More than 75 religious conservatives, including several leaders in the Southern Baptist Convention, have signed a public document opposing policies that ban discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity.
Charter signers of the “Preserve Freedom, Reject Coercion” proclamation coordinated by the Colson Center for Christian Worldview claimed sexual orientation and gender identity (SOGI) policies “threaten basic freedoms of religion, conscience, speech and association,” violate privacy rights, and “expose citizens to significant legal and financial liability for practicing their beliefs in the public square.”
“In recent years, we have seen in particular how these laws are used by the government in an attempt to compel citizens to sacrifice their deepest convictions on marriage and what it means to be male and female,” the statement said, “people who serve everyone, regardless of sexual orientation or gender identity, but who cannot promote messages, engage in expression, or participate in events that contradict their beliefs or their organization’s guiding values.”
Baronelle Stutzman, a Southern Baptist florist in Richland, Wash., was sued for violating the state’s anti-discrimination law after she said it would go against her religion for her business to provide flowers for a same-sex wedding.
The religious and opinion leaders said small businesses and various groups, including religious colleges and churches, “have faced threats and legal action” under SOGI laws for declining to participate in same-sex weddings and resisting pressure to assign access to public restrooms based on gender identity instead of birth sex.
Under such laws, they said, “people of good will can face personal and professional ruin, fines, and even jail time, and organizations face the loss of accreditation, licensing, grants, contracts and tax-exemption.”
“SOGI laws empower the government to use the force of law to silence or punish Americans who seek to exercise their God-given liberty to peacefully live and work consistent with their convictions,” the letter said. “They also create special preference in law for categories based on morally significant choices that profoundly affect human relations and treat reasonable religious and philosophical beliefs as discriminatory.”
The signatories urged rejection of SOGI laws proposed at the federal, state and local levels. “We join together in signing this letter because of the serious threat that SOGI laws pose to fundamental freedoms guaranteed to every person.”
Signers include the presidents of four seminaries operated by the Southern Baptist Convention and presidents of several colleges affiliated with Baptist state conventions. Other Baptist leaders endorsing the measure include former SBC President Fred Luter, pastor of Franklin Avenue Baptist Church in New Orleans, and Russell Moore, head of the SBC Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission, the denomination’s official voice for religious liberty and public policy concerns.
Supporters of SOGI laws say without protection LGBT individuals are stigmatized, ostracized and frequently denied basic services such as education and health care. Many school districts across the country have adopted LGBT-inclusive policies to safeguard against bullying.
Recent local controversies over non-discrimination policies in municipalities such as Charlotte, N.C., have divided Baptists between conservatives who claim “bathroom bills” pose a threat to women and children and moderates and progressives who say that discrimination in any form violates the Bible’s command to “love thy neighbor as thyself.”
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