(RNS) — When the conservative political group Turning Point USA scheduled a campus tour stop at Baylor University in Waco, Texas, for Wednesday (April 22), organizers advertised it as “a chance to honor Charlie’s mission” and as a venue for enacting free speech.
But though free speech was part of their program, TPUSA, which was led by activist Charlie Kirk until his assassination in September, probably didn’t expect to be the catalyst for an event welcoming LGBTQ activists to speak at the Christian university. The competing event, called “All Are Neighbors,” is the result of grassroots activism from progressive student leaders.
“They’re (TPUSA) pushing a message that is aligned with Christian nationalism,” said J.W. LaStrape, president of Baylor’s College Democrats chapter. “We’re going to push back on it by celebrating the marginalized folks that the Christian nationalist vision excludes.”
Baylor has maintained that hosting the duel events is part of its commitment to open discussion and said the events will be aligned with institutional policies.
“Historically, Baylor has opened its doors to a wide range of student-invited speakers with differing viewpoints on theology, politics, research and many other subjects,” a spokesperson told RNS in a statement, adding that Baylor doesn’t “institutionally endorse” the views of event speakers.
But the events have generated controversy among stakeholders, including the Baptist General Convention of Texas, a group of Texas churches that announced Friday they would be reviewing their historic relationship with the university. Event participants told RNS the tensions surrounding the events are emblematic of larger religious and political trends.
“It’s two very different visions of the future, and (of) what is possible, and the kind of America, as well as college campuses that we want,” said the Rev. Paul Brandeis Raushenbush, a Baptist minister and president and CEO of Interfaith Alliance who is speaking at the “All Are Neighbors” event.
The Baylor stop on the “This Is the Turning Point” tour was first advertised as featuring border czar Tom Homan, Donald Trump Jr. and commentator Benny Johnson; as of Tuesday, however, the tour website lists Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton in lieu of Trump Jr. Weeks ahead of the event, conservative students told the student paper they were grateful to have such influential speakers coming to campus. TPUSA Baylor President Peter Fernandez told The Baylor Lariat the event was about encouraging dialogue.
“Nothing that Turning Point stands for, and nothing that Turning Point speaks about, is contradictory to Christian or university values,” he said.
The organization is not explicitly Christian but has ramped up its faith efforts in recent years, expanding its footprint on Christian campuses and recruiting pastors to be part of its brand. Students have praised TPUSA for its on-the-ground support of student groups and for emboldening them to speak out on campuses they see as hostile to conservative views. The group frames itself as promoting free markets and limited government, but Kirk also earned criticism for his rhetoric about “reclaiming the country for Christ,” for describing immigration without assimilation as “invasion” and for saying a Bible verse about stoning gay people to death was “God’s perfect law.”
The event prompted pushback from some Baylor students, alumni and faculty. On social media, the TPUSA Baylor group posted photos of event posters torn down. “hmm.. interesting that whose who claim to foster ‘inclusivity,’ seem to have their own version and we don’t fit their mold,” the caption said.
One faculty member concerned about the event was Greg Garrett, the Carole Ann McDaniel Hanks Chair of Literature & Culture at Baylor, who published an op-ed in early April characterizing the TPUSA event as “un-Christian.”
“I am more and more uncomfortable and impatient with Christianity that doesn’t recognize the humanity of all of God’s children,” said Garrett, who is the sole Baylor faculty member on TPUSA’s Professor Watchlist due to his public work on racial justice and LGBTQ inclusion. “I hope that Turning Point has a good experience at Baylor, but also, I would hope that more of Baylor rubs off on Turning Point than vice versa,” he told RNS.
When Skye Perryman, a Baylor alumna and the president and CEO of Democracy Forward, delivered the Whitten Endowed Lecture at Baylor’s religion department on March 24, she questioned whether the university would allow voices across the political spectrum to be heard. She told RNS Turning Point is an advocacy organization whose work on immigration she sees as “in contrast with many of the values that underlie the Baptist and Christian faith, especially with respect to loving one’s neighbor.” If Baylor allowed TPUSA to advocate for its controversial views on campus, she asked, what about progressive Christians?
For years, Baylor University, which defines marriage as between a man and a woman, did not allow LGBTQ student groups at the university. Its first LGBTQ student group was established in 2022 but is not permitted to advocate for views contrary to Baylor’s teaching on human sexuality. Last summer Baylor celebrated, then rescinded, a $643,401 grant awarded to fund research on the “exclusion of LGBTQIA+ individuals and women within congregations.”
As alumni and professors spoke publicly of their TPUSA-related concerns, student leaders of the Baylor chapters of College Democrats, NAACP, Students Demand Action, Hearts for the Homeless and Texas Rising began mobilizing to offer an alternative event. By April 9, Baylor had approved the “All Are Neighbors” event, which will also occur on Wednesday and features LGBTQ Christian advocates, including Raushenbush and Kelley Robinson, president of the Human Rights Campaign, who both identify as LGBTQ.
“The call to love thy neighbor persists across our differences,” Robinson told RNS in a statement. “As a queer Black Catholic woman, I carry the truth that the same God who made one of us made all of us — and that truth demands we build a future where everyone can live freely, openly and equally.”
Organizers framed the event as a way to celebrate marginalized voices, rather than an anti-TPUSA rally; a press release called the event the “first time that students at Baylor have been permitted to host leading gay advocates on campus,” though Baylor debated this characterization, telling RNS Christian LGBTQ author and Gay Christian Network founder Justin Lee gave a Baylor lecture in 2019. Still, the response from supporters and critics points to the event’s significance.
Baylor University in Waco, Texas. (Photo courtesy of Baylor University/Matthew Minard)
“Does Baylor still know the difference between permitting speech and platforming ideas that undermine its professed Christian convictions? Between inviting inquiry and standing on orthodoxy?” asked Christina Crenshaw, assistant professor at Arizona Christian and a former lecturer at Baylor, on X. “Intellectual diversity is not a substitute for theological clarity.”
The Baptist General Convention of Texas, a state convention that’s had close ties with Baylor since the university’s founding in 1845, released a statement on April 10 saying it was hearing “strong concerns” about the “All Are Neighbors” event. A week later, the convention, which nominates a quarter of Baylor’s board, announced it would review its relationship with the university.
“As executive director, I agree that hosting speakers who are Christian, identify as gay, and practice LGBTQ+ advocacy at a university-approved event is inconsistent with the convention’s long-standing views on biblical sexuality,” BGCT Executive Director Julio Guarneri said in a letter to BGCT churches on Friday. “It is likely that the viewpoints to be shared at this event and others may not represent either BGCT’s or Baylor’s official positions and convention messengers have made it clear that the traditional view of biblical sexuality is a matter of fellowship and harmonious cooperation.”
The BGCT, which reportedly contributes 0.001% of Baylor’s $995.8 million annual budget, did not answer questions about whether the convention also had concerns about the TPUSA event.
Perryman told RNS she hopes the “All Are Neighbors” event will prompt Baylor to revisit its student group policies, which currently allow advocacy from groups like TPUSA but not from LGBTQ groups. But Baylor said “there are no discussions” to change its policies, and LaStrape said the only specific “ask” coming from student organizers was that the university agree to host their event — though he hopes it opens doors for similar events in the future.
