So many educational institutions rely on grants from foundations to conduct important research. At the same time, so much of that funding comes with an agenda attached. Foundations tend to lean left, and grants often follow that leftward tilt.
Baylor University’s Center for Church and Community Impact (C3I) received a grant last week from a foundation for a study that sought to “help us better understand the disenfranchisement and exclusion of LGBTQIA+ individuals and women within congregations to nurture institutional courage and foster change.”
Baylor is a Baptist university, and the school’s president, Linda Livingstone, announced on Wednesday that it would give the $643,000 grant back to the Eula Mae and John Baugh Foundation. The problem wasn’t the research; it was the advocacy for LGBTQetc perspectives that raised red flags.
We remain committed to providing a loving and caring community for all – including our LGBTQIA+ students – because it is part and parcel of our University’s mission that calls us to educate our students within a caring Christian community.
Baylor also continues to strongly uphold the principle of academic freedom. As we reviewed the details and process surrounding this grant, our concerns did not center on the research itself, but rather on the activities that followed as part of the grant. Specifically, the work extended into advocacy for perspectives on human sexuality that are inconsistent with Baylor’s institutional policies, including our Statement on Human Sexuality.
Please be assured that Baylor’s institutional beliefs and policies remain unchanged. Our commitment to our Christian mission and our historic Baptist identity continues to guide our approach to academics, student life, and spiritual formation. We affirm the biblical understanding of human sexuality as a gift from God, expressed through purity in singleness and fidelity in marriage between a man and a woman.
Livingstone acknowledged the concerns that supporters, donors, and organizations that partner with Baylor had about the grant acceptance. She also recognized the balance between rigorous scholarship and adhering to biblical values.
Rescinding and returning the grant money was the right thing to do. It’s more important to remain faithful to traditional Christian values than to commit to research that could go against those deeply held principles.
A friend of mine who is a Baylor alumna but didn’t want me to use her name weighed in. She told me, “Baylor is the largest Baptist school in the world and, unlike its neighbor to the north (Southern Methodist University), it is actually a Christian university. I think they did the right thing by returning the money.”
“There are other less-conservative Christian universities who can research how to welcome and attract more alphabet soup folks to Sunday service, and I have no idea how many of those folks WANT to be invited and welcome,” she added.
I can’t help but wonder if things would’ve been easier if Livingstone and the rest of Baylor’s leadership had handled returning the grant more privately. I get the need to smooth things over, public relations-wise, but drawing less attention to the whole matter might have made it less of a lightning rod.
Besides, there are other avenues for pride-cult-related research.
“Texas Christian University and Southern Methodist University are both Christian universities right up the road — if the LGB agenda is so important to them, there are options,” my friend said. “As for me, I’m glad Baylor isn’t jumping onto the pop culture carousel.”
It’s refreshing to see a Christian educational institution doing the right thing and standing with traditional biblical values. Here’s hoping others will follow suit.
This one’s for readers who are tired of watching institutions cave to the left’s pressure.
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