As states across the nation advance myriad bills focusing on transgender young people, America’s faith leaders are starkly divided in their assessment. Some view the legislation as reflecting God’s will; others voice outrage that Christianity is being invoked to justify laws they view as cruel and hateful.

In one camp are legislators who have cited their conservative religious beliefs while promoting these bills, as well as leaders of America’s two largest denominations — the Catholic Church and the Southern Baptist Convention.

U.S. Catholic bishops have rejected the concept of gender transition; they issued guidelines in March to stop Catholic hospitals from assisting in such transitions. The SBC has been on record since 2014 asserting that gender transition is “contrary to God’s design.”

In an online article, the Rev. Albert Mohler, president of the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, depicted gender transition as “a blatant attempt to undermine the very order of creation.”

“The Bible reveals that any attempt to subvert creation ends in disaster, not in human liberation,” he wrote.

On the other hand, faith leaders who support transgender rights bristle at the use of religious rhetoric to speak against trans people.

“As a Christian leader, it’s horrifying to me that Christianity and the Bible are being used by the religious right to bludgeon people through these many bills,” said Serene Jones, the president of Union Theological Seminary in New York City.

“To use religious language like that is an abomination,” she said. “They are threatening the lives and well-being of so many people around the U.S. and the world.”

Jones said it was wrong to cite the Bible in rejecting transgender identity.

“It wasn’t something that the Bible even thought about,” she said. “The larger message there is a message of love and inclusion.”

By the latest count, at least 20 states have imposed bans or limits on transgender athletes’ sports participation at the K-12 or collegiate level. And at least 18 states have adopted laws or policies — including some blocked by courts — barring gender-affirming medical care, such as puberty blockers, hormone therapy and surgery for minors.

In Oklahoma, state Sen. David Bullard cited a biblical passage in introducing what he calls the Millstone Act — a bill that would make it a felony for doctors to provide gender transition procedures to anyone under the age of 26. Bullard, who has served as a deacon at his Baptist church, said the act’s name alludes to a passage in the Book of Matthew suggesting that anyone causing a child to sin should be drowned in the sea with a millstone hung around their neck.

In the Texas legislature, one of the leading backers of anti-trans legislation is an ordained minister — Rep. Steve Toth. One bill he introduced also proposes making it a felony to provide gender-affirming care for minors.

Bills in other states have sought to restrict transgender people’s use of public restrooms and limit their ability to be called by the pronouns that reflect their gender identity.

In recent months, several of the Southern Baptists’ state affiliates have adopted resolutions embracing the overall thrust of the anti-trans bills.

A resolution approved by the Tennessee Baptist Convention depicted gender dysphoria as a “sexual perversion.”

The South Carolina Baptist Convention urged its followers “to resist speaking falsely and giving credence to the philosophies of the LGBTQ+ movement by adopting preferred pronouns that do not refer to a person’s created sex and biological makeup.” And the Southern Baptists of Texas cited a verse from Genesis in rejecting “any type of false doctrine or deceptive application related to gender identity and sexuality.”

As for U.S. Catholics, there are diverse views among church personnel.

The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops has told Catholic hospitals they must not perform “interventions, whether surgical or chemical, that aim to transform the sexual characteristics of a human body into those of the opposite sex.”

Yet some parish priests have welcomed transgender people into their congregations and honored their decisions to transition. In March, several thousand Catholic nuns, representing orders across the U.S., signed a statement urging people to oppose anti-transgender legislation in their states.

“As members of the body of Christ, we cannot be whole without the full inclusion of transgender, nonbinary, and gender-expansive individuals,” the statement said.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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