APOSTATE COMPLEMENTARIANS ISSUE NEW MANIFESTO ON GENDER IDENTITY~CENTRIST POSITION ASSAILED
republished below in full unedited for informational, educational, and research purposes:
America’s top complementarian leaders have
shifted their focus from gender roles to gender
identity.
a new declaration that reasserts the significance of biological sex and
traditional marriage over society’s growing LGBT acceptance.
means declaring once again the true story of the world and of our place
in it—particularly as male and female,” according to the group’s Nashville Statement.
Religious Liberty Commission (ERLC) national conference in Nashville
last week, it was endorsed by about 150 conservative Christian
leaders—many of them male, Baptist, and Reformed. (The mayor of
Nashville, though, was not happy about the name.)
pastors like J. I. Packer, Francis Chan, John MacArthur, and James
MacDonald; and authors Rosaria Butterfield and Christopher Yuan.
CBMW issued the Danvers Statement, which affirmed the complementary
differences between the genders. It came in response to an increasingly
feminist society (and church), where conservative leaders feared men and
women were losing their biblical distinctions.
definition of complementarian convictions, critiques “feminist
egalitarianism” and women rising in church leadership, and upholds
“vocational homemaking” and wives’ submission in marriage.
the genders should live in relation to one another, makes several points
defending the existence of two genders in the first place. CBMW upholds
“God’s design for self-conception as male or female” in the face of new
conversations over transgender identity, gender fluidity, and
homosexual relationships.
but muddled, acceptance,” he said. “It touches the most fundamental and
urgent questions of the hour, without presuming to be a blueprint for
political action.”
attraction can have “a rich and fruitful life pleasing to God through
faith in Jesus Christ, as they, like all Christians, walk in purity of
life.” But in another point, it critiques those who would self-identify
as gay.
back against the statement—particularly a line that says approving of
homosexuality and transgenderism “constitutes an essential departure
from Christian faithfulness and witness.” (In the words of Baptist Press,
no more “agreeing to disagree” on LGBT issues.) The Liturgists, founded
by musician Michael Gungor and podcaster “Science Mike” McHargue, released a counter-statement in solidarity with LGBT Christians.
identify as transgender can and should accept the “God-ordained link
between one’s biological sex and one’s self-conception as male or
female,” while acknowledging the dignity of those who are born with
physical conditions related to their sex.
in a concise declaration, but CBMW has approached the issue from a
theological, biblical standpoint, relying on what researcher Mark
Yarhouse calls an “integrity lens,” or concern for the integrity of sex
and gender as created by God.
and director of the Institute for the Study of Sexual Identity at
Regent University. “It’s trying to signal what’s going to be within the
bounds of evangelicalism, and it will be interesting to see how
evangelicals respond to that.” (For more on his research, see Yarhouse’s
2015 CT feature, Understanding the Transgender Phenomenon.)
narrow focus on homosexuality and transgenderism, rather than the
underlying gospel issues that have led to a distorted view of “bodily
and sexual life” among Christians.
responds to are the sideshow, not the main action,” wrote Matthew Lee
Anderson, in a Mere Orthodoxy post
about why his name would not appear among the signatories. “Those
obvious manifestations of the ‘spirit of our age’ are not the ones we
should worry about; it is those that are not obvious, the subtle
temptations that lure us in without us realizing their deadly force.”
topics, explicitly expands the CBMW’s central concerns beyond what it
had long been known for addressing: women’s roles in the home and the
church.
at least in the Southern Baptist and Presbyterian church,” said Wendy
Alsup, who was among the female complementarian bloggers who spoke out
against CBMW’s theological emphases during last summer’s Trinity debate.
“This may be a new iteration of CBMW, but I don’t think it will define
them” in the same way as the Danvers Statement did, she said.
as it relates to complementrian theology, took issue with what the
Nashville Statement left out. Not only did it not clarify that
particular debate, she wrote,
but it doesn’t address her questions on authority and submission;
feminine and masculine stereotypes; and the relationships between men
and women outside of marriage.
design of male and female. Consequently, confusion reigns over some of
the most basic questions of our humanity,” said Burk. “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.”