A Christian university in Nashville is under fire for canceling a Promise Keepers event after the evangelical group released a statement restating its support for traditional biblical views of sexual identity and marriage.

According to a news release from Promise Keepers, the school’s “representatives cited a conflict in values” as the reason for canceling a “Daring Faith” event slated for the school in September.

Promise Keepers said the event was set to “discuss Biblical manhood and the difficulties of navigating the tension between our Christian identity and the often antithetical identities of the culture in which we live.”

Part of the statement on marriage and sexuality read,  “As fathers, husbands, grandfathers, and young men — we see the dangers of gender ideology and the harm it causes.”

Founded in 1990, Promise Keepers says it is “focused on helping men live with integrity.” 

Belmont University was for 56 years affiliated with the Tennessee Baptist Convention but dropped that connection in 2007 and now advertises itself as a “Christ-centered” school.

Belmont is noted for its music school, which counts country singers Brad Paisley, Trisha Yearwood, Pam Tillis and Lee Ann Womack among its alumni.

Representatives of the school did not immediately respond to requests for comment, and Promise Keepers said they have not heard back from Belmont on why the event was dropped. A spokesperson for the men’s group said CEO Ken Harrison was not available for comment Monday.

The school’s student newspaper, “Belmont Vision,” published a “Nashville Pride Guide” on June 1, however.

The Promise Keepers event is not the only on-campus activity to draw criticism at the school this year. In April, an event aimed at “building bridges between Christians and Muslims” was slammed as “Islamophobic” by Muslim students for making fliers available saying “the Muslim world is in a state of spiritual dryness like a desert,” and claiming Islam “ultimately does not offer salvation or peace.”

The Tennessean newspaper reported Belmont President Greg Jones responded to the controversy by promising “a document of guidelines and expectations” to which future guest speakers must subscribe before “being given a campus platform.”

The school had an enrollment of 8,910 undergraduate and postgraduate students in the fall of 2022 according to the College Navigator service of the National Center for Education Statistics.

• Mark A. Kellner can be reached at mkellner@washingtontimes.com.