The regents of Baylor University have approved a measure providing LGBTQ students more support, including a possible new student group on campus.
The Waco Tribune reported when passing the new guidelines, the regents also reaffirmed the university’s “Statement on Human Sexuality,” which upholds that “sexual relations of any kind outside of a marriage between a man and a woman are not in keeping with the teaching of Scripture.”
“As a Board of Regents, we recognize that Baylor’s LGBTQ students continue to seek care, connections, and community on our campus and a sense of belonging within the Baylor Family,” the new resolution said. “As an important and faithful expression of our Christian mission, we desire to establish trust with our LGBTQ students so that, among other things, they might seek out the resources provided by Baylor.”
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The regents’ guidelines were in response to a move started two years ago by an unofficial LGBTQ student group’s efforts to be recognized by the university charter, according to the Tribune. A petition circulated among alumni, faculty, and students was signed by more than 3,000 people.
“We look forward to moving forward on the charge in that resolution and doing it in a way that respects the principles outlined there and respects our values and mission and then our deep care for our students,” Baylor President Linda Livingstone said.
Baylor University was chartered by an act of the Congress of the Republic of Texas on Feb. 1, 1845, according to the school’s website. The university came into being after the Rev. William Milton Tryon and District Judge R.E.B. Baylor suggested establishing a Baptist university in the new republic to delegates at a Union Baptist Association meeting four years earlier. After 176 years, it remains a private Christian university.
But one prominent Baptist pastor, a Baylor alumnus, argues the school has lost its way, especially after the latest LGBTQ shift.
“What they teach and the underlying philosophy is anti-Christian,” First Baptist Dallas Pastor Robert Jeffress said on the Todd Starnes Radio Show. “And I don’t think any true Christian parent who wants their kids to have a Christian education would allow their child anywhere near Baylor University.”
“What this really is Todd – is a fraternity for LGBTQ students. The fact is they thought a support group might give the impression that they were trying to help these students. If they were really trying to lead these students out of homosexuality and out of gender confusion, that would be a good thing. But what they’re really going to do is to affirm their right to engage in that kind of ungodly behavior,” Jeffress said.
But it goes beyond embracing LGBTQ students. Jeffress told Starnes that Baylor has strayed from Christian truth on a much broader level.
“Our church has sent students down there for years who have their faith completely torn apart by infidels in the religion department,” he said.
Jeffress said parents have a choice where to sent their children to college.
“Being filled with Christians doesn’t make you a Christian university,” Jeffress told Starnes. “It is your viewpoint and what you teach. I say either go to a distinctively Christian university or go to a completely secular university and get a better rate for doing it.”
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