A manifesto from a group of evangelical leaders is causing controversy for its anti-LGBTQ content.
The “Nashville Statement,” a manifesto from the Council on Biblical Manhood and Womanhood (CBMW), outlines the group’s views on sexuality and gender in order to act as a guide of sorts for churches.
Perhaps unsurprisingly, the results aren’t favourable towards LGBTQ people.
Comprising 14 articles, it opens with the declaration that “God has designed marriage to be a…union of one man and one woman, as husband and wife.” It adds, “We deny that God has designed marriage to be a homosexual, polygamous or polyamorous relationship.”
“We deny that adopting a homosexual or transgender self-conception is consistent with God’s holy purposes,” the statement continues, adding, “We deny that sexual attraction for the same sex is part of the natural goodness of God’s original creation.”
The statement also notes that transgender individuals should embrace religion to “forsake transgender self-conceptions” and accept the “God-ordained link” between sex and gender identity.
And there’s no hope for those who support the LGBTQ community, as the evangelical leaders consider it “sinful to approve of homosexual immorality or transgenderism.”
“The spirit of our age does not delight in God’s good design of male and female. Consequently, confusion reigns over some of the most basic questions of our humanity,” Council President Denny Burk said in a statement. “The aim of The Nashville Statement is to shine a light into the darkness — to declare the goodness of God’s design in our sexuality and in creating us as male and female.”
However, the use of Nashville in the name — due to a conference of the leaders in the city — has drawn fire from Nashville’s Democractic Mayor Megan Barry, who tweeted: “The [CBMW’s] so-called ‘Nashville Statement’ is poorly named and does not represent the inclusive values of the city and people of Nashville.”
The @CBMWorg's so-called "Nashville Statement" is poorly named and does not represent the inclusive values of the city & people of Nashville
And elsewhere on social media, users rallied against the views expressed in the manifesto. Comedian Kumail Nanjiani, who has spoken out against transphobic jokes, didn’t hold back in expressing his thoughts:
Fuck the #NashvilleStatement. Fuck the evil shit that people justify using religion.
Owen McIntire, a 19-year-old from Parkville, Missouri, has pleaded not guilty to federal charges after allegedly firebombing Teslas at a Kansas City dealership. The crime could carry up to 30 years in prison if the UMass Boston student is convicted.
McIntire's case was elevated to the Justice Department’s national security division, which typically handles terrorism and espionage cases. U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi has called the incident “domestic terrorism.”
"Let me be extremely clear to anyone who still wants to firebomb a Tesla property: you will not evade us," Bondi said following McIntire’s arrest in April. "You will be arrested. You will be prosecuted. You will spend decades behind bars. It is not worth it."
A transgender woman swimmer in the United Kingdom recently competed topless at a Masters event, protesting a policy that requires her to compete based on her assigned sex at birth.
Seeking to highlight flaws in the one-size-fits-all ban on transgender competitors, Anne Isabella Coombes, 67, of Reading, chose to wear a men’s swimsuit while competing -- exposing her breasts in the process.
Coombes, a member of the Reading Swimming Club for 30 years, transitioned five years ago, during the COVID-19 pandemic. When public swim meets resumed, she applied to Swim England -- the national governing body of aquatic sports -- asking to compete as a female, reports the Reading Chronicle.
In one of the stranger crime sprees of Pride Month, a masked man on an electric unicycle is reportedly stealing Pride flags across Longmont, Colorado.
Since Memorial Day weekend -- just ahead of Pride Month -- the man has vandalized homes by bending flagpoles and tearing down flags.
Sheryl Colaur, one of the victims, told the Longmont Daily Times-Call that at least 10 -- and possibly as many as 15 -- of her neighbors in Longmont's Harvest Junction Village neighborhood have had their Pride flags stolen, allegedly by the same man.
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