Conservative Backlash Forces Christian University to Return Funding for LGBT Inclusion

Bestselling author accuses Baylor University president of close ties to LGBT-affirming church

The world’s largest Baptist university has reversed its decision to accept a grant of $643,401 to promote LGBT inclusion in churches following intense backlash from Christian leaders.

Baylor University, a private Christian school in Texas, announced on July 9 that it would return funding from the Eula Mae and John Baugh Foundation, but “remain committed to providing a loving and caring community for all — including our LGBTQIA+ students.”

Baylor President Linda A. Livingstone said in a statement that the school would continue to “affirm the biblical understanding of human sexuality as a gift from God, expressed through purity in singleness and fidelity in marriage between a man and a woman.”

“Our commitment to our Christian mission and our historic Baptist identity continues to guide our approach to academics, student life, and spiritual formation.”

The statement linked to the university’s Statement on Human Sexuality, which warns that “temptations to deviate from this [biblical] norm include both heterosexual sex outside of marriage and homosexual behavior.”

University policy forbids students from participating “in advocacy groups which promote understandings of sexuality that are contrary to biblical teaching,” while encouraging those struggling with sexual problems to seek pastoral help from its chaplaincy or counseling centers.

Researching ‘Inclusion’

The grant in question came from the Eula Mae and John Baugh Foundation, which has been funding projects at the university for over 40 years. According to a statement, this one was for “research to equip congregations with evidence-based curriculum on inclusion and belonging for LGBTQIA+ individuals and women” and that it remained committed “to supporting progressive, inclusive, and justice-oriented work.”

The Board of Trustees said it “is deeply saddened by Baylor’s decision to cancel the recent ‘Courage from the Margins’ research grant following an online campaign of fear and misinformation.”

“Pulling the rug out from under its faculty after those researchers have already put the grueling work into securing funding, work they undertook with Baylor’s full knowledge and approval, is a chilling affront to the very concept of academic freedom,” they said in a statement.

“Stymying research and opportunity will inevitably lead the best and brightest students and faculty to other universities where their work and their freedom will be valued and protected,” the statement added.

Several Christian pastors and influencers continued to criticize Baylor on social media for days after the school announced in a June 30 article (now deleted from its website) that it would accept the grant to “better understand the disenfranchisement and exclusion of LGBTQIA+ individuals and women within congregations to nurture institutional courage and foster change.”

Principal investigator Dr. Gaynor Yancey wrote that the foundation had been funding Baylor research “to study the inclusionary practices of congregations with people who are marginalized in numerous ways.”

Christian Leaders Attack Baylor’s Contradictory Policies

On July 2, the Rev. Matt Kennedy, an Anglican priest and podcaster, tweeted, “It’s much better to send your child to a secular university, hostile to the faith, than to a ‘Christian’ university like Baylor. Better the wolf with bared fangs than the wolf disguised as a shepherd.”

Influencer Allie Beth Stuckey, author of the bestseller Toxic Empathy: How Progressives Exploit Christian Compassion, wrote on X that “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.”

Stuckey posted a screenshot from an article as proof of that statement. Since 2015, Baylor has “tried to thread an impossibly fine needle” between “officially discouraging same-sex relationships” while making “space” for LGBT students and faculty.

“In 2022, BU recognized its first LGBTQ student organization called Prism,” Stuckey noted in a thread. “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.”

LBGT Issues Go Deeper at Baylor

In a series of posts on X, journalist and bestselling author Meghan Basham accused Livingstone of maintaining close ties with LGBT-affirming progressives. She called for a “full house cleaning” at the school, warning that “it is not enough for Baylor to simply return an LGBTQ grant” since “the grant money is emblematic of rot that has been going on for a long time.”

Basham revealed that Livingstone had attended a church pastored by the LGBTQ-affirming Baptist pastor Julie Pennington-Russell when she lived in Washington, D.C. In Texas, Livingstone attends Calvary Baptist Church, currently pastored by Rev. Meredith Stone, who has promoted calling God “she.”

“In 2022, in a sermon in response to the overturning of Roe v. Wade, Rev. Hannah Coe (then senior pastor at the church) claimed that the ‘targeting of LGBTQ teenagers’ is an example of ‘life-threatening consequences of political and religious action,’” Basham said.

Livingstone also did not speak out against barring men from competing in women’s sports, even though Concerned Women for America President Penny Nance and legislative strategist Macy Petty invited her to do so.

Renowned New Testament scholar Robert Gagnon, who has spent much of his career combating the LGBT agenda, commended Baylor for returning the grant but noted that the school is “sending the contradictory message of support for students and faculty promoting homosexuality and transgenderism.”

“What’s next? Support for the students and faculty promoting adult-committed incest and polyamory?” he asked.

Gagnon, author of the magisterial The Bible and Homosexual Practice: Texts and Hermeneutics, noted that Baylor has “hired professors, even in the field of Bible, who promote ‘gay’ relationships and transgender identification” and “endorsed ‘LGBTQIA+’ student affinity groups that embrace immoral identity and behavior.”

“Baylor has been pushing orthodox boundaries on sexuality for some time now,” he wrote on X. “The firestorm unleashed when it appeared that they were throwing off all sexual restraint is given them only momentary pause.”

Originally published in The Stream.

---

Dr. Jules Gomes (BA, BD, MTh, PhD) has a doctorate in biblical studies from the University of Cambridge. Currently a Vatican-accredited journalist based in Rome, he is the author of five books and several academic articles. Gomes lectured at Catholic and Protestant seminaries and universities and was canon theologian and artistic director at Liverpool Cathedral.