By Will Hall, Message Executive Editor KNOXVILLE, Tenn. (LBM)—Tennessee Baptists have broken with Southern Baptists with regard to two controversial concepts creeping into Southern Baptist seminaries, passing a rival resolution at the recently held state annual meeting that condemns Critical Race Theory and Intersectionality. The consensus statement said that Tennessee Baptists “are deeply troubled that some are injecting CRT and Intersectionality into theological context” and that the state convention’s members “strongly denounce CRT and Intersectionality as inconsistent with the Biblical worldview and theology.” The Tennessee declaration stands in stark contrast to a resolution passed in June by Southern Baptist messengers that endorsed Critical Race Theory and Intersectionality as “a set of analytical tools” which provide “selective insights … to understand multifaceted social dynamics.” Critical Race Theory can be traced to Derrick Bell, formerly of the Harvard Law School, who insisted that all formal structures in our country such as “the law” perpetuate “white privilege.” Meanwhile, Kimberlé Crenshaw, of the UCLA School of Law, coined the idea of Intersectionality to claim every intersection in life creates … [Read more...]

By Will Hall, Message Executive Editor ATLANTA (LBM) — Chick-fil-A has announced it will drop the Fellowship of Christian Athletes and the Salvation Army from its foundation’s charitable giving program after completing multi-year commitments to both. The move comes as the Christian-founded company has endured severe attacks from homosexual groups that attack the Fellowship of Christian Athletes and the Salvation Army as anti-LGBT because both ministries champion marriage as a covenant relationship between one man and one woman. According to public records, in 2018 the Chick-fil-A Foundation contributed $1.65 million to the Fellowship of Christian Athletes and $115,000 to the Salvation Army. The attacks on Chickfil-A include denials in recent years by airports and universities to prevent the company from opening stores on their respective premises. In reporting the change in its charitable giving policy, the Chick-fil-A Foundation announced its plans for “a more focused giving approach” in distributing $9 million in 2020 “to a smaller number of organizations working exclusively in the areas of education, homelessness and hunger.” In an email to the Christian Post, a Chick-filA spokesperson stressed, “No organization … [Read more...]

By Will Hall, Message Executive Editor CAMBRIDGE, Mass. (LBM) – In one of the largest studies of its kind, researchers found that from 75 percent up to 92 percent of homosexual behavior is the result of the environment, not genetics. In other words, cultural and social influences have an overwhelmingly greater impact on same-sex behavior than biology. Importantly, the genome study of nearly half a million participants from the U.K., U.S. and Sweden determined “there certainly is no single genetic determinant (sometimes referred to as the ‘gay gene’ in the media).” Of particular interest, the 8 percent to 25 percent of (minimal) genetic influence on same-sex sexual behavior was tied to genetic indicators which also predict behaviors “such as smoking, cannabis use, risk-taking, and the personality trait ‘openness to experience’” as well as “sexual behavior, attraction, identity, and fantasies.” Likewise, same-sex sexual behavior was “genetically correlated with several psychiatric or mental health traits” such as depression, schizophrenia and bipolar disorder. Of special significance, the study did not examine sexual identity but instead focused on sexual behavior. In July 2014, the CDC reported 1.6 percent of U.S. … [Read more...]