PCA endorses Nashville Statement on biblical sexuality
The Presbyterian Church in America's General Assembly has voted to approve an overture that endorsed the controversial Nashville Statement.
Overture 4, titled “Declare the Council on Biblical Manhood & Womanhood’s ‘Nashville Statement’ on Biblical Sexuality as a Biblically Faithful Declaration,” was accepted on Thursday by a vote of 803 to 541, according to the PCA publication byfaithonline.com.
“’The Nashville Statement,’ carefully worked out by the Council on Biblical Manhood and Womanhood in 2017, is a timely statement that speaks into the current confusion surrounding gender and sexuality within the evangelical church (including the PCA) and the broader culture,” stated the Overture.
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“Signed by many leaders within the Reformed and evangelical world, it is a balanced and biblically faithful attempt to ‘speak the truth in love’ (Eph. 4:15) on one of the most pivotal and controversial issues facing the church today.”
Approval of the overture came after lengthy and emotional debate, and receiving mixed reactions by followers of the General Assembly on social media.
Bridget Eileen, the person behind the popular pro-LGBT Christian Twitter handle TravelingNun, denounced the passage of the Nashville Statement overture.
“Hurting with my #LGBTQinChrist siblings who were hoping for a better result at #pcaga. Some trust in pastors and some trust in man-made general assemblies, but we will remember the name of the Lord,” she tweeted.
“The #pcaga voted to commend the Nashville Statement, a document that singles out LGBTQ people, despite the vastly greater issues with runaway heterosexuality in American churches, and has done much to hurt #LGBTQinChrist people by excluding those who identify as LGBTQ+.”
Andrew T. Walker, a Christian ethics professor who serves as a senior fellow with the Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission of the Southern Baptist Convention, celebrated the vote.
“Really encouraged to see the PCA General Assembly adopt the Nashville Statement as a biblically faithful statement,” tweeted Walker.
“Coming cultural challenges will require churches to be more confessional and clear about its doctrine and ethics, not less.”
The 47th annual General Assembly for the PCA was held June 25-28 in Dallas, Texas, with the theme of “Press on for God’s Glory.”
In April, the Kansas City, Missouri-based Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary announced that they were officially adopting the Nashville Statement.
Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary President Jason Allen said in a statement that the decision came in response to the increasing acceptance of the LGBT movement in the United States.
“In light of ever-changing cultural norms and expectations toward marriage, gender, and sexuality, and in recognition that Southern Baptists are a confessional people, expecting their entities to maintain faithfulness to Holy Scripture and a clear witness to the world, Midwestern Seminary will strengthen its doctrinal clarity, witness, and legal standing by formally adopting the Nashville Statement,” Allen said earlier this year.
