Thread by @conservmillen

🧵Baylor University, a large Baptist college in Texas, took $643K from a progressive foundation to push LGBTQ+ affirmation in churches, then returned it. But is this repentance or damage control? A look at the university’s moves in recent years reveals the truth:

2/ First, the recent grant. Baylor’s Diana R. Garland School of Social Work applied for and accepted the $643,401 grant from the Baugh Foundation, which funds projects and organizations that seek to liberalize Christian institutions.

3/ The grant was for a research project called “Courage from the Margins: Inclusion and Belonging Practices for LGBTQIA+ and Women in Congregations,” the purpose of which was to use the “lived experiences” of “LGBTQIA+” people to inform congregations about ways they can be more “inclusive.”

4/ Baylor was initially enthusiastic about the grant and the consequential research. On June 30th, they published a now-removed press release that lauded the “generous support of the Baugh Foundation” and the effort to make churches “spaces of healing and belonging” for LGBT-identifying people.

5/ Understandably, the professing-Christian university received swift backlash. Journalist @megbasham persistently sounded the alarm on Baylor’s compromise. Many, including Baylor alumni, shared the sentiment expressed by Pastor @DennyBurk here:

6/ Yesterday, BU’s president, Linda Livingstone, announced the school would be rescinding the grant, citing a collision of advocacy and Christian values. While people are praising this decision as Baylor doing the right thing, it’s worth noting that this doesn’t appear to be an honest mistake.

7/ This isn’t the first time Baylor’s taken far-left Baugh’s money. In 2018, for example, BU accepted a grant for a guide to navigate “decisions to be more inclusive in their practices and policies specific to LGBTQ+ persons.”

8/ In 2024, the Baugh Foundation funded the “Building  Resilient Congregations research pilot project,” where Yancey and her team “ worked with selected congregations in three distinct areas: Accompaniment, Trauma Care, and LGBTQ+ Discernment.”

9/ BU’s quiet compromise on LGBT issues goes back at least 10 years. Post-Obergefell (2015), they quietly removed language on the sinfulness of homosexuality from their conduct code. It should be noted, however, that Baylor’s official statements about sexual ethics still affirm the biblical definition of marriage. Via the Dallas Observer

10/ In 2022, BU recognized its first LGBTQ student organization called Prism. Per reporting in the Baylor Lariat, BU’s LGBTQ policies are quite contradictory and confusing. The school apparently affirms biblical sexuality but prohibits its counselors from urging LGBT-identifying students to repentance.

11/ This shift has predominantly taken place under the leadership of President Livingstone, who seems to be a progressive herself. @megbasham reports that Livingstone attends an LGBTQ-affirming church. Also, in 2020, she expressed her (& Baylor’s?) support for the Marxist, anti-nuclear family organization, Black Lives Matter.

12/ There are many other examples of Baylor’s lack of courage to stand for biblical truth. Professors pushing radical transgender ideology, students protesting professing teachers who dare defend biblical truth. We go through their deconstruction on this episode. I’d share this episode + thread with those in your life who need the facts about what’s going on at BU. youtu.be/L7wiQvWG7_g

13/ As a Texan, I have many Baylor friends and know the loyalty to the university runs deep. I’ve gotten plenty of supportive messages since releasing our episode, but a lot of extremely angry ones, too, claiming I shouldn’t criticize a Christian college. Here’s what I’ll ask: What matters more? Baylor or the Bible?

14/ If you’re a Christian, you should be disturbed by the direction a once-solid Baptist institution is taking. May your ire be directed at its compromise, not at those criticizing the compromise. As an alum or a parent, you’ve spent thousands of dollars supporting BU. You have a right—and responsibility—to hold it accountable.

15/ In fact, it’s because there were believers willing to do what I call “raising a respectful ruckus” that BU rescinded this shameful grant. This is what courage does. When paired with persistence, it makes a difference. You have real power when you stand up and speak out. Keep doing it.

16/ Remember, we cannot out-love God. God is love (1 John 4:8), so the most loving thing we can do is agree with Him. He says holy sexuality is exclusive to the marital union between a man + a woman and that the only genders that exist are male + female (Gen. 1:27). He also says that homosexuality is a sin, a disordered desire that consumes the body and soul (Rom. 1).

17/ If we really love those in our care—at our churches, schools, and families—we must courageously, graciously, and clearly point them to the path of life and away from patterns of thought and action that will destroy them.

18/ By apparently believing it can out-nice God, Baylor is exchanging the God of Scripture for the god of self, and in so doing, endangers its mission and the very souls of those on its campus. May God have mercy.