Many have responded critically to the #NashvilleStatement. The statement was callous and insensitive not only in its content but also in its title. While reading the statement I found myself opposing so many points that for my own clarity of mind I needed to organize my thoughts into my own, personal, statement.
Unlike the signatories of the Nashville Statement, I freely admit that I might be wrong and I invite disagreement. If I am wrong I want my mind to be changed, so I welcome civil and respectful thoughts, feelings and opinions.
I AFFIRM that there is something about the image of God that requires both penis and vagina/womb/breasts to meaningfully be embodied.
I DENY that any finite, fallen human individual or group has a clear and authoritative understanding of what God intended that to mean for identity before the fall.
I AFFIRM that the creation that God has pronounced good includes variations on the theme of gender duality.
I DENY that these variations in physical, genetic, hormonal, or psychological sex and gender should be called disorders or that they reflect any less of the goodness of creation in the image of God than normative sex and gender.
I AFFIRM that the statistical majority of people are born into the normative biological duality of male and female and that cultural definitions of gender have historically evolved around that duality.
I DENY that gender can be reduced to that simple duality or that any one definition of gender can be conclusively drawn from that biological difference.
I AFFIRM that human procreation requires the pairing of one woman and one man.
I DENY that this pairing is the only means of forming a healthy happy family of two or more people.
I AFFIRM that gender self-conception is complex and does not always conform to sexual assignment made on a birth certificate.
I DENY that gender or sexual identity must be altered to meet others' preferred conception of sex or gender from the church or broader culture.
I AFFIRM that self-conception as male or female or neither should be understood as something defined by an astonishingly complex interplay of biological, psychological, sociological and spiritual factors with little or no conscious individual choice.
I DENY that condemning or judging sexual self-conception is a responsibility of Christian parents or other members of the Church.
I AFFIRM that people who experience sexual attraction for the same sex may live a rich and fruitful life pleasing to God through faith in Jesus Christ as they, like all Christians, walk in fidelity and sacrificial loving commitment.
I DENY that sexual attraction for the same sex warrants intervention or change in order to be acceptable in God's eyes or included in any part of the life of the church. I further deny that anything can separate us from the love of God.
I AFFIRM that Many Christians throughout history have felt and taught others to feel sinful contempt and loathing for LGBT people and that the church should confess this corporate sin and seek reconciliation.
I DENY that standing for truth or confronting sin could take the form of contempt or disrespect toward those beloved by Jesus.
I AFFIRM that we are set free in Christ so that, in Christ, there is neither Jew nor Greek, male nor female, gay nor straight, cis-gender nor transgender.
I DENY that God requires us to maintain hierarchies based on these former distinctions.
I AFFIRM that God rejects the proud and gives grace to the humble.
I DENY that any Christian has either right or responsibility to treat their sexual minority fellow Christians with anything less than loving grace-filled acceptance.
I AFFIRM that changing traditional mores creates a transition that is frightening and disorienting for many people.
I DENY that such change inevitably “ruins human life and dishonors God.”
I AFFIRM that God is love and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God.
I DENY that it is loving to disrespect or disregard others' self-conceptions.
I AFFIRM that God's Holy Spirit is moving the Church toward greater understanding and inclusion of the gifts of LGBT Christians.
I DENY that the signs of this movement of the spirit can be dismissed as liberal apostasy or cultural zeitgeist.
