Ali Stuckey (0:00)

The Baptist Baylor University, a huge college in Texas, has just announced that it received a large grant from a progressive foundation that is funding research at the university that will be used to convince Christian congregations to be affirming of lgbtq. We've got so much on this story today as we break down the very sad progressive shift of a once great Baptist institution, Baylor University. This episode is brought to you by our friends at Good ranchers. Go to good ranchers.com use code ALI at checkout. That's good ranchers.com code ALLY hey guys. Welcome to Relatable Happy Wednesday. Hope everyone is having a wonderful week. And if you want a breakdown of the tragic floods and the response and some of the theories surrounding the floods in Texas, go back, listen to or watch Monday's episode. We covered that thoroughly. Then, unfortunately, the death toll there keeps rising. So please keep praying, keep giving, keep doing whatever you can to support the communities there. Not just now, but even months from now. I, of course, am continuing to do that. As someone who is from Texas, this is especially near and dear to my heart. So we are continuing to think about them and intercede for them and pray for everyone who has been affected and will continue to be affected. Today we are talking about another Texas story, this time about a Baptist university in Waco, Texas, called Baylor University. A lot of you have probably heard of Baylor. It is a huge school, very popular school, especially for for Christian students in the state of Texas and really nationally. I graduated from a private Christian school and I think it was like I only graduated with 110 people maybe in my graduating class. And I'm pretty sure it was 25 people from my class went to Baylor, another 25 went to a and M. These are super popular universities in the state of Texas. Very big community in Dallas and elsewhere of Baylor alum. This is a generational thing, especially the A M people out there. I already know what you're yelling because I'm saying A and M. I know that what you're yelling as you're walking and as you are driving in your car, but I cannot hear you. Baylor has been such a big part of Texas culture and really of Baptist life in a lot of ways. However, it is taking a leftward turn and as we will see, it has been taking this leftward turn going down this leftward drift for a long time. But now recent news has made a lot of people who have been defending Baylor and its Christian ethics stop in their tracks and say, okay, this is just a bridge too far. So this was published by The Christian Post last week, a private Baptist research university in Waco, Texas, that's Baylor. Announced on June 30 that it had received $643,401 in grant money from the Eula Mae and John Baugh Foundation. And the goal of this more than half a million dollar grant is to foster LGBTQ inclusion and belonging in the church. This publicly highlighted. The school publicly highlighted this funding through a press release from its Diana R. Garland School of Social Work. The grant will go toward research that will focus on understanding and seen, quote, the disenfranchisement and exclusion of LGBTQIA plus individuals and women, okay. Within congregations to nurture institutional courage and foster change. So everyone except for straight men, this research is for you. So Baylor put out a press release about this. That in and of itself is a story. They're proud of this. They are excited about this. They are thankful for this grant money. This is not something that they are trying to slip under the rug. They're not trying to hide it. I don't know if they put out a press release for every single grant that they get, but they were so enthusiastic about this particular grant that they decided to publicize it. So the specific project that this grant is funding is called Courage from the Inclusion and Belonging Practices for lgbtqia. Okay. Plus, what does that even mean? And women in congregations will use interviews, focus groups, and surveys with two groups of 25 young adults aged 18 to 24, recruited from across the country to gather information about their experiences in church settings. Findings from the research will be used to develop trauma informed training resources for churches with the aim of encouraging more inclusive practices and environments for LGBTQIA individuals and women. So this is toxic empathy. With feats like this is what it looks like to actually manifest toxic empathy. So what this grant is going to fund is research that will be used to then guilt churches into not only including, but affirming those who identify as homosexual or as the opposite sex. They are going to say, look, these individuals, through our research, we found that they are enduring trauma, they are enduring betrayal. They have walked away from the church. They have abandoned their faith. Because these churches called who they are sin, and they shamed them, and they made them feel like they had to live in the shadows. And that's not what Jesus wanted for us. That's not evangelism. And they'll probably say, you know, if we really want to share the gospel with these people, if we really want these people to be walking with Christ, then we need to affirm every part of them. This research will be weaponized, will be used as a tool of emotional manipulation, a mallet of manipulation to hit you believing person over the head, biblical Christian person, into accepting that which God calls sin. That is what this research will be used for. That is its express purpose, even if they are not stating this in the press release. The press release uses a bunch of progressive hogwash and euphemisms, which tells me that Baylor truly has been captured. 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 and even actively harm them. This might involve exclusion from church activities, family estrangement, and painful conflicts that leave lasting emotions, emotional wounds. So I think it's important you guys know I love to analyze press releases and public statements that are made after controversies or in the midst of scandal, because every single word is chosen with intentionality. This has been combed over several times by so many different teams of people. And so when I'm reading these sentences, I want to know, but what do they mean by this? So first, this term institutional betrayal, I've heard it before, and so I wanted to know, where does this come from? Does it mean what it sounds like? It means that the institution you're a part of turns its back on you. I mean, I think of the word betrayal. That's like you make a promise to someone, or you say that you're going to do something, and then you don't do it. You don't follow through on it, and you say that you accept someone, that you love someone, and then you go back on your commitment to them. That is what betrayal means. So I wanted to dig into this a little bit more. This term was coined by a University of Oregon professor named Jennifer Frade, and she actually focuses on the psychology of sexual abuse trauma survivors. So that is apparently where this term originated. And I think it is very telling that you've got organizations like this Baylor, who is accepting this progressive money for this progressive cause, that it is using this term, institutional betrayal, to describe the experiences of people who have probably simply been told that their homosexual lifestyle or their identification as the opposite sex is not in alignment with God's word. Now, that is not betrayal. That is actually a Christian organization or institution staying true to its mission statement, staying true to the God that it is actually faithful to. To betray someone, you actually have to have made a commitment to them and then gone back on that. But if you said, this is who I am, this is what I'm going to do. This is what I'm going to stay true to. And that person decides that, well, those things don't actually align with what I believe, and they walk away or they're offended by your values. That is not betrayal. So already in this language, you see that the responsibility is being put on the church. The shame is being put on the church saying you are betraying these people by saying that LGBTQIA is sin. So we know exactly where this is going and exactly why this research is being funded at a place like Baylor, in a conservative state like Texas, and a conservative town like Waco for a conservative denomination like Baptists. We know exactly what this is trying to do. This is not really institutional betrayal that Baptists or Christians are guilty of. This is actually institutional capture of a previously Christian, solid place like Baylor University by bad actors, by progressives who are using the emotional manipulation of toxic empathy to make you feel bad for abiding by scripture. That's what's really going on here. Okay, we have so much more, so much more on this, but let me go ahead and pause, tell you about our first sponsor for the day. It's Seven Weeks Coffee, y'. All. Seven Weeks has an amazing announcement. So I've been telling you for a long time, this is America's Pro Life Coffee Company. It's amazing coffee. But what I love about them is that 10% of every sale of seven weeks coffee goes directly to pregnancy centers and Pro Life organizations. They have saved so many babies by providing the funding necessary to give the necessary resources to moms and babies and dads in need. And they have now officially raised over $1 million for these pregnancy centers. Oh, my goodness. Because of you choosing to allow your coffee to serve a higher purpose. Because of their generosity, because of their mission to honor every baby as an image bearer of God. We have together raised over a million dollars for these children and for their families. And they're not stopping now. So it's certainly not too late. We are going to keep going until millions and millions and millions and millions of more dollars are raised for these vulnerable families. Go to 7weeks Coffee.com. when you do, you can use my code, Ali. You'll get 10% off when you subscribe and get a box of coffee every month to your front door and you save an extra 15% off. And 10% of every sale is still going to those pregnancy centers across the country. So it is just a win all around that seven weeks coffee.com code, Ali. This new LGBTQ inclusion grant is designated for Baylor's center for Church and Community Impact, also known as C3I, according to the press release. Dr. Gaynor Yancey has been the director of C3I that is part of the University's Diana R. Garland School of social work since 2016. She has authored many of the academic articles recommended by this center dealing with the inclusion of the LGBTQ community and churches. Yancey said that the grant will help fill out, quote, the bigger picture of congregations practices that result in an environment of belonging. And we'll focus on the lived experiences of emerging adults. Again, I mean, this progressive euphemistic language is just so telling. It will focus on the lived experiences. It will not focus on the objective word of God. It will not focus on objective truth, but will focus on the subject, subjective feelings and interpretation of events by these individuals who believe that they are marginalized because of the choices they are making and their stated identities. Way back in 2020, when we were trying our best to interpret all of this nonsense and define our terms, we talked about this idea of standpoint epistemology, which is really a far left Marxist concept of declaring a truth because it is your perspective, not just my truth and not just, oh, this is my perception of things, but truly the search of knowledge from your lived experience. And within critical race theory and social justice ideology, standpoint epistemology really trumps objective epistemology, like the search of knowledge through observation and through the scientific method or whatever methods you want to talk about, which is really supposed to be like an even playing field no matter who you are and what your background is. And instead they would elevate the validity or the trustworthiness of the lived experiences of those who are considered marginalized or who are considered oppressed. So the immigrant, the black or brown person, basically everyone except for the straight white male, you've probably heard the term intersectionality, the intersection of identities that you have really determines your level of oppression and therefore determines your level of credibility. The more oppressed you are, according to this left wing ideology, the more credibility you have, the more authority you have. That is why you see these organizations go into these churches and and they are able to convince pastors and congregants that they need to be LGBTQ affirming because of their sad lived experiences. And again, they're able to use emotion to get people to compromise scripture. That is certainly what is going on here. And you see, when this professor says congregations are supposed to be places of care, she says that God should soften our hearts towards those who live life on the margins and the Shadows, rarely experiencing a sense of belonging. And so she is playing upon your desire to be a good person, your good desire to be an includer. You don't want anyone to feel left out or like they have to lurk in the shadows. You know that everyone's inmost desire is to be known and to be loved. And so they are using this language to play upon the good instincts as a Christian that you already have, to convince you that the only way to truly love them is to affirm their sin. Congregations, Dr. John Singletary, the dean of this social work school, says, have the potential to be spaces of healing and belonging. Yet too often, they become sources of exclusion and harm. So if you say what the Bible says about homosexuality, you are harming people. You are excluding people. This grant equips us to listen deeply, to study carefully. Now remember, they're only studying the lived experiences of like, 25 people. And partner faithfully with churches seeking to become more just and welcoming community. So you are just, you are welcoming, you are healing, you are belonging. If you ignore the parts of the Bible that prohibit homosexuality, that affirm the biblical definition of marriage, the reality of the gender binary, and you are harmful and you are anti healing. So I don't know, you're inflicting sickness and pain upon people, you are unjust if you abide by those parts of Scripture. And so all of these euphemisms, all of this language, it is very in intentional to communicate a very progressive and manipulative message. Now, let's talk a little bit more about this foundation. Why would a foundation give an over $600,000 grant to Baylor University to ensure that there is research supporting the need for affirmation and inclusion of unrepentant LGBTQ people within the church. So we got to go back a little bit to 1994. That's when this foundation was started by Eula May and John Baugh. They are the founders of the frozen food company Cisco. You have probably seen that brand before, Maybe in an 18 wheeler passing you by on the highway. A lot of money. The couple was known for supporting Baptist efforts, including those of the Baptist General Convention of Texas, Baylor Cooperative, Cooperative Baptist Fellowship, a lot of Baptist progressive organizations. They Both died in 2007, and then their daughter back took over as president, and she led the foundation until she died in 2020. Good Faith Media, which is a progressive Christian, I know that's an oxymoron, but they are professing Christians as an organization. And they're also politically progressive, theologically progressive, but they're a media entity. They wrote a tribute to Bab's Bob. It tells us about the organization, the direction that it continued to go in under her leadership. And they said that she leaves a lasting legacy of tireless efforts to continue the work her parents began of supporting the moderate to progressive Baptist movement. And they said that she called Baptists beyond the narrowness of religious fundamentalism. Again, those euphemisms, those code words are so important. What does fundamentalism mean? It probably just means someone who takes the Bible seriously, especially when it comes to those creation order issues. And they said that, you know, the narrowness of religious fundamentalism, she tried to get people to abandon and move into a larger, more generous, big tense mindset and ministry. It is also worth noting that Good Faith Media has received funding from the BA Foundation. Of course they offer inclusive Christian content. One of their initiatives is the Faithful Pride initiative, which of course is not possible. Think about that. Faithful Pride, the juxtaposition of those words. I mean, it's just heretical nonsense. Which seeks to highlight stories of LGBTQ people of faith doing inspiring work around the country and the world. And so these institutions, foundations like this, which are very well funded, seek to infiltrate the church with progressive and secular dogma that they usually cloak in some kind of Christian sounding language. And of course, Baylor honored her when she died in June of 2020. Since the Baugh foundation had actually been giving money to Baylor for a long time, long before this press release was released about this new grant, their funding Priorities page says, we warmly welcome applications from progressive organizations working in faith related spaces. We prioritize applications from organizations that are openly welcoming and affirming. We know what that means in organizations that do not discriminate. By the way, everyone discriminates. You discriminate against people when you hire for any job. There are different forms of discrimination and we can debate which forms of discrimination are good or bad. But picking one resume over another is also discrimination. It just depends again, on what kind of discrimination you're talking about. And so these are code words that are used to convey a progressive message. We define faith broadly and most often fund three types of organizations. Progressive Baptist organizations and institutions. Faith based nonprofit organizations that share the foundation's ethical sensitivities. Nonprofit organizations that guard the separation between church and state. State interesting examples of grants toward progressive causes that they have awarded. That the foundation has awarded recently. The Institute for Black Church Studies at Baptist Seminary of Kentucky a $750,000 grant that establishes an institute to educate congregations on racial justice and inclusivity again, define our terms. Read between the lines. We know what that means. It is a critical race theory, ideology, curriculum that they want infiltrating these otherwise conservative churches. A 2.7 million dollar grant that was awarded to the Baptist House of Studies at Southern Methodist University Perkins School of theology in 2022, again, Dallas in Texas. I mean, it is somewhat progressive, but it is also largely conservative. They are picking these kinds of institutions, I think that are conservative states because they want to try to change the political makeup of these red states. The Perkins School of Theology course list includes classes such as North American Hispanic Theology, African American Liberation Theology, Feminist womanist and Mujerista theologies and queer Bible hermeneutics. And so this grant is accomplishing exactly what the Baugh foundation wants it to accomplish, which is of course the disintegrating of solid theology in place of the standpoint epistemology. You've got your Hispanic theology, you've got your womanist theology, you've got your African American theology. This is intersectionality. Using some Bible verses to try to justify it. A racial justice initiative at Simmons College of Confederacy, Kentucky. A $2 million grant that supports efforts at Simmons College to address systemic racism through a racial justice initiative. While systemic racism does not exist in the United States in 2025, racial justice is not actually biblical justice because it is partial to one kind of person over another kind of person based on melanin. And God says throughout Scripture, Old Testament, New Testament that he hates partiality. And so this is not Christian in any sense. We know exactly where so called racial justice goes. It goes into defunding the police and actually harming the very vulnerable communities that racial justice and say that they're trying to help. All right, before we get into the rest of it, let me pause and tell you about our next sponsor. It's Good Ranchers. Good Ranchers keeps us fed in our home. It's what we rely on. We've got a freezer for full of frozen good Ranchers meat at all times. We love their better than organic chicken. We cook that almost every day. That is like the healthiest thing that our kids want to eat. We just stick the chicken breasts in the oven and they're good to go. 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That's good ranchers.com code ally In 2018, the Baugh foundation funded a nationwide study conducted again at Baylor's C3I institution program exploring how congregations approach decision making regarding LGBTQ inclusion, which resulted in Baylor's LGBTQ Discernment Guide at Baylor University, a guide to help churches navigate decisions to be more inclusive in their practices and and policies specific to the LGBTQ+ person. So Baylor is completely not hiding it. And this is a great example of what the BA foundation wants to accomplish through these grants. They want these institutions like Baylor University to to put out statements, to put out guidelines that are affirming of those who live LGBTQ lifestyles. In 2021, the university announced the creation of an endowed Physics Chair, permanent position for a Physics professor, funded through a donation from the BA estate. Bastian pointed out that Baylor's increasing reliance on the self proclaimed progressives holding the purse strings, that's exactly what's going on here. I mean the love of money is the root of all kinds of evil. When you feel indebted to someone, I mean the borrowers, the slave to the lender. And this is not alone. But the same principle applies when someone is funding your life and they say well you have to do this or we're not going to fund you anymore. That's where compromise happens unless you serve a higher master, which Baylor is of course opposed to as a professing Christian institution. In 2024, the Boff foundation funded the Building Resilient Congregations Research pilot project where that same professor Yancey at the social work school and her team worked with selected congregations in three distinct areas, accompaniment trauma care and LGBTQ discernment. Again, I think it's so telling the conflation of those who choose to embrace the LGBTQ life and those who have endured actual sexual abuse and trauma. That's not to say that those who are tempted in one direction either by gender deception and confusion or or sexual lust towards the same sex, that those people should be marginalized, those people should be pushed into the shadows. But that's not what we're talking about here. I do think that the church has a place, should be a place for compassion and care and love and grace filled truth for those who are struggling with those sins. But we are talking about those who have accepted these things as their unchangeable stated identity. And if you believe that that sin, some sins are either not really sins or they cannot be repented of because they are so innate, then you don't believe in the gospel. So that's what I am reading in all of this, that Baylor doesn't actually believe in the gospel. And beyond all of this progressive ideology that it's accepting that is the most troubling part of all of this. That's what should trouble you. If you are a donor to Baylor, if you are planning to send your kids to, to Baylor, know that Baylor University is showing you that it does not believe in the gospel, that it believes that it is nicer than God, that it believes that God is too mean, that God's word is too harsh. So it has to apologize for, it has to caveat, it has to ignore some parts of it to affirm that which God calls sin. But what do we always say? If God is love, then we cannot out love him. We are not love. God is love. And therefore he gets to define it. And he does define it for us. We read in 1 Corinthians 13:6 that love, among other things, never rejoices in wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. God is not only love, but he is also the source of truth. The same God who is love tells us in the 27th verse of the first chapter of the first book of the Bible that he made us male and female in his image right there. He defines the value of life. He defines the gender binary, and he defines the definition of marriage. It's like he knew we were going to get confused. He was like, I'm not even going to make you read 30 verses before I tell you how this is. I mean, so many answers to the culture war questions that we have are found in that very one verse in the first chapter of the first book of the Bible. And Baylor is saying, forget about it. I don't care about the first chapter of the first book of the Bible. I am higher than God, I am better than God, I am more creative, compassionate, thank God, and I am more loving than God. That place of self idolatry is extremely dangerous. And I would just be careful about being a part of this anymore. Now, if you went to Baylor, I understand you still want to watch their games. You still want to support them in certain ways. I would be very, very careful about supporting them with your dollars. I'll just Say that. Now, if you don't know what a big deal Baylor is, I just want to spell this out for you. They're one of the oldest operating universities in Texas, the world's largest Baptist affiliated university. They enroll over 20,000 students across their undergrad, grad, and professional programs every year. The University contributes over $1 billion, $1 billion annually to the state's economy through research, through employment, through community engagement, making it a key driver in Central Texas again. That is why these progressive organizations are sending their dollars to Baylor and not all of these other little organizations, although they may be doing that, too. But they understand that Baylor can change the theological makeup and the political makeup of one of the last biggest Republican holdouts in the country. It is extremely intentional and nefarious. This is not simply people sending their dollars to places that are near and dear to their heart. I mean, it is partly that, but it is part of a bigger strategy. The university is still associated with the Baptist General Convention of Texas, which holds the belief that sexual relationships honor God only when they occur within marriage between one man and one woman. Okay, those of you who are listening to or watching this, who are a part of the Baptist General Convention of Texas, you need to flex any muscles you have, and you need to let go of your affiliation with Baylor University. Now, I know this is probably hard because I don't know the financial relationship between Baylor and the Baptist General Convention of taxes, but I imagine that there is some kind of financial benefit that the Baptist General Convention gets from its affiliation with Baylor. And I would say, look, if you want to honor God, if you want to be faithful to God, if you believe in the authority and the goodness and the love of God, then it's time to cut ties. And I don't know that Baylor would care. I don't know that they have any shame anymore. Clearly, they are very proud of this. But I would say those of you who are faithful Baptists, who are part of that institution, that organization, it's time to cut ties until Baylor makes a change. There's a lot of contradictions in Baylor's mission statements. Their mission statement as of 2025 is to educate men and women for worldwide leadership and service by integrating academic excellence and Christian commitment within a caring community. Their code of conduct says this. We expect that each Baylor student will conduct himself or herself in accordance with Christian principles, as commonly perceived by Texas Baptists. It's kind of vague. Personal misconduct either on or off campus by anyone connected with Baylor detracts from the Christian witness. Baylor strives to present to the world hinders full accomplishment of the mission of the university. Is there any consequence? I don't know. Baylor will be guided by the biblical understanding that human sexuality is a gift from God and that physical sexual intimacy is to be expressed. This is. Their sexual conduct policy, is to be expressed in the context of marital fidelity. Thus, it is expected that Baylor students, faculty, and staff will engage in behaviors consistent with this understanding of human sexuality. Now, again, like I would say, that is vague. An official FAQ document titled Baylor University's Christian Mission and Identity included the following. All faculty and staff at Baylor are either Christian or Jewish, but do not need to sign a statement of faith. I don't know. I think that's odd. Institutions like Wheaton College, Liberty University, biola. Now, Wheaton also has its own progressive LGBTQ issues, but they do require employees to sign a doctrinal statement. Pepperdine requires faculties to support the university's religious mission. That is weird to me. Like, I would say that's a red flag that Baylor doesn't make its faculty do that. Students are required to take two semesters of chapel. However, these chapel sessions aren't necessarily theologically solid. They could be all inclusive. There's a lot of different kinds of theological perspectives I would say shared at these. At the chapel sessions, at the chapel events that they have to go to. Let's look a little bit more at Baylor's gradual shift. So, shortly after the Supreme Court's Obergefell decision legalized gay marriage in September or in 2015, Baylor's board of Regents, that's the governing body of the university, that's made up of volunteer leaders who make decisions about the university budget and plans and things like that, quietly removed language from the student conduct code that labeled homosexual acts as a misuse of God's gift. Okay, so this is an institution that is. Is going wherever the political winds blow. This is not an institution that, for the most part, I'm not talking about every single teacher there or every single student there, surely, but the leadership of Baylor University is scared of the world, is scared of politics. Like, they are going to go wherever the progressive mob takes them. They are not willing to stand on the word of God courageously and say, you know what? I know it's going to be unpopular. Jesus says this. Jesus says, if they hate you, it's because they hated me first. They're not willing to do that. They're going to go where the political winds blow. They don't want to lose donor money. They don't want people to be mad at them. So they're going to quietly remove language that says what the Bible says that homosexuality is a sin. After Obergefell says that people have a constitutional right to be married to someone of the same sex. It was seen as a significant step away from previous policy, though the university continued to affirm confirm a biblical view of sexuality in some of its official statements. But there are other parts, not just the LGBTQ stuff, but other directions that Baylor is going that indicates their progressive shift, including an embracing of BLM social justice ideology. And we'll get into more of that in a second. Let me pause again and tell you about We Heart Nutrition, y'. All. I love We Heart Nutrition so much. I take their supplements every single day. Their postnatal vitamin, their iron supplement, their magnesium. 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That's weheartnutrition.com code ALLY all right, while we're still on a break, before we get back into what we're talking about, I want to remind you of share the arrows October 11th outside of Dallas, Texas. We are talking about yet another institution that has been captured by secularism like this just goes to show this is a spiritual battle that is waging and nothing is safe. And sometimes it feels like the walls are closing in around us when yet another another church leader that we looked up to has betrayed us. Yet another entity or institution or organization or church or pastor has seemingly compromised and turned their back on God. And it can just feel like you're alone or maybe that's happened in your friend group or even in your family and you want to be around like minded women who are hungry for the word of God, who are willing to stand on the word of God who want to worship together, want to be challenged with biblical teaching and apologetics and theology. You've got to come to Share the Arrows. There is nothing else like it out there. If you go to sharethe arrows.com you can learn all about it. See our speaker lineup, see our general schedule VIP tickets that gets you a dinner the night before. Share the arrows where you get to go to the Blaze studios, you get to see the relatable set, all kinds of fun stuff. So you can get your VIP ticket or you can get your general admission ticket which is awesome as well. Just go to share the arrows.com that's share the arrows.com In June of 2020, President Linda Livingstone publicly endorsed Black Lives Matter. You know the Black Lives Matter movement that said that they are trying to disrupt dismantle the western prescribed definition of the nuclear family. Who said that they were fighting for women and children or moms and children and left out fathers like you know BLM that is led by self professed Marxists and God haters like you know that organization. Well this Baptist University once again caved to pressure June of 2020 when the world needed more than anything for Christians to stand firm, firm and to be beacons of clarity in a moment of chaos and confusion and decided oh no, I'm going to publicly endorse blm described it as a social movement that highlights the fact that once black lives begin to matter, capital B, all lives will truly matter. By the way, like just to know, I will never capitalize the description of your skin color. I won't, I won't do it. I won't do it for black, I won't do it for white. I'm not going to do it. And when I say see that that is also an indication of someone's ideology or an indication that that person just isn't critically thinking like I'm just never going to capitalize the B. And of course the B is capitalized here. She announced policies post George Floyd's death at Baylor including diversity, equity and inclusion. This DEI scholarships and promised increased non white enrollment. Do you hear that? That by the way now is illegal. Says the Supreme Court. You can't do that. You can't discriminate against someone because they have less melanin. Duh. And again, that is partiality, which God hates. That is not the definition of justice. One of the qualifiers of justice is impartial. We see that throughout Scripture. You can go back to some 2020 episodes where we go into that in depth. In her announcement of these DEI initiatives. Livingstone says racial justice is not just ancillary to the university's mission. Rather, it is part of the mission. Really? What does racial justice mean? Does it mean punishing people because they have less melanin? So you're not going to give them scholarships based on something that they couldn't control? Wow. I had no idea that was part of the Christian Baptist Mission. I've been a Baptist my whole life. I had no idea. What does racial justice mean? Can you define that term for me? Are you defining it by Ibram X Kendi Robin d'? Angelo? Are you defining it by Scripture? I thought that that was supposed to play into this here. Members of the this is another part of their leftward shift. We're back to the LGBTQ conversation now. Members of the LGBTQ student group Gamma Alpha Epsilon Gay, founded in 2011, tried for 10 years to get official recognition as a campus organization from Baylor. But Baylor denied these requests. But then faculty started silently protesting by putting rainbow flags on all of their stuff staff students as well. And then in May 2021, Baylor's board of Regents passed a non committal resolution to explore additional care, connections and community for LGBTQ students. Included a possibility of a chartered student group that aligned with Baylor's Christian mission and policies. How's that possible? So Gay decided to remain an unofficial group. But in 2022, after Baylor student activities department held list listening sessions with students, faculty and other stakeholders. Who's that, I wonder? To discuss the needs of LGBTQ students, the university officially recognized an LGBTQ student organization called prism. Okay, so again, this is an organization. This is official student organization that is giving a voice to LGBTQ students and offering them belonging. This is an organization that is affirming. Baylor spokesperson Lori Fogelman stated that prism's charter did not promote understandings of sexuality contrary to biblical teaching. I'm just confused about that. I guess if you like, exclude Romans 1, Genesis 1, First Corinthians 6. Okay. It was required to operate within Baylor's code of conduct, which prohibits advocacy against the university's stance on marital fidelity. But again, since 2015, as we read earlier, doesn't actually condemn homosexual acts. Also in 2021, you might remember this episode with my friend Dr. Christina Crenshaw. She was a Baylor University English lecture. She is responded to a tweet about Biden's Transgender Rights Executive Order, quote unquote Transgender Rights executive Order that stated that transgender individuals should not not face barriers in accessing facilities. So many euphemisms or sports consistent with their Quote, unquote, gender identity. So this means, hey, if you are receiving public funding, then you've got to allow men and two girls bathrooms and to play on girls teams. Christina Crenshaw said on Axe January 2021, what if I don't want biological boys in the bathroom with my biological daughter? Do the 99% of us who do not struggle with gender dysphoria have a voice? No. Cool. Okay. So she said that several years ago, and this led to huge backlash from some Baylor students who reported her tweet to various campus organizations, including Title 9, BU Equity, Baylor NAACP, and it's on us BU. So apparently these are also campus organizations, if I'm understanding correctly, that are LGBTQ affirming. The Baylor Laureate, the student newspaper initially labeled her comments as transphobic, but then later issued an apology and described her words as controversial. She was on the show in February of 2021. You should go back. You should listen to that watch that you shared the arrows with her. And I'm very grateful for the courage that she had and still has in speaking up about these things. Starting around 2021, LGBTQ students, including one named Veronica Bonifacio Pinales, filed several Title 9 complaints against Baylor with the Department of Education's Office for Civil Rights. These complaints alleged the university failed to address anti LGBTQ harassment and discrimination. So this is such a good lesson. Even when you compromise, when you give in a little, they're never going to be happy. Happy, ever. It doesn't matter what you say about social justice, doesn't matter what you say about racial minorities. It doesn't matter that you quietly remove condemning language from your student conduct code. It doesn't matter that you are like hinting towards celebration and affirmation of lgbtq unless you fully embrace it and celebrate what God calls sin. Unless you are allow yourself to lay prostrate in front of them, they are not going to be happy. They are still going to come after you. We see this over and over again, by the way. Pastors take note of that. Don't give them an inch. You don't have to be faithful to the word of God. That's it. Pinellas said that Baylor is using their religion as an excuse to back their homophobic beliefs. Yada, yada, yada. Well, in 2023, Baylor filed for Title IX religious exemptions, which protect the university's right to uphold the biblical view of sexuality. So that would mean that they're saying, hey, we don't want to have to allow men actually into girls bathrooms and play on Girls teams. So we want a religious exemption. They petition for dismissal for ongoing investigations claiming discrimination against students. They want an exemption from Title 9 rules that require non discrimination based on sexual orientation or so called gender identity. They wanted assurance that enforcing its religious policies won't be considered, quote, sexual harassment, which is exactly what the Biden administration tried to do through their unconstitutional Title 9 changes. Well, when they filed for these exemptions, over 1300 people in the Baylor community signed an open letter in August of that year arguing that the university's request for Title IX religious exemptions raised deep. Raised deep moral and spiritual concerns that are at the heart of Baylor's past, present, future, blah. Like, I think all of these people just majored in poetry. Like, none of their words have substance, which is actually why they're dangerous. And actually how propaganda gets you, because it sounds really good and sophisticated, but it actually means nothing or it actually means something really nefarious. And they're just trying to make it sound good and spiritual. So you have to be discerning about that kind of stuff. This open letter urged for the university to end the harmful, separate and unequal treatment of LGBT LGBTQIA plus people. So, and what they mean by that is not allowing boys into girls bathrooms. Take all necessary steps to ensure that LGBTQIA students on campus are protected from sexual harassment. Again, they're defining sexual harassment how Biden defines sexual harassment, which was calling a man he or not letting him into the girls bathroom. Okay, so this is just to show you that Baylor is getting a lot of pushback for even trying a little bit to maintain its Christian values when it comes to sexuality. A Religious Exemption Accountability Project, an advocacy group focused on holding religious institutions accountable for Title IX exemptions, expressed their outrage about this. Baylor University specifically sought assurance that the university and its students cannot be accused of sexual harassment for their behavior towards lgbt. Your religious tenets should not require you to act in a way that may be classified as sexual harassment. Well, if you redefine sexual harassment to mean telling the truth and acknowledging the science of gender, then, yeah, they're going to be guilty of that. Well, we can just redefine everything then. And that, of course, is what the left does. They capture language without you even realizing it. And before, before you know it, you start thinking that is bigoted or hateful or harassing, to simply say what is true, to simply abide by God's good precepts. And that's how you get. They get you. When you change the language, you change people's consciousness and their consciences. And that's exactly what is going on here, which is why it is so important to dissect every word and ask, what do you mean by that? What does that mean? And where did you get that definition? We really can't have a productive conversation and dialogue and debate unless we are defining our terms the same way. And like, I want to know, where did you get that definition of sexual harassment? If it's from the Biden administration. Okay, well, I don't consider them an authority because they're ideologically opposed to me. So we're going to have to define these things. What is sexual? What is harassment? And typically, if you get into that kind of specific dialogue with someone on the left, they get very frustrated and then they'll just say, you know, you're hateful and bow out. But it's still really important. And you're not losing if that happens because you're at the very least getting them to think about what they mean when they talk. And when it comes to things like abortion in particular, you will find that a lot of progressives do just don't know what they mean when they talk. And I'm not trying to sound condescending, but they use words that they've never really thought about before. And so it's your job to think about them and it's your job to call them on that in a respectful way and get them to think a little bit more. And even if you don't win that discussion or debate, you have no idea what seed that might plant in their minds that could take root and flower into something really beautiful and good later on. All right. Alright, we've got one final ad. Nope, we got two more ads today. And the next one is Adele Natural Cosmetics. And I love Adele so much. It's another product I use every day. 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And that's what I love about them. Plus they're a Christian, unapologetically pro life company. They are awesome. Go to adelenaturalcosmetics.com when you use my code ALI you get 25% off off your first time purchase. That's Adele Natural Cosmetics.com code ALI. Open Secrets is a website that tracks campaign contributions from individuals that are associated with certain organizations or institutions. And on their website you see that in the 2024 election cycle, Baylor affiliated individuals donated $126,000. A little bit over that two different candidates, but predominantly it seems from what we can see on Open Secrets that this money was given to Democratic candidates like Kamala Harris and Colin Allred. He is the guy that ran against Texas Senator State, Texas Senator Ted Cruz. And so it suggests institutional alignment with the Democratic party, even among its faculty and staff. The Baylor Board of Regents passed a resolution in 2025 acknowledging the university founders ties to slavery and formed a panel to review memorials and statues linked to slaveholders, signaling a reckoning with its historical past. I also think that that is just nonsense. I mean every single country has a storied past. That is true. History is complex. People are complex. We are accomplishing nothing by tearing down these statues and apologizing today for something that happened a long time ago. That doesn't mean we should rejoice that happened. We could even condemn what happened. But today you are not held responsible for the sins of the people that kind of maybe looked like you in the same general geographic region as you 200 years ago. Again, that's no biblical definition of justice. And this is just another example to me of Baylor being weak. Like you're soft. Be courageous. At the very least on the creation order stuff like on the very least the first chapter of the first book of the Bible. And I'll just remind you of the alliteration that I made up several years ago that we've said so many times. Baylor, if you're listening to this, the definition of marriage and gender, okay, specifically of marriage, but it applies to the definition of gender as male and female. It's not just about a few verses in Leviticus. It's not just about Romans 1. It's not just about First Corinthians 6. It's not just about the passages that are specifically condemning homosexuality, although that would be enough. I mean, those passages are real. The word of God is inerrant. It's infallible. It's authoritative. And so even if those were the only verses that exist that condemn homosexuality, that would be enough for Christians to agree with that. Because the most loving thing we can always do is agree with God. But it's not just that. It's the affirmative and positive definition of marriage and gender that we see throughout Scripture that has not only physical and earthly significance, but eternal and spiritual significance. So here's the alliteration. The definition of marriage between one man and one woman is one rooted in creation. We see that in Genesis 1. It is too reiterated throughout Scripture. For example, honor your father and mother. It is repeated by Jesus Himself, Matthew 19:4. 5. Have you not read that in the beginning he made them male and female? As he is answering a question about divorce, he goes all the way back to creation. To specifically define marriage as between one man and one woman, repeated by Jesus. It is representative of Christ and the Church. We see that in Ephesians 5 that the marriage between between one man and one woman is representative of Christ, the groom and the Church, his bride. You cannot have that with two men. You cannot have that with two women. Which really means there is no such thing as homosexual marriage. It is actually, according to the God who created marriage, an oxymoron. The spiritual reality that is represented in the earthly union of man and woman is eternal. And therefore it is reflective of the Gospel because it is representative of Christ in the church. Earthly marriage is reflective of the gospel, you know, that message of good news that contains salvation for us through Christ. That. Yeah, that is what earthly marriage between one man and one woman reflects. The Bible starts with a marriage. The Bible ends with a marriage. The marriage that the Bible starts with is a representation, a reflection of the marriage that the Bible ends with. And it's not just the Bible that has these bookends of marriage. It is all of time actually starts with a marriage and ends with a marriage. That's how important it is. And that is why Baylor, as you get this wrong, you are starting to get everything else wrong too. Because those who deny Genesis 1:27 always end up denying John 14:6 that Jesus is the way, the truth, the life. No one comes to the Father except through him. Because when you start believing that you are nicer and better and more loving than God, you exchange the God of Scripture for the God of self. And self idolatry goes all the way back to the Garden. So if you want to know why Baylor and all of these other professing Christian institutions are going to the way they are, that's why it's self idolatry. All of us can be guilty of it, but all of us can be delivered out of it by Christ. And that is what Baylor needs. And they don't need a dime from you until they repent. There's some more commentary about this and I'll read that in a second. Let me go ahead and tell you about my last sponsor though, and that is NetSuite. NetSuite is the number one cloud ERP for business owners. It brings accounting, financial management, inventory, HR into one suite. So that means you've got one source of truth. It gives you the visibility and control that you need to make quick decisions with real time forecasting. You're peering into the future with actionable data. They've got AI embedded throughout so that you can automate a lot of your processes, a lot of your everyday tasks so that you can stay strategic. You can stay on of top top of the things that you need to stay on top of. You can focus on the things you need to focus on as a small business owner. And you can let NetSuite help you with all of the weeds and the details. It helps you know what's stuck, what's costing you, and how to pivot fast. Go to netsuite.com alli and you can download the free ebook navigating global trade three insights for leaders. That's netsuite.com Alli I just want to say also, I know we mentioned her earlier, but huge shout out to Megan Basham as usual. She is one of the first people that I saw talk about this. She is so good at tracking down the money. She's going to be on a Friday episode of Relatable very soon in person as we continue to pray for her full recovery from cancer. And she's going to be giving us even more insight to the nefarious organizations that are strategically funding previously conservative and solid institutions like Baylor. Denny Burke, who is the associate pastor at Kenwood Baptist Church in Louisville, Kentucky. He's also a professor at the Seminary Boys College. We have cited him many times before. He has good insights, he says. This is illuminating and sad and not at all surprising. Baylor has been moving away from Christian faith faithfulness for decades, but it's still sad to watch another nail in the coffin of a once great Christian university. I completely echo that sentiment. Then Reverend Matt Kennedy, he's a senior pastor at an Anglican church in Corpus Christi, he said this. I thought this was interesting and I actually agree. He said, it's much better to send your child to a secular university hostile to the faith than to a Christian university like Baylor. Better the wolf with bared things than the wolf disguised as a shepherd. That is profound and really good. And really good. Because at least if you go to a secular hostel university, which I don't necessarily recommend, that you pay for that and send your kids to that. But they know what they're walking into. They're walking into the lion sin. So they know that what they are going to be hearing and seeing is not of God. And so they can kind of identify that, that, okay, everything this professor says is probably not going to be true. It's not in alignment with, with my faith. But if they go to a place like Valor that they expect to be a bastion of truth of, you know, of biblical doctrine, and their professor of Christian ethics or whatever starts saying things that aren't biblical, well, then they start to second guess themselves. Okay, this is a Baptist Christian university. Well, he must just be true. And I must have been taught wrong in the past. And so I would say don't do wrong, either of those options as a parent. But I think the principle of what he is saying is absolutely true. There's so much that we could say in all of this, but it is so obviously a spiritual battle that is waging here. The institutional capture by secular progressive organizations, foundations, is real. And we as Christians have to be on guard. You have to guard your heart and your mind and your wallet to ensure that you are not sending the treasure, the money, that God has entrusted you with to steward faithfully to institutions that are actively fighting against his word and trying to infiltrate the minds of students and Christian congregations to convince them that sin isn't really sin, that is Satan satanic, that is evil. I am not saying that everyone associated with Baylor is on board with that, but enough people are that they are taking money from overtly progressive organizations who are bent on the compromising of the church. And that is very, very dangerous kind of organization, institution to partner with. All right, we'll have more on this in the future and more on Friday. I will be having a very heated but very productive conversation that you guys are really going to enjoy and I will see you guys back here then.