Pro-Trump Evangelical Leaders Release Anti-LGBT Statement

As Donald Trump, a/k/a, Der Trumpenführer, continues his anti-LGBT policies, a core group of evangelical Christians who have supported Trump with few exceptions have worked to ratchet up anti-LGBT hysteria, including by pushing for so-called bathroom bills to target transgender students.  Now, these same hate merchants have released an anti-LGBT manifesto that seeks to further malign and denigrate LGBT individuals.  I'm sure one side motivation is to use this latest assault on LGBT citizens to raise money, the true god of these individuals, by further hyping the treat that LGBT individuals pose to the safety of women and children and "religious liberty" which translates as the right to abuse whomever one desires. A piece in Huffington Post looks at this latest message of hatred.  Here are story excerpts:

A coalition of over 150 evangelical leaders released a manifesto on Tuesday reiterating their belief that marriage should be between a man and a woman.

Titled the “Nashville Statement,” the document also asserts that God created two distinct sexes, that sex should only occur within the bounds of heterosexual marriage, and that “it is sinful to approve of homosexual immorality or transgenderism.”

The statement emerged out of a meeting convened by the Council on Biblical Manhood and Womanhood on Friday at the Southern Baptist Convention’s Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission’s annual conference in Nashville. It consists of 14 statements of affirmation and denial relating to human sexuality.

For instance, Article 7 of the statement reads:

WE AFFIRM that self-conception as male or female should be defined by God’s holy purposes in creation and redemption as revealed in Scripture.  WE DENY that adopting a homosexual or transgender self-conception is consistent with God’s holy purposes in creation and redemption.

Nashville mayor Megan Barry tweeted Tuesday criticizing the coalition for using her city’s name in a statement of exclusion.

Among the signers were many prominent and influential evangelical leaders, including Steve Gaines, president of The Southern Baptist Convention, Russell Moore, president of the SBC’s Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission, Albert Mohler, president of The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, and Tony Perkins, president of the Family Research Council. Perkins was also reportedly one of the architect’s behind President Donald Trump’s ban on transgender service members. Though several Christian denominations, including the Episcopal Church and the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), have affirmed same-sex marriage in recent years, the Southern Baptist Convention has been squarely and unwaveringly opposed to anything other than heterosexual marriage. [C]ritics in the Christian community noted the bizarre and even “callous” timing of the document’s release and warned that it would do more harm than good:
 "To release it in the direct aftermath of Charlottesville, in the throes of Harvey, is a gross example of pastoral & leadership malpractice." “I am confident that future generations will look back at this resolution and see it as despicable as we do former Southern Baptist statements promoting slavery and segregation.”  

Meanwhile, Ann Coulter - who looks like an anorexic drag queen - used using Twitter to insinuate that “Houston electing a lesbian mayor” is a more likely explanation for Hurricane Harvey than climate change.

The Southern Baptist Convention has a long and ugly history.  Its treatment of LGBT people is in many ways a continuation of its support for slavery and then the Jim Crow laws.  If one isn't a white, heterosexual evangelical Christian, you aren't entitled to civil rights or deemed human.  It's a horrible denomination and, thankfully, its membership is falling.