Nevertheless, Eerdmans added that the company will not publish any books that “deny the existence or ignore the voices of LGBTQ people, propagate false teaching about discredited/harmful ‘therapies,’ or in general condemn/revile LGBTQ people.”
“We reject the tendency to promote division and discord by categorizing Christians into two camps, considering ‘us’ to be right about everything and ‘them’ to be wrong. We decline to swear loyalty to one faction’s ‘us’ and join their hostilities against all corresponding ‘thems,’” the statement concluded. “As always, our aim is not to tell you what to think. It is to provide books that we believe will promote informed and charitable thinking.”
Responses to the statement were mixed, with some expressing appreciation for the publisher and others doubling down on their condemnation of it.
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“Every time is a good time for listening. I appreciate what Eerdmans has done here and their thread handles the public response in a really tactful and thoughtful way,” one response read. “Big shout out to their communications department and leadership.”
“This thread from Eerdmans, obviously written by an ‘affirming, progressive’ author, actually speaks for the entire company. It is a manifesto of apostasy from biblical authority. It did not happen overnight. Most of us have observed the process, of course,” said another.
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Despite recent criticism, Eerdmans has been an influential force in evangelical publishing for over a century, publishing works from prominent voices such as C.S. Lewis, N.T. Wright, Karl Barth, Mark Noll, and David Bebbington.
