A coalition of more than 150 evangelical leaders has released a manifesto stating that “it is sinful to approve of homosexual immorality or transgenderism.”
Read it here.
The statement was issued following a meeting last Friday of the Council on Biblical Manhood and Womanhood (CBMW) at the Southern Baptist Convention's (SBC) Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission's annual conference in Nashville.
Honest to god no one thinks about gay sex more than those who claim they can't stand the thought of it. #NashvilleStatement
— shauna (@goldengateblond) August 29, 2017
CBMW president Denny Burk said the statement aimed to mitigate Christians' “confusion”over issues of sexuality.
RELATED: Tony Perkins: Target's Transgender Policy Has Made Their Restrooms into ‘Crime Scenes…a Live Rendition of CSI'
The statement was signed by influential evangelical leaders including Steve Gaines, president of The Southern Baptist Convention, Russell Moore, president of the SBC's Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission and our old friend the truly horrible and incredibly well-remunerated Tony Perkins (above), president of listed hate group the Family Research Council. According to Huffington Post, Perkins was allegedly partially responsible for Donald Trump's ban on transgender service members.
The Nashville Statement has 14 “articles” which include such statements as “We affirm that divinely ordained differences between male and female reflect God's original creation design and are meant for human good and human flourishing.”
Divorce: OK
Adultery: OK
Greed: OK
Judging People: OK
White Supremacy: OKHomosexuality: SINFUL
Transgenderism: SINFUL— Power to the People ☭🕊 (@ProudSocialist) August 29, 2017
Article VII reads:
WE AFFIRM that self-conception as male or female should be defined by God's holy purposes in creation and redemption as revealed in Scripture.
WE DENY that adopting a homosexual or transgender self-conception is consistent with God's holy purposes in creation and redemption.
Article VIII reads:
WE DENY that sexual attraction for the same sex is part of the natural goodness of God's original creation, or that it puts a person outside the hope of the gospel.”
Nashville mayor Megan Barry has criticized the coalition for using her city's name in a statement of exclusion.
LGBT activist and Christian pastor Brandan Robertson, who helped organize a protest at the conference, added that the statement will further marginalize sexual and gender minorities in the church.
Nashville's mayor wants you to know that the #NashvilleStatement has nothing to do with her city. https://t.co/yiD5sfEYbc pic.twitter.com/dkdCjVlAtD
— The Boston Globe (@BostonGlobe) August 29, 2017
“This is indeed yet another sad day in the history of the modern evangelical movement,” he said. “The most heart breaking part of this statement is that this document will promote and perpetuate teachings that will cause verifiable psychological harm to LGBT+ Christian youth in churches around the world.”
However, he welcomed the fact that “more and more Christian leaders are stepping forward to proclaim the very opposite of the Nashville Statement, that LGBT+ people are beautifully and wonderfully created in the diverse image of our expansive God and are welcomed just as we are into our place in the Church and in society.”
Because it never gets old, watch a 2016 video in which GetEQUAL activist Angela Peoples confronted Perkins with the fact that he is complicit in the massacre of 49 people in Orlando.
https://twitter.com/GetEQUAL/status/745361116923047936
