The Nashville Statement

Bigotry resides not merely in the hearts and minds of neo-Nazis and white supremacists and their endorsers but also apparently inside a large clump of evangelical so-called Christians.

Earlier in the week a group of some 150 white self-described conservative people signed an agreement known as the Nashville Statement which is nothing more than a blatant commitment to intolerance to lesbians, gays, bisexuals and transgender people. The statement suggests that anyone who might be an L.B.G.T. person is immoral, that only heterosexuality is a permissible way of life and anyone else is “disordered.”

The signers include some well-known evangelicals, wackos, right-wing bigots, editors at conservative publications and a host of hangers-on. Many of them — all? — are supporters of Donald Trump, and therein lies the suspicion that this statement is not so much a statement of Christian principles but one with a political focus.

Consider: these signees condemn anyone not heterosexual as immoral. Yet they blindly ignore Donald Trump’s behavior. Cheating. (He committed adultery at least twice.) Lying. (Every time his mouth opens.) And what of his comments about grabbing women. Surely they are at least immoral and grossly sexist. And his demeaning of those of other races and nationalities? Where’s the Christian response to that? Where’s the outrage? Where’s the “Statement.”?

And where in the name of Christianity to we find that Christ rejects anyone because of sexuality? We are all sinners. Christ even accepts Donald Trump, though if would be nice if those alleged “Christian” signees noticed that Trump said a while back that he has never asked God for forgiveness. And what in Trump’s life bears the least witness to a moral, Christian sensibility in either his personal or professional life? Ever?

The Nashville Statement smells. It deserves the denunciation that most people are giving it. It is wrong, wrong-headed, hurtful and positively an anti-Christian document that should shame its signees. We are all better than that, or should be.