The Nashville Statement
Aug. 30th, 2017 09:58 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
solarbirdThe Nashville Statement - a new declaration from the Council on Biblical Manhood and Womanhood, a fundamentalist/evangelical working group - is about making anti-LGBT activism a core part of faith. It's explicitly about making anti-LGBT animus a required belief in order to be what they consider Christian.
Article 10 - excuse me, they want to sound all Roman on the website, so "Article X" - is key:
Now, fundamentalism/evangelism is not like Catholicism, of course, where the Pope says a thing and off y'go. This statement is more like an influential imam issuing a fatwa. It's not legally binding. But it's important to remember that fundamentalism as we know it started with a not-dissimilar declaration of tenants a little over a century ago, and I think it's pretty clear that they had that document in mind.
So - this matters. Not for the week or month or year, but for the longer term. Let's go over the key points.
First, it's about asserting that being queer is being in active opposition to God.
From Article XIII: "WE DENY that the grace of God in Christ sanctions self-conceptions that are at odds with God’s revealed will."
Secondly, it's about removing neutrality - you cannot agree to disagree and still be Christian.
They're declaring that hatred of LGBT people and opposition to the rights of LGBT people is core and key to their faith - that people who disagree with this statement, who are neutral or pro-LGBT rights, are not Christians. At all.
Third, it's about making opposition to the existence of us queers a multi-generational activity.
As they've been losing ground in younger generations, they've been struggling to find a way to continue the fight against us. This is where they've gone - making it part of the religion itself. It is a blueprint showing how they intend to renew their fight against our existence.
Finally, it's about making civil rights a zero-sum game, in explicit, foundational, and existential terms.
They are declaring that laws recognising us, recognising our relationships, recognising who we are, are direct affronts to and attacks on God, and on their religion, and on their right to be Christians. To allow civil rights for queers is to deny them their faith. (See Article XI - they're using the word "speak" there, but they talk with laws, when they can.) This isn't really new? But now it's formalised. It has moved from inchoate politics to cornerstone of faith, and that has weight.
By making anti-queer activism core and critical to their Christianity, they're saying that recognising us is a direct attack on their existence as Christians. They're making our existence antithetical to themselves. They're deciding that this is an existential fight - for them.
This statement is a forthright and deliberate statement of eternal opposition to the existence of me and mine.
This statement is a declaration of total war.
Article 10 - excuse me, they want to sound all Roman on the website, so "Article X" - is key:
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.
Now, fundamentalism/evangelism is not like Catholicism, of course, where the Pope says a thing and off y'go. This statement is more like an influential imam issuing a fatwa. It's not legally binding. But it's important to remember that fundamentalism as we know it started with a not-dissimilar declaration of tenants a little over a century ago, and I think it's pretty clear that they had that document in mind.
So - this matters. Not for the week or month or year, but for the longer term. Let's go over the key points.
First, it's about asserting that being queer is being in active opposition to God.
From Article XIII: "WE DENY that the grace of God in Christ sanctions self-conceptions that are at odds with God’s revealed will."
Secondly, it's about removing neutrality - you cannot agree to disagree and still be Christian.
They're declaring that hatred of LGBT people and opposition to the rights of LGBT people is core and key to their faith - that people who disagree with this statement, who are neutral or pro-LGBT rights, are not Christians. At all.
Third, it's about making opposition to the existence of us queers a multi-generational activity.
As they've been losing ground in younger generations, they've been struggling to find a way to continue the fight against us. This is where they've gone - making it part of the religion itself. It is a blueprint showing how they intend to renew their fight against our existence.
Finally, it's about making civil rights a zero-sum game, in explicit, foundational, and existential terms.
They are declaring that laws recognising us, recognising our relationships, recognising who we are, are direct affronts to and attacks on God, and on their religion, and on their right to be Christians. To allow civil rights for queers is to deny them their faith. (See Article XI - they're using the word "speak" there, but they talk with laws, when they can.) This isn't really new? But now it's formalised. It has moved from inchoate politics to cornerstone of faith, and that has weight.
By making anti-queer activism core and critical to their Christianity, they're saying that recognising us is a direct attack on their existence as Christians. They're making our existence antithetical to themselves. They're deciding that this is an existential fight - for them.
This statement is a forthright and deliberate statement of eternal opposition to the existence of me and mine.
This statement is a declaration of total war.
no subject
Date: 2017-08-30 08:12 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2017-08-30 08:29 pm (UTC)This is Christianity to me - Christianity is a knife at my throat. And always has been.
Nashville Nonsense
Date: 2017-08-30 08:14 pm (UTC)I can say, unflinchingly and with absolute certainty, that he would ABHOR that Nashville Declaration right down to component electrons in every pro-declaration email and tweet.
Now, you're right. This is when CHRISTIANS have to fight for THEIR beliefs. THEIR "Christian tolerance" is under attack, and it is not MY job to defend someone else's faith.
It is my job, as a human being, to defend someone else's human RIGHTS. I can fight against this abomination as a violation of basic human rights--INCLUDING the very religious liberty they're trying to claim is "being oppressed."
It's time to pick a side, and STAND UP, not just live and let live.
no subject
Date: 2017-08-30 10:57 pm (UTC)I do note the complete and total lack of biblical reference for their claims. No verses that confirm "god's revealed will;" it's all their statements of what was revealed.
I doubt it'll have the effect they want. Evangelicals have been losing youth for generations for a reason, and declaring that many of their friends are BAD WRONG is not going to win them back. But ugh, in the meantime, this'll be used to condone discrimination and violence.
Also - GoogleDoc version of the Nashville Statement in case anyone wants to read the text, or copy/paste it easily, without increasing the hitcount of their version.
no subject
Date: 2017-08-30 11:34 pm (UTC)Same here. Nothing from Genesis 19, Leviticus, or the epistles of Paul. I was not impressed.
no subject
Date: 2017-08-31 01:24 am (UTC)Yeah, but nobody cares. Including them. That's not what it's about and none of them give a fuck about it, really.
no subject
Date: 2017-09-01 01:24 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2017-08-30 11:14 pm (UTC)And of course, what they actually did with that mess was to prove beyond a shadow of a doubt that they themselves are the ones who are not christian. At all.
I'm now waiting for the SPLC to designate the Southern Baptist Church in its entirety as a hate group.
no subject
Date: 2017-08-31 11:19 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2017-08-31 04:12 pm (UTC)Bringing it in as a core tenant of their religion ups the ante.
no subject
Date: 2017-08-31 05:07 pm (UTC)I just hope that enough people reject this bullshit.
no subject
Date: 2017-09-01 01:25 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2017-09-01 02:41 am (UTC)