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The Southern Baptist Convention (SBC) is a network of around 16 million members and over 50,000 cooperating churches, the nation鈥檚 largest Protestant denomination. It was聽聽as a result of a split with Northern Baptists over the issue of slavery, which Northern Baptists tended not to support whereas Southern did. The SBC formally renounced its early position on slavery in 1995, and issued a formal apology and adopted a聽聽of racial reconciliation.

A little over a decade later, the SBC continues to grapple with interpretations of Biblical and theological doctrine that exclude certain people from full participation in Southern Baptist congregations as well as American society in general. The SBC has always frowned on LGBT people, 鈥渉omosexuality is not a valid alternative lifestyle,鈥� while also claiming that homosexuality is not an 鈥渦nforgivable sin.鈥� LGBT people are not allowed into Southern Baptist congregations unless they 鈥渞epent鈥� of the sin of homosexuality.聽Nevertheless, some SBC leaders and pastors have called for a softening of its rhetoric.

Frank Page, president and CEO of the SBC executive committee, that the SBC only condones marriage between a man and a woman, and all sexual intimacy should be experienced within the confines of a 鈥渂iblically sanctioned union or marriage.鈥� Any sexual expression not meeting those criteria 鈥渋s outside the will of God.鈥� Page claimed that the SBC鈥檚 Ethics and Religious Liberty Committee (ERLC) has worked to soften its rhetoric with regard to LGBT people and homosexuality to reflect a more compassionate and 鈥済race-filled鈥� conversation about real people who, 鈥渇or whatever reasons, identify themselves by their same-sex attractions or gender identities rather than by their biological sex.鈥�

Also in 2014, the SBC held a gathering of pastors in Nashville, and some among them聽 of the SBC's聽approach to homosexuality and LGBT people. 鈥淟et鈥檚 stop telling Adam and Steve jokes and let鈥檚 be compassionate, because these are people that are in our community. These are people that are in our churches,鈥� Pastor Jimmy Scroggins of Florida said.

Kevin Smith of Kentucky stated that, 鈥淚f you spent 20 years and you鈥檝e never said anything about divorce in the church culture, then shut up about gay marriage.鈥�

Russell Moore, who replaced the virulently anti-LGBT as President of the SBC鈥檚 ERLC, said Baptists should accept that their view of marriage puts them in the minority of Americans, rather than waging war on homosexuality. 鈥淲e鈥檙e living in a different time,鈥� he said, 鈥渨here we have to learn how to understand what鈥檚 going on in the world around us.鈥�

In spite of statements like these, in which the SBC may be trying to present a 鈥渒inder, gentler鈥� face with regard to LGBT people, its practices tell a different story.

On March 21, current SBC president Ronnie Floyd of the Committee on Resolutions for 2016, in accordance with SBC bylines. The committee includes ten people, and two are holdovers from the preceding year. The committee members聽must be announced 75 days prior to the SBC鈥檚 annual meeting, which is scheduled this year for June 14-15 in St. Louis.

For the SBC, resolutions are considered that are passed during the annual SBC convention. They鈥檙e not used to direct entities of the SBC, but rather are viewed as a communication of the particular issue, and, as Russell Moore, president of the SBC鈥檚 Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission , they 鈥渆xpress a unity of purpose and thought鈥� and encourage Southern Baptists 鈥渢o think through issues that are facing churches all over the country.鈥�

This year鈥檚 committee includes Mathew 鈥淢at鈥� Staver, the director of the anti-LGBT hate group Liberty Counsel. Staver has a long history of anti-LGBT activism and rhetoric, and garnered international media attention last fall when the Liberty Counsel took Kentucky county clerk Kim Davis as a client. Davis refused to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples in defiance of the June, 2015 Supreme Court ruling that legalized same-sex marriage. Staver, who claims to be fighting for 鈥渞eligious liberty,鈥� has that criminalize homosexuality and has homosexuality to pedophilia, same-sex marriage and same-sex relationships are destructive to the individuals involved and to the social fabric, same-sex unions and sexual activity are聽鈥渧ery harmful鈥� and are indicative of 聽鈥渁 very deadly and damaging relationship.鈥�

Attorney Shannon Royce, current chief of staff and chief operating officer of anti-LGBT hate group the Family Research Council (FRC) was also named to this year鈥檚 Committee.

Royce already had a history at SBC before she was last April. She worked as the director of government relations and legislative counsel for the SBC鈥檚 Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission from 1999-2003. She also has a history in anti-marriage equality activism. In 2003, she was director of the Arlington Group, a Virginia-based organization founded in 2002 to unite prominent Christian right groups in opposition to marriage equality. She also served a stint as director of the , an anti-environmental group that released a video claiming the climate change movement is a 鈥渇alse religion.鈥� While at the Arlington Group, Royce , which pushed for a constitutional amendment that would ensure absolute exclusion of LGBT people from legally marrying.

Another committee member is Mark Harris, a North Carolina pastor who unsuccessfully ran for senate in 2014. He launched the successful campaign same-sex marriage and civil unions in the state constitution. In 2015, he headed a group that ran an against a proposed LGBT-inclusive non-discrimination bill in Charlotte. 鈥淚鈥檇 be really scared if a man shared a bathroom with my daughter,鈥� the female narrator says, 鈥測et this nightmare could become a reality right here in Charlotte if we don鈥檛 speak up quickly鈥� (the ordinance in February 2016, but was overturned March 23聽when Governor Pat McCrory signed a law聽with 聽into effect).

The committee also includes , listed as the chief strategic officer at Elizabeth Baptist Church in Atlanta. Cochran is Atlanta鈥檚 embattled former fire chief who in 2013 self-published a book that referred to homosexuality as a 鈥減erversion鈥� and compared it to bestiality and pedophilia. Cochran was initially suspended for a month and then fired in 2015.

Atlanta mayor Kasim Reed noted that Cochran鈥檚 firing was not because of his religious beliefs, but rather because of his in publishing a book that could open the city to potential discrimination lawsuits without discussing it with senior leadership. An internal investigation revealed that Cochran had not received permission to publish the book and that he had commented publicly on his suspension when specifically directed not to. Cochran filed a federal alleging he was fired for his Christian beliefs. Anti-LGBT group the is serving as his legal counsel.

SBC president Floyd, for his part, published a book in 2004 that is still available for sale. Titled The Gay Agenda: It鈥檚 Dividing the Family, the Church, and a Nation, the book includes the contention that 鈥渋f left unopposed [the gay agenda] will annihilate the family as we know it鈥� and that 鈥減roponents of the gay lifestyle have declared war against our culture and they have an agenda.鈥� Floyd attempts to soften the blow by noting past persecution of LGBT people, and calling on the old adage, 鈥渓ove the sinner and hate the sin," but a year before his book was published, Floyd on gay marriage in which he claimed that 鈥淪atan has taken his tool of homosexuality, a gross and evil sin, and done a con job on the American Culture.鈥�

In September of last year 鈥� a few months after SBC pastors called for a softening of rhetoric with regard to homosexuality -- the SBC鈥檚 highest committee (formally cut ties with) a California church because of the latter鈥檚 support of LGBT people. The church 鈥渨alked away from us as Southern Baptists,鈥� Ronnie Floyd said in the wake of the vote. 鈥淪o it is with compassion that I would appeal to them to reconsider their decision, mostly their position related to the Word of God on homosexuality.鈥�

It remains to be seen what resolutions the new committee will make with regard to this issue, but given the makeup of nearly half the membership, don鈥檛 expect a 鈥渟ofter approach.鈥�