The SBC’s Same-Sex Abuse Problem
If our zeal for a biblical view of sexuality outshines our desire to protect the people in our churches, something has gone very, very wrong.
(RNS) — Earlier this month, Robert Oscar Lopez, a professor at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, released a statement announcing his own firing, which he attributed to the SWBTS administration’s dissatisfaction with his vocal opposition to sexual abuse within the Southern Baptist Convention, specifically abuse of men by male pastors and other church officials.
Lopez’s allegation is unlikely, and only gets more unlikely as you listen to his theories about the SBC’s supposed capitulation to the idea that same-sex attraction is innate, or that he was done in by a conspiracy between the LGBTQ community and the SBC. In his mind, it was his own hard line on homosexuality — which he believes is caused by trauma or indoctrination — that provided further grounds for dismissal.
Randy Stinson, the SWBTS provost — himself an advocate for a conservative view of human sexuality — was being charitable in my view when he called Lopez’s statements regarding the reasons for his termination as “demonstrably false.” Instead, Stinson said, “Lopez’s position is being eliminated due to changing program needs” and other personnel matters.
