Sometimes public events aren’t quite as public as they seem. There’s a lot that goes on behind the scenes. Such was almost certainly the case, for example, with the Aug. 29 release of a “Nashville Statement” on human sexuality. Drawn up in significant measure by thoughtful people with close ties to the Council on Biblical Manhood and Womanhood, the statement is intended to serve evangelical Christians as a reference point on sex and gender issues. 

More than 100 evangelical leaders signed a statement released Tuesday affirming Biblical teaching on human sexuality. The Council on Biblical Manhood and Womanhood launched the effort to coincide with the Southern Baptist Convention’s Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission annual conference in Nashville, Tenn. The document, dubbed the “Nashville Statement,” reiterates long-held evangelical beliefs about men, women, gender, and marriage.

Two schools accused of discrimination against transgender students recently resorted to payout settlements and policy changes. The settlements do not bode well for schools that maintain traditional policies on gender, gender transitions, and restroom use.

Planned Parenthood released updated parental guidance this week on how to talk to kids about sex.

The new website—while maintaining its progressive stance on sex and sexuality—added pages of new advice on how parents should talk about and respond to their children regarding gender identity and transgenderism, including sections for parents of preschoolers on how to explain the difference between gender and sex, and how to know if your child is transgender.

A brick of Oscar Wilde aged Irish cheddar sitting on my kitchen table has led to this meditation on a word from God: “Better is the end of a thing than its beginning” (Ecclesiastes 7:8). The label has a picture of the dandified playwright and this quote: “The only way to get rid of a temptation … is to yield to it.”

The ACLU on Friday filed suit against North Carolina’s so-called “bathroom bill,” claiming the compromise legislation adopted earlier this year still infringes on transgender rights. The bill, approved by Republicans and Democrats in March, removed a previous requirement that people use restrooms in public buildings based on their biological sex, not their gender identity. But ACLU lawyers accuse Republican lawmakers of creating confusion by suggesting possible prosecution for people who enter multi-user restrooms that don’t correspond to their birth sex.

Despite claims this week’s Church of England General Synod resulted in no doctrinal changes on the issue of sexuality, conservative Anglicans are lamenting the three-day meeting, saying the Church stepped away from Biblical Christianity and mocked God’s Word.