Going against the recent trend of accepting transgender people, Southern Baptists issued a statement on June 10 that asserts the creation of “two distinct and complementary sexes.” The resolution was passed with an overwhelming majority at the annual meeting of the country’s largest Protestant denomination where at least 5,000 adherents gathered.

The adherents who call themselves messengers affirmed god’s design, saying, “Gender identity is determined by biological sex and not by one’s self-perception.”

While they opposed cross-sex hormone therapies and gender reassignment surgeries, they said they feel compassionate towards those suffering gender conflict and condemned acts of bullying or abuse committed against them. They hoped that transgender people would experience renewal by instilling their faith in Jesus.

Ross Murray, who is responsible for organizing religious programs at the LGBT advocacy organization GLAAD, criticized the inconsistency of the statement.

“They want to both welcome people in and yet do not want to recognize them as a full person and probably even more fully as a child of God. The Southern Baptist Convention is so missing out on the opportunity to connect with another part of God’s creation,” he said.

In another cultural pushback, Southern Baptists confirmed “the sufficiency of the Scripture regarding the afterlife” criticizing best-selling books and movies that have ventured into describing heaven.

On remembering the 50th anniversary of the enactment of the Civil Rights Act, the denomination said they “lament and repudiate this nation’s long history of racial segregation as well as the complicity of Southern Baptists who resisted or opposed the dismantling of the evil of racial hierarchy in our churches or society.” Ironically, Southern Baptists was founded by advocates of slave-owning missionaries.