NASHVILLE, Tenn.—A controversial Kentucky Southern Baptist seminary president who has speculated that it would be OK for parents to genetically alter their unborn children to prevent the children from being gay is in the running for Southern Baptist Convention president.

Robert Jeffress, pastor of First Baptist Church in Dallas, announced last week that he intends to nominate the Rev. R. Albert Mohler Jr. at the denomination’s annual meeting in Indianapolis this June.

Current SBC President Frank Page concludes his second term in June and is ineligible for re-election. Page came from outside the conservative leadership that tightly controlled the denomination for more than a decade.

Mohler wrote last year on his website that scientific research could prove a biological basis for homosexuality and explored the idea that if sexual orientation could be detected before birth, parents could consider potential techniques that would reverse homosexuality in the womb.

Mohler said Jan. 9 that he was speaking hypothetically about the issue and that he’s not ready to support any particular medical treatment, none of which even exist.