NASHVILLE (BP) – The Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission (ERLC) has partnered with the Baptist General Convention of Texas (BGCT) to release a Spanish translation of the ERLC’s practical guide addressing the topic of gender confusion. It is the first time the ERLC has ever released such a guide in Spanish.
The guide, titled “God’s Good Design: A Practical Guide for Answering Gender Confusion,” released last February and is designed to be a resource that helps churches navigate difficult questions and scenarios surrounding gender and sexuality. The Spanish translation of the resource was published Monday (Feb. 3).
“We are excited to produce a Spanish version of our gender guide,” said RaShan Frost, ERLC director of research and senior fellow.
“We believe it is essential to provide churches with resources to address issues affecting our lives. By offering this guide in Spanish, in partnership with the Baptist General Convention of Texas, we’re showing our great support to our Spanish-speaking communities and want them to have access to our resources for years to come.”
Katie Frugé, director of the BGCT’s Center for Cultural Engagement, spoke about partnering with the ERLC to provide the translation of the guide.
“We are happy and grateful to partner with the ERLC to provide this Spanish translation through Texas Baptist en Español and the Center for Cultural Engagement,” Frugé said.
“Cooperation is the heartbeat of Baptist life, and we are honored to be kingdom partners with the Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission as we share the good news of the gospel together.”
The guide contains a theological framework for addressing the topic of gender from a biblical worldview and offers answers to practical scenarios that churches or pastors may face or have faced regarding the topic. The guide also contains links to additional resources on the topic of gender confusion from a variety of Christian sources.
To create the guide, the ERLC assembled a team of subject matter experts in theology, ethics, public policy and law, as well as a group of pastors and ministry leaders. The team worked together to create a framework for the topic of gender based upon Scripture and theological categories found in the Baptist Faith and Message 2000.
The group then uses that foundation to address 20 different practical scenarios and questions related to the topic of gender that could take place in a local church.
The points of the guide’s theological framework are:
- God created humanity.
- God intentionally created humanity with physical bodies.
- God’s good design for bodies is sexed: male and female.
- God created men and women to complement one another.
- The Fall affects how we see our body and sexuality.
- God meets the refugees of transgender ideology.
- The Church compassionately proclaims God’s design for gender and the body.
In the guide’s foreword, ERLC President Brent Leatherwood offered a word of encouragement to Southern Baptists ministering in the midst of society’s confusion surrounding gender.
“It is our hope that this theological framework and the practical scenarios will start (or continue) the conversation in your churches about how to serve those broken by the sexual revolution with the hope of the Gospel,” he said.
The guide can be viewed in both English and Spanish here.
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