A Texas Baptist pastor joined interfaith clergy in a rally outside the state Capitol Aug. 1 challenging the narrative that the faith community as a whole supports proposed legislation to require transgender people to use public bathrooms that match the gender listed on their birth certificates.
“I’m confused, because I keep hearing voices from inside this building which claim to represent me and a faith like mine,” Griff Martin, senior pastor of First Baptist Church in Austin, told about 250 people at a “#YallMeansAll” rally organized by the interfaith group Texas Impact.
Griff Martin, pastor of First Baptist Church, Austin, speaks to about 250 people at a “#YallMeansAll” rally organized by the interfaith group Texas Impact. (Photo/Facebook)
“They say the churches in Texas — Baptist churches — support these so-called bathroom bills, which makes me think they understand Baptists about as well as they understand the transgender identity and bathroom politics,” said Martin, whose church was recently kicked out of the Baptist General Convention of Texas for welcoming members regardless of sexual orientation.
Gov. Greg Abbott issued a press release July 25 claiming “growing support” for Senate Bill 3, also known as the Texas Privacy Act, with endorsements from conservative religious groups including the Southern Baptists of Texas Convention.
“The Southern Baptists of Texas Convention supports protecting the privacy and safety of women and children in public bathrooms, showers and locker rooms,” said Gary Ledbetter, communications director for the Southern Baptist Convention affiliate that separated from the historically moderate BGCT over denominational politics in the 1990s.
“We affirm that gender identity is determined by God through biological sex and not by self-perception,” said Ledbetter, editor of the Southern Baptist Texan.
Cindy Asmussen, adviser to the convention’s Ethics and Religious Liberty Committee, recently testified in favor of the so-called privacy bill, which has passed the Senate and awaits action by the House of Representatives in a month-long special legislative session that began July 18.
A recent Fort Worth Star-Telegram headline, “Who wants a ‘bathroom bill’? Southern Baptists, for one,” appeared over a column framing the debate as a battle of faith-and-values conservatives against business groups.
“We as Baptists don’t have a single voice,” Martin said at Tuesday’s rally. “We are fiercely independent. It’s very Texas of us. We don’t like people speaking for us, especially when they don’t tell the truth.”
“I am here to say there are a lot of us that don’t support this bathroom bill,” he said. “There are a lot of us that are tired of fear and scapegoating driving politics in this state. We are ready instead to see those we elect and those we trust to start leading this state with wisdom, with bravery and with kindness.”
“Don’t be fooled by the lies and the hate being told inside,” he said. “All of us Baptists don’t think alike, and we are here today to make our voice heard, to say to our transgender siblings and friends and beloved community, you deserve better, and we will stand with you, because that’s what Jesus would do.”
“The Jesus that we Baptists know is the Jesus who loved everyone, who always sought out the marginalized, who sat down at the table with all people, who saw no boundaries, who never spoke of the other but always spoke of the beloved,” the pastor continued. “That Jesus would be the first to stand with transgender Texans and proclaim his love for them.”
Other speakers included Jewish, Muslim and Christian clergy from denominations representing Presbyterian, Lutheran, Episcopalian, Methodist and United Church of Christ traditions.
Kimberly Shappley, a non-denominational Christian and mother of a transgender child, described the experience of being attacked with Scripture used intentionally to harm people like her family.
“Our politicians currently are trying to force my little girl to use a men’s restroom,” Shappley said. “Whose women and children are they trying to protect, really?”
“There’s an entire community of people who are hurting, and we are in desperate need of those who will stand in the gap and love us through the storm as these Pharisees rage on,” she continued. “The horrible example of Christianity being delivered by the radical extremists is turning people away from the church and they are pushing them away from Jesus.”
“Christians, your silence can be deafening to those being oppressed,” Shappley said. “We need you. Desperately, we need people who will love us.”
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