​On Tuesday, a coalition of evangelical leaders published a manifesto comprising 14 beliefs that they're calling the Nashville Statement. It's being called out by LGBTQ activists and allies as hurtful, retrograde and morally wrong. Here's what you need to know.

The Nashville Statement Emphasizes A Very Traditional View Of Marriage And Gender

The statement endorses heterosexual marriage, sexual abstinence before marriage and "divinely ordained differences between male and female." It also claims that the acceptance of homosexuality and transgenderism is incompatible with Christian beliefs. Here are a few particularly salient excerpts.

We deny that physical anomalies or psychological conditions nullify the God-appointed link between biological sex and self-conception as male or female… We deny that adopting a homosexual or transgender self-conception is consistent with God's holy purposes in creation and redemption… We deny that sexual attraction for the same sex is part of the natural goodness of God's original creation… We affirm that it is sinful to approve of homosexual immorality or transgenderism and that such approval constitutes an essential departure from Christian faithfulness and witness. 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 Council On Biblical Manhood And Womanhood]

The Evangelical Group That Wrote The Statement Is A Longstanding Anti-Feminist, Anti-Gay Organization

The Council on Biblical Manhood and Womanhood, as its name implies, was founded to promote the idea that men and women are designed by God to perform different, complementary roles in society.

The Council on Biblical Manhood and Womanhood was founded in 1987 to "to help the church defend against the accommodation of secular feminism," according to its website. The council focuses on outlining the differences between male and female roles in the home and church. It supports the biblical teaching that men must be Christlike leaders at home and in the church, and upholds wives' submission in marriage. The group asserted its belief in these separate gender roles in its 1987 manifesto, "The Danvers Statement," which affirmed a "complementarian" view of gender roles in a push against secular feminism and egalitarian marriages.

[The Washington Post]

The Signatories Include Several Members Of Donald Trump's Evangelical Advisory Board

One of the evangelical leaders who signed the statement, Tony Perkins, was instrumental in getting Trump to ban transgender troops from serving, according to The Washington Post.

Several members of President Donald Trump's Evangelical Advisory Board are among the document's 153 signatories. They include James Dobson, founder of Focus on the Family; Ronnie Floyd, senior pastor of Cross Church; Richard Land, president of Southern Evangelical Seminary; James MacDonald, founder and senior pastor of Harvest Bible Chapel; and James Robison, founder and president of LIFE Outreach International. Two of the groups represented on the list — the Alliance Defending Freedom and the Family Research Council — are listed as anti-LGBTQ "hate groups" by the Southern Poverty Law Center, which tracks hate activity across the U.S.

[NBC News]

The Manifesto Has Been Denounced By The Mayor Of Nashville

The statement was drafted at a conference in in Nashville last week, hence the name.

It's named after Nashville because a coalition of scholars, pastors and other leaders finalized a draft of the statement in Nashville, said Denny Burk, president of The Council on Biblical Manhood and Womanhood, in an email. The group met last week at the Gaylord Opryland Resort and Convention Center during the annual conference for the Southern Baptist Convention's Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission.

[Tennesseean]





Nashville's mayor, Democrat Megan Berry, said on Twitter that the statement "does not represent the inclusive values of the city."

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

Christians And LGBTQ People From Various Faith Communities Called The Manifesto Hateful And Hurtful

On Twitter, many people spoke out passionately against the statement. Some of them, like trans comic book writer and former Catholic Magdalena Visaggio shared deeply personal stories.

I look at things like this #NashvilleStatement and I see so much agony for so many people. People who trust their leaders to help them. — Magdalene Visaggio (@MagsVisaggs) August 29, 2017 People who look at their pastors to tell them what they need to do, and all they'll hear is "you are broken to the heart, and what you want — Magdalene Visaggio (@MagsVisaggs) August 29, 2017 and what you are is horrid. Pray that God heals you. But otherwise, you must and shall suffer." That way lies suicide. — Magdalene Visaggio (@MagsVisaggs) August 29, 2017

Members of other faith communities, like trans mosque directors, also pointed out how hurtful anti-trans sentiment can be when it comes from faith leaders.

I'm the Director of a mosque & I'm also a Shi'i Muslim trans woman. I know the realities of divisive bigotry like the #NashvilleStatement. — Mahdia Lynn (@MahdiaLynn) August 29, 2017

It looks like shattered families, like paranoia and division. It looks like persecution, suicide and assault. Like the opposite of Love. — Mahdia Lynn (@MahdiaLynn) August 29, 2017

Some straight, cis evangelical leaders and writers, like Jenn Hatmaker, also called the Nashville Statement out for sowing seeds of despair.

The fruit of the "Nashville Statement" is suffering, rejection, shame, and despair. The timing is callous beyond words. — JenHatmaker (@JenHatmaker) August 29, 2017

Christians In Other Cities Have Responded With Their Own Manifestos Rejecting Gender Essentialism

A congregation in Denver wrote a point-by-point rebuttal called "Denver Statement" affirming the wide spectrum of human sexuality and gender expression. It contains articles like:

We affirm that God created us as sexual beings in endless variety. We affirm that the only type of sexual expression that can be considered holy is between a cis-gendered, heterosexual, married couple who waited to have sex until they were married. But if you fit in that group, good for you, we have no problem with your lifestyle choices.

[Patheos]





And a Chicago Tribune columnist drafted an even simpler affirmation of acceptance and diversity dubbed the "Chicago Statement."

I believe it's an offense to God to not acknowledge that all humans are different, to ignore the fact that telling LBGT people that they're sinners, that their identity is wrong, that they're somehow imperfect, is wildly and dangerously damaging, not to mention a sin in and of itself.

[Chicago Tribune]