Meet the organization funding gender ideology in churches
On Wednesday, Baylor University announced it will be returning a sizeable grant from the Eula Mae and John Baugh Foundation after a public backlash.
The foundation had granted the Christian university $643,401 for “academic research aimed at exploring inclusion and belonging in the church, with a particular focus on LGBTQIA+ individuals in congregational settings.” But Baylor University President Linda Livingstone said in a statement last week that the university is rejecting the grant in response to “concern and confusion” among its “broader community of churches, partner organizations, and supporters.”
“Please be assured that Baylor’s institutional beliefs and policies remain unchanged,” Livingstone said. “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.”
Baylor University is only one of the Christian institutions targeted by the Eula Mae and John Baugh Foundation. Created in 1995 by the late Sysco founder and tycoon John Baugh, the foundation openly targets Christian communities with grants aimed at injecting “progressive” ideals.
“The Baugh Foundation supports progressive, inclusive, nonprofit organizations that reflect the love of Christ by providing assistance to those in need, enriching the lives of children and youth, keeping faith communities informed and engaged, and guarding the wall of separation between church and state,” the organization states on its website.
The organization disburses roughly $12 million in grants each year. Emphasizing that it defends “freedom of religion, for religion, and from religion,” the foundation says it funds projects that focus on “social justice and advocacy, faith-based journalism, meeting basic human needs, faith-based post-secondary education, inclusivity initiatives, and arts and enrichment.”
Baylor and Baugh have been working together for years
This does not appear to be Baylor University’s first grant from the Baugh Foundation. Last year, the foundation funded a pilot research project called Building Resilient Congregations, which seeks to explore how to work with churches in three areas: “Accompaniment, Trauma Care, and LGBTQ+ Discernment.” Baylor’s Diana R. Garland School of Social Work spearheaded the project, which seems to have stayed under the radar.
What has also avoided public scrutiny is the fact that Baylor has been working with the Baugh Foundation since 2018 on how to convince churches to adopt “LGBTQ+ inclusion” policies. The grant was awarded to the Center for Church and Community Impact (C³I), which is part of Baylor’s School of Social Work, to help churches make “decisions to be more inclusive in their practices and policies specific to LGBTQ+ persons.” C3I created an “LGBTQ+ Discernment Guide” to help Christian congregations do just that.
