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 Baptists institutions and churches face continuing pressure to compromise biblical teaching on sexuality.
Therefore, be it RESOLVED, that the messengers to the Kentucky Baptist Convention in 2022 call on Kentucky Baptist churches to faithfully and apologetically confess the biblical sexual ethic in all of its fullness, including the fact God created humanity male and female, and be it
RESOLVED, that we resist the spirit of the age that would pressure to ignore sin and to call evil good and good evil on all matters, including sexual ethics (Isa. 5:20; 2 Tim. 3:1-5), and that resistance of 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 bold for and proclaim Christian truth and clarify sin (1 Peter 3:15), and be it
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
RESOLVED, that we oppose all efforts to legally enshrine the notion that one’s sex can be self-determined rather than by biological reality, and be it
RESOLVED, that we oppose any effort to erase biological sex as a legal category, and be
RESOLVED, that we oppose the use of cross-sex hormones and puberty blockers in children, as well as any operation which mutilates the body with no medical utility, commonly called gender affirming care, in children, and be it
RESOLVED, that 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
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 finally
RESOLVED, that because of our undying commitment to love God’s image bearers by preaching the gospel of Jesus Christ 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).