Divorce Minister on the “Nashville Statement”

Many will say to me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name and in your name drive out demons and in your name perform many miracles?’ Then I will tell them plainly, ‘I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers!’

-Matthew 7:22-23, NIV

With some trepidation, I begin this post. My heart aches over what has recently taken place in my community–i.e. the evangelical Christian community.

I have people I know and love who are on both sides of the statement that has dropped yesterday–August 29th–like a cultural atomic bomb.

For those who are unaware, a statement on human sexuality has been made and signed by prominent evangelical leaders–including John Piper, Steve Gaines, Russell Moore, Francis Chan, Wayne Grudem, J.I. Packer, Matt Chandler, and more. It is called the “Nashville Statement.”

The subtitle of the statement is “A COALITION FOR BIBLICAL SEXUALITY.”

Briefly stated, this statement defines marriage in traditional, heterosexual terms and condemns transgenderism.

Like most statements or teachings on human sexuality from evangelical pastors, this statement never mentions “adultery” by name!

It is hinted at and condemned in a broad category found in Article 2: ” sexual intercourse before or outside marriage.” But the word “adultery” does not appear even once in this entire document on “biblical” human sexuality.

I find this notable omission especially troubling as this is supposed to be a statement about biblical sexuality, yet it fails to explicitly name the one sexual sin mentioned by name in the Ten Commandments (see Exodus 20:14). Interesting.

The statement does goes to great lengths explicitly condemning transgender identification and homosexual relationships.

It goes as far as to elevate disagreement over homosexuality and transgender identification as a matter barring someone from being a “true” Christian.

In other words: “You’re going to Hell if you disagree with us.”

Quoting from Article 10:

“WE DENY that the approval of homosexual immorality or transgenderism is a matter of moral indifference about which otherwise faithful Christians should agree to disagree.”

The point of this post is not to weigh the theology behind all these statements.

I am not challenging whether or not these statements align with traditional, orthodox Christian teaching on these matters. That is beside the point, in my opinion.

Even if you agree 100% with everything in this statement, I question such adamant teaching on particular sexual expressions not mentioned explicitly by Jesus while failing to focus upon one Jesus did actually mention by name–i.e. adultery.

By making such a focused statement omitting “adultery” explicitly as a serious sexual sin, the optics–minimally–suggest this is a statement targeting the LGBTQ community.

Even with occasional general phrases lumping in heterosexual sin as wrong, the statement still comes across as treating homosexual activity and trangenderism as the greatest sexual sins. I do not think that is biblical.

This statement builds walls, not bridges.

It is declaration of theological, scorch-earth war.

And–I find this especially frustrating–the statement reinforces harmful stereotypes of all evangelicals as condemning to hell those who disagree with them, especially on the topic of sexual ethics.

I will end with a few final thoughts to ponder:

Is the issue in Matthew 7:21-23 whether or not you stood against transgenderism or homosexual intercourse or is it a matter of knowing Jesus? My Bible says it’s all about knowing Jesus.

I do not see the Nashville Statement helping in our mission as Christians to bring more people into a loving and living relationship with Jesus. 

Remember: The Pharisees were right about a lot of things theologically, yet they did not know Jesus.

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*The words in this post are my own. I do not speak for any organization or institution to which I belong, and I remain committed to the theological positions of my denomination (LEPC/GCEPC).