A while back, I was contacted about writing and submitting a resolution on transgenderism to the Kentucky Baptist Convention Resolutions Committee for their consideration in preparation for the KBC Annual Meeting on November 16th. I prayerfully agreed to do so along with fellow pastor Casey McCall, believing that Kentucky Baptists need to offer a clear, biblically faithful, and gospel-centered word on transgenderism.
I submitted the proposed resolution on October 20th, and the KBC Resolutions Committee declined to consider it because the formal deadline for resolution submissions was October 17th. I made a request for them to accept it even though it was several days late. The KBC responded that late acceptance would not be possible, so I’ve decided to post it here so that this important statement—one we had hoped would be affirmed by the messengers of Kentucky Baptist churches at our 2021 Annual Meeting—could still be considered.
It is not comprehensive, but Pastor Casey and I hope it’s helpful and maps a promising trajectory as churches and individual Christian navigate transgenderism.
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Resolution on KBC Churches, the Gospel, and Transgenderism
Submitted by David E. Prince and Casey McCall
Whereas, The Scriptures teach that God created men and women in his own image, “Male and female, He created them” (Gen 1:27); and
Whereas, The Scriptures teach the goodness of the human body and calls us to glorify God with our bodies (Gen 1:31, John 1:14, 1 Cor 6:12-20); and
Whereas, The Scriptures teach the inherent honor, dignity, value, and equality of the two sexes as created in God’s image, male and female, each bringing unique and complementary qualities to sexuality and relationships; and
Whereas, Jesus affirmed God’s order, design, and continuing work of creating his image bearers “male and female” (Matt 19:4); and
Whereas, God opposes any rejection of His purpose and design, including the confusion of man as woman and woman as man; and
Whereas, Many in today’s culture consider gender a social and mental construct, severed from biological and physical reality created by God; and
Whereas, United States courts and governmental agencies have wrongly used Title IX, allowing for one’s sex to be solely determined by one’s own self-identification and not by biological reality, and
Whereas, Ongoing support for legislation like the Equality Act seeks to erase biological sex as a legal category; and
Whereas, Such actions seek to normalize and legally enshrine confusion about sexual identity and promote hormonal and surgical procedures in order to externally modify one’s anatomy from male to female and from female to male; and
Whereas, Evangelical Christian churches are not without guilt in failing to reach out and minister the gospel of Christ with compassion and respect to those who struggle with same-sex attraction and gender dysphoria while at the same time often failing to address the sexual sins of heterosexual congregants, and
Whereas, Kentucky Baptist institutions and churches face continuing pressure to compromise biblical teaching on sexuality; and
Resolved, That the messengers to the Kentucky Baptist Convention in 2021 call on Kentucky Baptist churches to faithfully and unapologetically confess the biblical sexual ethic in all of its fullness, including the fact God created humanity male and female; and be it further
Resolved, That we resist the spirit of the age that would pressure us to ignore sin and to call evil good and good evil on all matters, including sexual ethics (Is 5:20, 2 Tim 3:1-5), and that resistance to the spirit of the age also includes any who suggest we must abandon a display of Christian love, kindness, and gentleness in order to stand boldly for and proclaim Christian truth and clarify sin (1 Pet 3:15), and be it further
Resolved, That all of our image-bearing neighbors who struggle with sexual identity, sexual confusion, and gender dysphoria will be met with love, compassion, prayer, truth, and gospel witness in our churches; and be it further
Resolved, That we oppose all efforts to legally enshrine the notion that one’s sex can be determined their own self-identification rather than biological reality; and be it further
Resolved, That we oppose any effort to erase biological sex as a legal category and be it further
Resolved, That we oppose the use of cross-sex hormones and puberty blockers in children; and be it further
Resolved, A failure to speak the truth in love (Eph 4:15) in our churches and to the culture on these fundamental matters of God’s design and purpose would be both a failure to love God and our neighbor; and be it further
Resolved, That we will minister compassionately to families, friends, and others impacted by a loved one’s decision to live at odds with their biological sex; and be it further
Resolved, That because of our undying commitment to love God’s image bearers by preaching the gospel of Jesus Christ to all without exception (Matt 28:19–20; Acts 20:27; Rom 11:36), we will be able to echo the words of the apostle Paul about those trapped in sin, including sexual sin, “And such were some of you. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God” (1 Cor 6:11).
