be that.
So the SBC is in search of a new fight, for a new minority to pick on, to shut the gates on, to bar from the fields of the Lord, to feel smug, and superior, and holier-than-thou towards.
Shut up. Just…shut up.
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.
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* Yeah, I know you wanna jump in and point out he drove unclean spirits from people. He drove unclean spirits from people who either wanted the unclean spirits removed (if you read “unclean spirits” as schizophrenia and/or psychological/emotional problems) or were victims of invasion by demonic forces (if you read “unclean spirits” literally). His exorcisms were of people who wanted their lives freed from forces they could not control nor understand. As reparative therapy has proven to be an utter failure, useful only for teaching a few coping skills but not curing anyone, as prayer and laying on of hands has not “cured” or “fixed” anyone’s orientation or gender issues, then it’s perhaps fair to say sexual orientation and gender identity are no big deals to God (He of “There is neither Jew nor Gentile, neither slave nor free, nor is there male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus”); and if they’re no big deals to Him then maybe to be more Christ-like we should stop getting our pretty lace panties in a twist over them as well.