As debate continues to rage over the Nashville Statement, a 14-point proclamation from prominent U.S. evangelicals that tackles same-sex attraction, transgender identity and premarital sex, some signatories are speaking out and doubling down.
Among those defending the document is Albert Mohler Jr., president of The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, who penned an op-ed for The Washington Post this weekend that pushed back against critics’ claims that the document, which defends traditional views on sexuality, is somehow hateful.
Mohler, who titled his piece, “I Signed the Nashville Statement. It’s an Expression of Love for Same-Sex Attracted People,” described the Nashville Statement as “an effort that put America’s theological and moral fault lines fully in view” and said that it is also aimed at reaffirming scriptural views on sexuality.
The faith leader said that the “vitriol” and furor that followed the release of the statement is, in itself, evidence that its contents were needed, and he pushed back against claims that he and other signatories aren’t showing love to others. Mohler wrote:
One of the most intense lines of criticism was that we, signers of the document, dismiss the pain and suffering of those who live outside those historic Biblical sexual norms. That we weren’t acknowledging the rejection they feel in the church and were making their sins appear more significant than our own.
To be clear: Christians understand the brokenness of the world. We signers know ourselves, like all humanity, to be broken by sin. We have no right to face the world from a claim of moral superiority. We know and confess that Christians have often failed to speak the truth in love.
In releasing the Nashville Statement, we in fact are acting out of love and concern for people who are increasingly confused about what God has clarified in Holy Scripture.
Mohler went on to note that silence would be “much easier,” but that those behind the Nashville Statement believe their love for others and their Christian convictions implore them to speak out in truth and to push back against cultural narratives that point people toward sexual revolution rather than the gospel.
Amid changing cultural winds, Mohler said that the pastors and faith leaders who signed the Nashville Statement sought to clarify the Bible’s teachings on sexuality and offer clarify on a subject matter that has, in many ways, taken some turns in recent years.
“Love of neighbor requires us to speak clearly and very specifically to the truths affirmed and the errors denied in the document,” he said.
In the end, Mohler said that the Nashville Statement aims to point everyone toward “salvation and wholeness in Christ.” Read the op-ed in its entirety here.
As Faithwire previously reported, the reaction to the statement, which was released last week, was swift and fierce. The document calls for “chastity outside of marriage and fidelity within marriage,” and proclaims that “self-conception as male or female should be defined by God’s holy purposes in creation and redemption as revealed in Scripture.”
Some of the portions of the text that have likely sparked the biggest reaction center specifically on homosexuality and transgender identity. The statement denies that “adopting a homosexual or transgender self-conception is consistent with God’s holy purposes in creation and redemption” and also disputes claims 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.”
Learn more about the reactions here.