MILWAUKEE (BP) — This year’s Republican Party platform is leaner than usual on references to social issues. Nonetheless, it dovetails with the stances of Southern Baptist Convention (SBC) resolutions on a variety of issues.

The most controversial paring down occurred on pro-life issues. The previous GOP platform, released in 2016, referenced abortion 35 times in 66 pages — about once every two pages. It advocated a constitutional amendment applying the right to life to children in the womb. The platform also aligned with SBC calls to defund Planned Parenthood (2017), repeal Roe v. Wade (2022) and ban the sale of fetal tissue from elective abortions (2000) among other pro-life causes.

This year’s 16-page Republican platform references abortion in just one paragraph, celebrating the overturning of Roe v. Wade, opposing late-term abortion and vowing to “protect and defend a vote of the people, from within the states, on the issue of life.” The apparent retreat from pro-life issues has drawn criticism from Southern Baptists as well as former vice president Mike Pence.

“The RNC [Republican National Committee] platform is a profound disappointment to the millions of pro-life Republicans that have always looked to the Republican Party to stand for life,” Pence posted on the social media site X.

A letter sent to Republican National Convention delegates from a foundation Pence founded was signed by at least three prominent Southern Baptists on July 12. The letter, sent by Advancing American Freedom and endorsed by Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission (ERLC) President Brent Leatherwood, Southern Baptist Theological Seminary (SBTS) President Al Mohler and newly elected SBC President Clint Pressley among others, urges delegates to reinsert pro-life principles into the platform.

“As you gather in Milwaukee for the Republican National Convention, the eyes of conservatives across America are upon you,” the letter says. “As delegates, ensuring a strong platform is your responsibility. You are the grassroots conservative leaders, entrusted by the conservatives of your states, to represent their values at the national level. This is the last opportunity to restore the Republican Party’s strong pro-life platform.”

But life issues weren’t the only social issues that drew a scaled back treatment. This year’s platform continued a GOP withdrawal from social issues that began in 2020, when the Republican National Convention did not adopt a new party platform but instead supported President Donald Trump’s campaign agenda, comprising 50 bullet points. The campaign agenda made no mention of some traditional SBC priorities, including abortion, religious liberty and human sexuality. In 2020, the Republican Party said it continued to stand on its 2016 platform.

The shift away from traditional evangelical concerns progressed this year. A variety of SBC priorities mentioned in the 2016 platform drew no mention in this year’s platform. Among those priorities were euthanasia and assisted suicide, adoption, stem cell research, cloning, capital punishment, pornography and women in combat.

While God was mentioned 15 times in the 2016 platform, He drew just one mention in this year’s document. Marriage was mentioned 19 times in 2016 and once this year. Republican National Convention delegates will vote on the platform during their July 15-18 gathering in Milwaukee.

Despite the scaling back on social issues, the GOP platform contains no clear points of disagreement with SBC resolutions and aligns with some emphases in convention resolutions over the past four years.

Points of agreement

Religious liberty

Americans possess the right “not only to worship according to the dictates of conscience, but also to act in accordance with those beliefs, not just in places of worship, but in everyday life,” according to the Republican platform. Religious liberty applies to “men and women from every faith and tradition.” The GOP advocated “a new federal task force on fighting anti-Christian bias” and affirmed students’ rights to pray and read the Bible in school.

The SBC has expressed its support for religious liberty dozens of times. Most recently, a 2024 resolution affirmed “that God has endowed every human with religious liberty.” The convention rejected “any government coercion or enforcement of religious belief.”

Parental rights

“Republicans will support schools that focus on Excellence and Parental Rights,” according to the GOP platform. The party pledged to “restore parental rights in education” because “we trust parents.”

This year, the SBC addressed “the God-given rights and responsibilities of parents,” calling on government “to partner with, rather than act contrary to, the family unit, enacting legislation that protects and upholds parental rights, ensuring that parents have the freedom to make decisions regarding the upbringing, education, and healthcare of their children without undue interference.”

School choice

Republicans voiced support for “universal school choice.” A 2014 SBC resolution “encourage[d] lawmakers to enact policies and legislation that maximize parental choice and best serve the educational needs and desires of families.”

Marriage

The GOP “will promote a culture that values the sanctity of marriage,” according to the party’s platform. The SBC has affirmed God’s design for marriage numerous times. That included a 2015 call for “Southern Baptists and all Christians to stand firm on the Bible’s witness on the purposes of marriage, among which are to unite man and woman as one flesh and to secure the basis for the flourishing of human civilization.”

Israel and antisemitism

“Republicans condemn antisemitism” and “will hold accountable those who perpetrate violence against Jewish people,” the Republican Platform states. The party also “will stand with Israel, and seek peace in the Middle East.”

In the wake of the Hamas terrorist attacks Oct. 7, 2023, the SBC condemned the attacks, committed “to standing with the Jewish people” and “oppose[d] all forms of antisemitism” (2024). That echoed a 2016 commitment “to bless Israel” and “pray for God’s peace to rule in Jerusalem.”

Just war

The Republican Party’s commitment to “return peace through strength,” included vows to “modernize the military,” defeat terrorism and ensure “a safe and prosperous future for all.”

A 2024 SBC resolution “reaffirm[ed] the historic, Christian principles of the just war tradition.” Among those principles: “war must be fought for a just cause;” “war must be fought by right authority;” and “war, so far as possible, must be waged only as a last resort and only if there is a reasonable chance for success.”

Federal judges

“We commit to uphold the Constitution of the United States, appointing judges who respect the rule of law,” the GOP platform stated. The SBC advocated nomination and confirmation of “strict constructionist judges to fill the remaining vacancies in the federal judiciary.”

Points of partial agreement

Immigration

The GOP committed to “stop illegal immigration” by securing the border, deporting illegal aliens and reversing “the Democrats’ open borders policies.” The government should return “all trafficked children to their families in their home countries immediately.”

In 2023, the SBC “encourage[d] elected officials to prioritize measures that secure our borders and to provide adequate resources to border patrol and those working in our immigration system.” Also in agreement with the Republican platform, the convention urged the government “to take swift and bold action to protect and prevent the exploitation of unaccompanied immigrant children.”

Yet Southern Baptists went further than the Republican platform by “implor[ing] our government leaders to maintain robust avenues for valid asylum claimants seeking refuge and to create legal pathways to permanent status for immigrants who are in our communities by no fault of their own.” At least three other times since 2006, the SBC has called for government officials to secure America’s borders. In all three resolutions, the convention highlighted the need for compassionate treatment of immigrants regardless of their legal status.

In vitro fertilization (IVF)

Republicans made a brief statement supporting “access” to “IVF (fertility treatments).” This year, SBC messengers offered a more qualified statement on IVF. The convention “reaffirm[ed] the unconditional value and right to life of every human being, including those in an embryonic state,” and called on Southern Baptists “to only utilize reproductive technologies consistent with that affirmation especially in the number of embryos generated in the IVF process.”

Artificial intelligence (AI)

The Biden administration has hindered “AI Innovation,” according to the GOP platform. But Republicans “support AI development rooted in free speech and human flourishing.”

The SBC “acknowledge[d] the powerful nature of AI and other emerging technologies” but called on “government leaders to develop, maintain, regulate, and use these technologies with the utmost care and discerning, upholding the unique nature of humanity as the crowning achievement of God’s creation” (2023).

Racial discrimination

The GOP vowed to “stop schools from discriminating on the basis of race.” That echoed the SBC’s numerous denunciations of racial discrimination, including a 2021 reaffirmation of “historic, biblically-faithful Southern Baptist condemnations of racism in all forms.”

Transgenderism

“Republicans will end left-wing gender insanity,” the platform pledged. That includes keeping men out of women’s sports, banning “taxpayer funding for sex change surgeries” and stopping “taxpayer-funded schools from promoting gender transition.”

The SBC has gone further. A 2023 resolution “condemn[ed] and oppose[d] ‘gender-affirming care’ and all forms of ‘gender transition’ interventions.” The “futile quest to change one’s sex” is “a direct assault on God’s created order,” according to the resolution. The SBC extended “the love of Christ” as well as “compassionate care and tender mercy to those experiencing identity or body-related distress.”

The Republican National Convention is set for July 15-18 in Milwaukee.

(EDITOR’S NOTE — David Roach is a writer in Mobile, Ala.)