A nationwide coalition of more than 150 conservative Christian leaders signed a statement, released Tuesday, affirming their beliefs on human sexuality, including that marriage is between one man and one woman and approval of “homosexual immorality” is sinful.
The Council on Biblical Manhood and Womanhood which was founded in 1987 and based in Louisville, KY created a list of 14 beliefs, referred to as the Nashville Statement, is a response to an increasingly post-Christian, Western culture that thinks it can change God’s design for humans, according to the statement.
“Our true identity, as male and female persons, is given by God. It is not only foolish, but hopeless, to try to make ourselves what God did not create us to be,” the statement from the coalition members reads.
In a press release, John Piper, co-founder of The Council on Biblical Manhood and Womanhood, called the Nashville Statement a “Christian manifesto” on human sexuality.
“It speaks with forthright clarity, biblical conviction, gospel compassion, cultural relevance, and practical helpfulness,” Piper said. “It will prove to be, I believe, enormously helpful for thousands of pastors and leaders hoping to give wise, biblical, and gracious guidance to their people.”
The Council on Biblical Manhood and Womanhood convened a meeting of evangelical leaders, pastors and “scholars” Friday at the Southern Baptist Convention’s Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission’s annual conference in Nashville. The coalition discussed and endorsed the statement.
Signers included well known anti-LGBT religious extremist : James Dobson, founder of the Colorado Springs-based Focus on the Family, and Tony Perkins, president of the Family Research Council in the District of Columbia
Dobson and four others — Senior Pastor Ronnie Floyd of Cross Church, which has four campuses in northwest Arkansas and southwest Missouri; Pastor Jack Graham of Prestonwood Baptist Church in Plano, Texas; President Richard Land of the Southern Evangelical Seminary in Charlotte, N.C.; televangelist James Robison, founder of Fort Worth-based Life Outreach International — also are members of President Trump’s evangelical advisory board.
Pastor Brandan Robertson of MissionGathering Christian Church in San Diego, an LGBT activist who helped organize a protest at the Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission conference, called the statement an affront to God’s creative design.
“When your theology breeds death, your theology is not of God,” he stated.
If every signer of the so-called Nashville Statement died of natural cause but writhing in pain tonight, we wouldn’t miss a single one of them.
It’s the strangest thing to me, the one person that I have never thought of as a witness for Christ is Donald Trump. He’s been in the media’s attention for years and I never once got a hint that he has a spiritual or moral conviction.
And the other unbelieveable thought is that spiritual leaders have overlooked any of Trumps unchristian comments while being called his advisors for morality.
Our nation has elected a leader of older baby boomers and given them permission to act mean. Our leaders have the opportunity to lead by example but have chosen not to represent Christ, but to act like God is no longer in control so any behavior is acceptable to get America back to their comfort zone.
I’ve never been so disappointed in people I care about in my life.
These people have an apocalyptic world view whereby an immoral, selfish, sociopathic narcissist can be an god-appointed instrument of their idea of the fulfillment of some twisted biblical mythology. It is beyond reason or sense. It is a perverted “theology” that doesn’t even deserve serious consideration except insofar as it poses a danger to us and this nation.