c. 2008 Religion News Service
(UNDATED) A Southern Baptist seminary has declined a request to change the full name on the diploma of a 1998 male graduate who has since undergone surgery to become a woman.
The Rev. Ronnie Elise Elrod, who goes by her new middle name, had asked that Southern Baptist Theological Seminary change its records to reflect her new legal name. The seminary instead has reissued Elrod a diploma that includes her middle initial rather than her previous full name, Ronnie Eugene Elrod.
“We have an institutional policy that we do not change names on diplomas,” said R. Albert Mohler, president of the seminary in Louisville, Ky. “That’s just the bottom line.”
Mohler said the school also doesn’t change names to note a change in someone’s marital status.
“If you’re married, if you change your name, if you move to another planet _ it doesn’t matter,” added Mohler. “We’re not going to change the name on a diploma. … That long predated anyone asking for it for this reason.”
The seminary did change Elrod’s transcript _ with a 3.7 GPA _ to read “Ronnie Elise Elrod” last year.
Mohler said name changes are generally permitted on a transcript to help former students apply to other institutions.
“That’s an internal document between academic institutions and not a public document,” he said.
Elrod, who began her transition in 1999, is a Nashville, Tenn.-based public speaker who talks about bias and gender identity in churches and universities. The 56-year-old former Southern Baptist pastor remains married to her spouse of 37 years, but is celibate, and they have three grandchildren.
“I would like for the theological world to realize that there are some things that theology doesn’t have to have an opinion about,” said Elrod, who would like to serve as a pastor again.
Seminary spokesman Lawrence Smith said the school’s policy relates to history, not theology. He said a graduate may request using initials instead of a full name or dropping a designation such as Jr. or Sr.
“Our policy has to do strictly with maintaining the historical record of our diplomas,” he said. “It’s not any kind of a theological stand we’re taking here.”
Mohler has been vocal in his questioning of whether a man can truly change into a woman or vice versa but he, too, views this as a separate issue from the school’s diploma policy. He has written a column and spoken on his radio program about the case of a United Methodist transgender minister who has been permitted to remain pastor of his Baltimore church.
Mohler cited the Southern Baptist faith statement, which calls “the gift of gender … part of the goodness of God’s creation.”
Mohler said gender is “something that is assigned by God” and surgery may change how an individual looks but not their “chromosomal structure.”
“We would want to respond with pastoral concerns to persons who are struggling with this issue,” he said. “But we cannot endorse any confusion of gender and certainly not the notion of a sex change or sex assignment and the surgery that may be involved.”
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Elrod said she has successfully changed her new full name on other documents, such as her driver’s license and her undergraduate diploma, and had hoped the seminary would follow suit. She noted that Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary appears to have a more lenient policy on changing diplomas.
The school in Fort Worth, Texas, states “print name as you want it to appear on new diploma” on its request form.
But Southwestern Seminary registrar Mark Leeds said a case like Elrod’s would need to be reviewed carefully.
“If we were to see somebody request a strange change like that, we would hesitate before doing that,” he said. “I would have consulted with all my superiors … to see what we want to do as a seminary on that kind of thing.”
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Eds: note potential time reference in 9th graf. Elrod turns 57 on Jan. 31.
A photo of Elrod is available via https://religionnews.com.
