NASHVILLE, Tenn. -- A controversial Kentucky Southern Baptist seminary president who has advocated a Christian "exit strategy" from public schools is in the running for Southern Baptist Convention president.

The Rev. R. Albert Mohler Jr., one of the country's pre-eminent conservative Christian leaders, has also speculated about potential medical treatment to switch an unborn baby's sexual orientation from gay to heterosexual.

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

Current SBC President Frank Page of First Baptist Church in Taylors concludes his second term in June and is ineligible for re-election.

Scholars say Mohler's nomination reflects a desire by some Baptists to return to the leadership associated with a 1980s conservative takeover of convention leadership from moderates.

Page came from outside the conservative leadership that tightly controlled the denomination for more than a decade. He promised to stand up for the denomination's conservative beliefs but also seek a broadening of voices and opinions in the convention.

Nancy T. Ammerman, a professor of sociology of religion at Boston University School of Theology who's written extensively about Southern Baptists, said Mohler would likely be seen as a more "hard-line candidate."

Mohler told the Associated Press on Wednesday he may be ide.jpgied with the conservative resurgence within the SBC in the 1980s, but he's open to hearing views different from his own.

"I want to bring more people into the conversation," he said. "I certainly want to involve more people ... representing many different places and ages and churches.

"I represent a known quantity to the SBC. They know who I am and what I believe."

President of the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, Ky., Mohler hosts a daily, nationwide program on the Salem Radio Network. He also writes a blog commenting on moral, cultural and theological issues.

If elected convention president, Mohler, 47, said he would focus on reaching out to young Southern Baptists and improving missions and evangelism.

"I hope more churches will lead fellow congregations to connecting to the mission field through our mission boards and helping church members to catch a global vision of the Gospel."

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

Mohler said Wednesday he was speaking hypothetically about the issue, and he's not ready to support any particular medical treatment -- none of which even exist.

Mohler has also supported a movement led mainly by evangelical Christians that depicts public education as hostile to religious faith and claims to be behind a surge in the number of students being schooled at home.

Mohler said Wednesday he has not called for all Christians to exit public schools, but to develop an "exit strategy" -- having alternatives to public school like homeschooling or private school.

"There's no doubt public schools have become one of the battlegrounds for cultural conflict, from sex education to church-state issues like prayer in schools," he said. "There are Christian parents waking up to the fact their children are being taught things antithetical to their beliefs."

Mohler is the second candidate to come forward for SBC president. Bill Wagner, president of Olivet University International in San Francisco, announced in September he would allow his name to be offered for consideration at Indianapolis.

The former Golden Gate Baptist Theological Seminary professor and missionary also pastors Snyder Lane Baptist Church.

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