By Rhuaridh Marr on August 30, 2017 @rhuaridh
A manifesto from a group of evangelical leaders is causing controversy for its anti-LGBTQ content.
The “Nashville Statement,” a manifesto from the Council on Biblical Manhood and Womanhood (CBMW), outlines the group’s views on sexuality and gender in order to act as a guide of sorts for churches.
Perhaps unsurprisingly, the results aren’t favourable towards LGBTQ people.
Comprising 14 articles, it opens with the declaration that “God has designed marriage to be a…union of one man and one woman, as husband and wife.” It adds, “We deny that God has designed marriage to be a homosexual, polygamous or polyamorous relationship.”
“We deny that adopting a homosexual or transgender self-conception is consistent with God’s holy purposes,” the statement continues, adding, “We deny that sexual attraction for the same sex is part of the natural goodness of God’s original creation.”
The statement also notes that transgender individuals should embrace religion to “forsake transgender self-conceptions” and accept the “God-ordained link” between sex and gender identity.
And there’s no hope for those who support the LGBTQ community, as the evangelical leaders consider it “sinful to approve of homosexual immorality or transgenderism.”
“The spirit of our age does not delight in God’s good design of male and female. Consequently, confusion reigns over some of the most basic questions of our humanity,” Council President Denny Burk said in a statement. “The aim of The Nashville Statement is to shine a light into the darkness — to declare the goodness of God’s design in our sexuality and in creating us as male and female.”
However, the use of Nashville in the name — due to a conference of the leaders in the city — has drawn fire from Nashville’s Democractic Mayor Megan Barry, who tweeted: “The [CBMW’s] so-called ‘Nashville Statement’ is poorly named and does not represent the inclusive values of the city and people of Nashville.”
The @CBMWorg's so-called "Nashville Statement" is poorly named and does not represent the inclusive values of the city & people of Nashville
— Megan Barry (@MayorMeganBarry) August 29, 2017
And elsewhere on social media, users rallied against the views expressed in the manifesto. Comedian Kumail Nanjiani, who has spoken out against transphobic jokes, didn’t hold back in expressing his thoughts:
Fuck the #NashvilleStatement. Fuck the evil shit that people justify using religion.
— Kumail Nanjiani (@kumailn) August 29, 2017
And the criticism didn’t stop there:
90% of signatories of #NashvilleStatement are white men. Seriously, you guys have to stop all this nonsense. Go back to fantasy football.
— rosanne cash (@rosannecash) August 30, 2017
Dear evangelicals,
You supported a serial adulterer and grifter.
Your opinions couldn't matter less.#NashvilleStatement
— Nick Jack Pappas (@Pappiness) August 29, 2017
Show me a man whose main cause is the #NashvilleStatement and I'll show you a man whose main hobby is the #gloryhole.
— Rachel Dratch (@TheRealDratch) August 30, 2017
I find it funny they are quick to denounce homosexuality but when it comes to racism and white supremacy… SILENCE. #NashvilleStatement
— MalyndaHale (@MalyndaHale) August 30, 2017
#NashvilleStatement is just same old stuff conservative evangelicals have said for years. Nothing new except now they know they're losing.
— Emily C. Heath (@emilycheath) August 30, 2017
#NashvilleStatement is un-American toilet paper written by Trump fans who use religion as a cover for their bigotry & their hate of equality
— Scott Dworkin (@funder) August 30, 2017
I am a Christian. To the authors and signatories of the bigoted & hypocritical #NashvilleStatement I say: My Jesus doesn't know your Jesus.
— Old New Dad (@old_new_dad) August 30, 2017
By John Riley on January 18, 2023 @JRileyMW
Community members rallied on Monday afternoon to remember a transgender woman who died after being stabbed earlier this month in Northeast D.C.
A group consisting of friends, family, and fellow D.C. residents gathered at the corner of Gallaudet Street NE and Providence Street NE, in the Ivy City neighborhood, to remember Jasmine Starr Parker, who was 36 when she was murdered on Jan. 7.
According to the Metropolitan Police Department, police were flagged down in the 2000 block of Gallaudet Street NE, in between Gallaudet University's campus and Mt. Olivet Cemetery around 3 a.m. on Jan. 7. Upon arriving on scene, they found Parker on the ground, unresponsive, suffering from a stab wound to her leg. Parker was declared dead at the scene.
By John Riley on January 18, 2023 @JRileyMW
A Republican candidate for Congress found himself being confronted over a more than decade-old Facebook post in which he compared members of the LGBTQ community to people who are "sick, disease," suffer from bipolar disorder, or are addicted to drugs.
Leon Benjamin, the Republican Party's nominee for Virginia's 4th Congressional District, appeared on MSNBC's The Sunday Show last weekend, during which he was confronted by host Jonathan Capehart, a gay man, over the post.
In the post, which was posted in January 2011, Benjamin, a senior pastor at New Life Harvest Church, encouraged people to bring those in need of salvation to an event at his church.
By John Riley on December 30, 2022 @JRileyMW
A federal appeals court has sided with a Florida school district's policy prohibiting transgender students from using bathrooms that match their gender identities.
On Dec. 30, the conservative 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled 7-4, along partisan lines, that the St. Johns County School Board did not discriminate against transgender students based on sex or violate federal civil rights law when it required transgender students to use bathrooms matching their assigned sex at birth or gender-neutral bathrooms.
All seven judges voting to uphold the policy were appointed by Republican presidents, including six by Donald Trump, while the four dissenting judges were appointed by Democratic presidents, reports Reuters.
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