Pastor notes irony of Christian university accepting the grant at same time as UPenn abandons transgender sports policy
Another evangelical Christian university is facing criticism for embracing the “LGBTQIA+” agenda.
The Baptist-affiliated Baylor University in Texas recently accepted a $643,400 grant to study “the disenfranchisement and exclusion of LGBTQIA+ individuals and women within congregations.”
Baylor’s Center for Church and Community Impact will use the grant to fund the study, “Courage from the Margins: Inclusion and Belonging Practices for LGBTQIA+ and Women in Congregations,” it stated in a news release.
Researchers plan to interview 25 college students about “their lived experiences with congregations,” and ultimately develop “trauma-sensitive” materials to train churches in acceptance of women and “LGBTQIA+” individuals, according to the news release.
The training resources will encourage churches to adopt “more inclusive language” and develop “concrete steps toward genuine inclusion.”
“Many LGBTQIA+ individuals and women experience what researchers call ‘institutional betrayal’ within their faith communities – situations where the institutions they depend on for spiritual support fail to protect them or even actively harm them. This might involve exclusion from church activities, family estrangement and painful conflicts that leave lasting emotional wounds,” the news release states.
The grant comes from a foundation that promotes “progressive, inclusive” Christianity.
Baylor’s mission is “to educate men and women for worldwide leadership and service by integrating academic excellence and Christian commitment within a caring community.”
But by accepting the grant, some religious leaders said the university is straying from its mission and Christian teachings about human sexuality.
William Wolfe, executive director of the Center for Baptist Leadership, urged Christians to speak out against the grant project before the situation erodes even further.
“You all realize this *is* the [Southern Baptist Convention’s] future if we don’t take action to fix things over the next five years? It’s not a matter of ‘if’ but ‘when,’” Wolfe, a former State Department staffer under the first Trump administration, wrote on X.
“And if we end up here, you’ll know precisely who to blame—the false prophets who preached ‘peace, peace’ when there was no peace,” he wrote.
Meanwhile, pastor and podcaster Aaron O’Kelley noted the irony of the Christian university’s news occurring on the same day as the University of Pennsylvania, a secular institution, ended its transgender rule allowing male athletes to compete in women’s sports.
So secular UPenn is acknowledging gender reality while ostensibly Baptist university @Baylor is taking a grant to push gender confusion into churches. https://t.co/n3ntAggrPa
— Aaron O’Kelley (@AaronOKelley) July 1, 2025
Another pastor, Jared Cornutt of North Shelby Baptist Church in Alabama, urged Christians to stop donating to Baylor.
“The school has a $2 billion endowment and is in no way Baptist. Send your money to someone who actually advances our mission,” he wrote on X.
The Baptist university has been steadily changing its stance on human sexuality in recent years, according to Good Faith Media:
As recently as a decade ago, Baylor’s student code of conduct prohibited “homosexual acts,” placing them in the same category as rape and incest. In 2015, the year the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in favor of same-sex marriage rights, Baylor replaced that language with a focus on “marital fidelity,” while still defining marriage as between a man and a woman. …
In 2022, Baylor officially chartered Prism, its first LGBTQ student organization, after nearly a decade of similar groups seeking recognition. Prism’s goal is to serve as a safe space for LGBTQ students and to act as a liaison between students and the administration. However, the organization is still required to operate in accordance with the university’s code of conduct regarding “marital fidelity.”
Recently, another evangelical institution also faced criticism for a statement about gay marriage.
When Fuller Theological Seminary leaders re-affirmed its stance that marriage is between one man and one woman in May, they also said they believe “faithful Christians” can support gay marriage, The College Fix reported.
Some Christian scholars warned the statement was a sign that Fuller soon may fully abandon its position on marriage and sexuality.
MORE: LGBT activists permitted to break rules at Baylor, conservative students aren’t
IMAGE CAPTION AND CREDIT: On the lawn of a church, doors are painted with the LGBTQ pride rainbow and the words,`God`s Doors Are Open To All’; Erin Alexis Randolph/Shutterstock