‘It’s time for us to face how fallen we all are,’ counselor says
By Jennifer Davis Rash
The Alabama Baptist
A Virginia transgender high school student wants access to the boys’ restroom by the time school starts back in the fall, and the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) is working to make that happen.
In a lawsuit filed by ACLU and its Virginia counterpart June 11, Gavin Grimm — who socially transitioned from a female to a male during the last school year — is seeking the right to use the boys’ restroom instead of the private restroom that Gloucester High School officials provided.
In Connecticut transgender students are already allowed to use the restroom that corresponds to their gender identity. Transgender students can request the use of a private restroom if they feel unsafe, but “under no circumstances may a student be required to use a restroom facility that is inconsistent with that student’s asserted gender identity,” according to the Connecticut Safe Schools Coalition.
Prison systems, insurance companies, Medicare, Medicaid, immigration laws and more — they are now all determining their policies related to gender identity confusion, now known as gender dysphoria.
What about churches and their policies?
A quick Internet search found three Episcopal churches with transgender pastors in the United States but no Baptist churches. However, Allyson Robinson — a transgender female — served as transitions pastor of Calvary Baptist Church, Washington, in the summer of 2014 while the church was working to name its interim pastor, according to Baptist News Global. The church reaffirmed Robinson’s ordination because Allyson was originally ordained as Daniel.
Many Alabama Baptist churches have already faced decisions related to same-sex couples and the level of participation homosexuals are allowed. Some churches also are likely facing issues related to gender dysphoria.
And while no one has officially been named the expert in the Christian community to deal with this topic, Mark A. Yarhouse of Regent University in Virginia Beach, Virginia, and Janelle Hallman of Denver Seminary are emerging as two of the top Christian psychologists and counselors dealing with gender dysphoria.
Both say education for church leadership and the congregation is vital. They also noted how gender dysphoria is part of humankind’s fallenness.
“It’s time for us to face how fallen and confused we all are within the human condition,” Hallman said. “As the Church, how are we going to handle this? Gender dysphoria is not just a moral issue. It is a profound psychological issue. At this point we don’t understand all of the causes.
“The question is … ‘Are we as leaders willing to be educated on the lived experience of individuals with gender dysphoria and are we willing to educate and address the congregation?’ This is a very real condition. It is complex and serious. … We as the Church can’t remain naïve any more.”
Yarhouse’s new book, “Understanding Gender Dysphoria: Navigating Transgender Issues in a Changing Culture,” deals with the complexities of the condition while also challenging the Church to rise above the political hostilities and listen to people’s stories. “Given the complexities associated with these issues … pastoral sensitivity should be a priority,” Yarhouse writes.
The bottom line is gender dysphoria is not going away, Hallman said. “If we care about people’s journey in life and their integrity before God, then it is going to be a journey. … It is important as a church that we know how to walk alongside them and offer them hope.”
Gender Dysphoria
Refers to an individual’s discontent with his or her biological gender/sex and the distress from the conflict between one’s experienced or expressed gender and one’s biological gender/sex.
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What are Christians to think about new ‘hero’ of sexual revolution?
By Jeffrey Riley
Special to The Alabama Baptist
God created man in His own image, in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them. God blessed them; … God saw all that He had made, and behold, it was very good (Gen. 1:27–28, 31).
The transformation of Bruce Jenner into Caitlyn Jenner has the media buzzing and progressive elites tripping over themselves to lionize this former decathlon gold medalist and current reality TV star. The new Jenner is being called heroic, brave, beautiful, authentic, honest and other endearing words. All are invited to affirm Jenner and others who have been courageous enough to change their bodies and behaviors to match their individual conceptions of gender or sexual identity.
Sexual revolution
What are followers of Jesus Christ to think about this newest hero of the sexual revolution and the latest project for progressive social change — transsexualism, often popularly but inaccurately called transgenderism?
Our first step is to understand just what we are talking about. Research psychologist Elizabeth Moberly defines transsexuals as “men or women who are normal according to physiological criteria, but who experience themselves as members of the opposite sex. This sense of being ‘trapped in the wrong body’ may result in a demand for hormonal and surgical interventions to modify their appearance and sexual characteristics.”
In other words, those like Jenner who claim to have “the brain or soul of a female” are willing, or emotionally driven, to undergo gender reassignment treatments and surgery, more commonly called sex-change operations.
How should followers of Jesus Christ respond theologically to those individuals who think of themselves as females living in male bodies or males living in female bodies? How should we think ethically about those who choose to modify themselves externally to match who they think they are internally?
According to Scripture, God created humans male and female, distinct yet complementary beings made in the image of God (Gen. 1:26–28). In God’s created order, males and females have distinct roles in creating and nurturing families, distinct physiology and even distinct brains and chemistry, all of which are contained securely in male or female bodies and which account in general for differences in the way men and women feel, think and act. In other words gender identity is rooted in the sexed body, though particular roles might be negotiated in the social exchange between men and women within a given cultural context.
We must not miss the significance that we are embodied persons — male and female. We don’t experience life and living apart from our bodies. With bodies we are born, mature, marry, live, suffer and die. With bodies we love our Lord, spouses and families; we enjoy life, work, play and worship. God creates us embodied and God will resurrect us with bodies no matter what might happen to them during this life.
Christianity stands firmly against any form of dualism that even implies that the body is not good or is an enemy of a person’s mind or spirit. As such, Christians cannot affirm that a person is “trapped in the wrong body,” though we can and ought to sympathize with those whose bodies or minds are disconnected from the way God intended humans to live.
Distinctions between men and women are not intended by God to keep them separated nor are distinctions to be used for one to lord over another. The distinctions allow men to complement women and women to complement men. In God’s design, complementarity is found most uniquely and profoundly in marriage between one man and one woman. God’s design does not allow for an inappropriate blending of what God has separated or for separating what God has joined together.
Scripture teaches human beings have alienated themselves from God, from each other and even from themselves. The result is that sinful human beings set aside God’s design for men and women, follow the lusts of their hearts and minds and dishonor God with their bodies (Rom. 1:24–32).
The Bible consistently warns against attitudes, thoughts and behaviors that dishonor and corrupt the body. All sexual sins — from adultery to bestiality, from the prohibition of wearing the clothing of the opposite sex (Deut. 22:5) to homosexuality — attack God’s design for men and women and are, therefore, sins against God.
Contrary to God’s design
It follows that gender identity disorder is a fallen way of thinking, akin to what Paul calls the “flesh” in Galatians 5:16–21. Consequently gender-reassignment treatments that feminize men and masculinize woman are sinful, contrary to God’s design and “against nature,” to borrow Paul’s term from Romans 1:26.
Because of the direct reference to the image of God in the Creation story, protecting male-female differentiation is not only important for representing God as stewards of the earth but also for reflecting the character of God in the earth. “You shall be My witnesses” in God’s creation means we are to be male and female in the way designed and appointed by God (Acts 1:8).
In the plans and purposes of God, men need women to be women and women need men to be men. In the plans and purposes of God, to be a woman means to be a human being of the female sex who is not a man but who needs men in appropriate relationships; to be a man is to be a human being of the male sex who is not a woman but who needs women in appropriate relationships.
Stated succinctly, in the plans and purposes of God, men do not act like or become women and women don’t act like or become men. In fact, according to Dr. Paul McHugh, former psychiatrist-in-chief at Johns Hopkins Hospital, “sex change is biologically impossible.” Gender-reassignment surgery merely feminizes men or masculinizes women externally but cannot change the physical essence of a person.
The ethical charge to the one who follows Jesus Christ is to “not let sin reign in your mortal body so that you obey its lusts, and [to] not go on presenting the members of your body to sin as instruments of unrighteousness; but present yourselves to God as those alive from the dead and your members as instruments of righteousness to God. For sin shall not be master over you, for you are not under law but under grace” (Rom. 6:12–14).
Christians are to think rightly about sex and gender and act accordingly. If we are not thinking rightly about ourselves regarding sex and gender then we are to take captive those thoughts and bring them under the lordship of Jesus Christ. Our thinking is to be transformed by the renewing of our minds, by the Word and Spirit of God; right actions then follow transformed thinking.
The responsibility of the Church is to appeal to people like Bruce Jenner to come to Christ and experience transformed thinking about themselves and to warn against choosing wrong actions. Just because some persons think of themselves as females living in male bodies or males living in female bodies is not sufficient justification for pursuing a life that mimics the opposite sex. The problem is not a person’s body. The problem is wrong thinking about one’s self.
Some might argue that for the Church to require persons to change their minds about personal identity and to warn an individual not to follow through with an act like gender-reassignment surgery is at worst hateful and at best unloving.
But the opposite is true. Jesus demonstrated authentic love by telling people the truth about their sin and all the ugly consequences of falling short of the glory of God. Jesus loved by forgiving us of our sins and offering us peace with God. Jesus loved by supplying everything we need for righteousness, everything we need to please God, to think rightly, to decide rightly. We should respond to Bruce Jenner and others like him with the love of Christ Jesus, a love that meets people where they are while inviting them to come under the Lordship of Jesus and the transformational discipleship of His Church.
By his own testimony, Bruce Jenner has lived a sad life, wanting to be what he cannot be — a woman. In this sad life he’s become famous. In this sad life he’s fathered six children through three failed marriages. Yet he thinks that feminizing his body will now make him happy. He should first read the testimony of those who have gone before him to see if happiness follows what blogger Matt Walsh describes as “extensive plastic surgery, high doses of synthetic chemicals and pounds of makeup.”
Bruce Jenner’s thoughts about himself and the unhappiness it produced is very real to him but his actions will not heal his soul. We should grieve with him over his pain but we also should tell him the truth — he cannot become a woman, no matter the quality of surgery or effect of chemicals on his body. He can go through the process of changing the looks of his body but he will have to live with the same mind and wrestle with the same demons. New life is the work of the Church, not surgeons and pharmacists.
Followers of Jesus Christ are obligated to say “no” to all forms of gender confusion. At the same time we are invited by God to come alongside those who are sexually confused and invite them into a truly transformed life through the gospel.
Editor’s Note — Jeffrey Riley is professor of ethics at New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary and a fellow with the Southern Baptist Convention’s Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission.
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Don’t give up hope amid today’s cultural ‘perfect storm,’ Marshall urges
By Rod Marshall
Special to The Alabama Baptist
Do you ever reminisce about the good old days? Does it seem to you that there was a time when common sense was more common? Does it seem that recent public scandals so readily consumed by the masses would have been a source of embarrassment or shame not so long ago?
What has happened to us all? How is it that events once considered shocking have become so common they are barely noticed? I think I have some ideas.
In the 1960s our culture underwent what has been referred to as “the sexual revolution.” The core aim of the sexual revolution was to allow the individual to throw off any encumbrance that might keep them from seeking personal pleasure. These encumbrances included religious teaching, cultural taboos and civic codes. The pursuit of individual pleasure was viewed as being a more noble pursuit than compliance with agreed-upon cultural values. Many of today’s social and cultural movements that concern many Christians are the logical conclusion to the pursuit of personal pleasure.
I think we are living in an intellectual and cultural “perfect storm.” It has been a long time coming and few thought it would go as far as it has or as fast as it has. Judges 17:6 describes a dark era in the history of Israel: “In those days there was no king in Israel, but every man did that which was right in his own eyes.” Could there be a better description of our culture? We have been seduced into a time of absolute self-centeredness. Many of us have become our own idols.
From a psychology of personal development to moral development to spiritual development, there are multiple theories with conclusions that support the central importance of the self. What some define as the most mature level of personal development has a very high level of self-authority. Ideas like “self-actualization,” “universal ethical principles” and “universalizing faith” all point back to self as the ultimate level of authority in life. Our culture has conveniently marketed a Judges 17:6 position and has defined it as full personal maturity.
Convenience-oriented society
This is further complicated by the fact that we also have become an increasingly convenience-oriented society and we have pushed back the age of maturity as far as it can reasonably be pushed. Delayed gratification, empathy and hard work (either intellectual or physical) in many circles, have gone from being virtues and signs of maturity to being viewed as nostalgic remnants of a simpler (and less enlightened) era. What once were considered values of adulthood are now seen as artifacts.
Ideas such as existentialism, nihilism, post-modernism, phenomenology and relativism combined with a self-centered culture creates an environment where the greatest authority is the individual. Anyone who accepts the possibility that there might be absolutes (moral, ethical, religious, civic, even scientific or empirical) runs the risk of being labeled backwards. The last remaining virtues are acceptance and tolerance. The only allowable intolerance is toward anyone who believes in absolutes (which includes almost all evangelical Christians.)
Is it any wonder we sometimes feel as if we are watching the destruction and dismantling of dearly held social, civic and religious structures?
But let us not give up hope. Christianity has typically been at its best during times of persecution. Let us commit anew to focus upon the ministries to which we have been called. Let us care for fatherless children, feed the hungry, bring healing to the infirmed and unapologetically proclaim the good news of Jesus.
We all went to bed in Jerusalem but we awoke in Babylon. Most of us didn’t even realize it was happening. We were not hauled off into exile as our spiritual forefathers were, but we are in exile nonetheless.
EDITOR’S NOTE — Rod Marshall is president and CEO of Alabama Baptist Children’s Homes & Family Ministries.
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10 ways to love your transgender neighbors
By Denny Burk
Boyce College
In June 2014, the Southern Baptist Convention passed a resolution “On Transgender Identity” that calls for Christians to “love our transgender neighbors” and to “seek their good always.” But what does that look like in practical terms? In light of that question I thought it might be useful to write some reflections on how we might love our transgender neighbors. I’m sure there is more that might be added to such a list, but here are 10 ways to love your transgender neighbor.
1. Be a friend.
And by that I mean be a real friend. Don’t make changing them a condition of your friendship.
“A friend loves at all times and a brother is born for adversity” (Prov. 17:17).
2. Listen.
Your transgender neighbor may have a story to tell and you need to hear it. Not just for their sake but for yours. There’s nothing better to wipe away erroneous caricatures than to listen to someone else’s story. Listening doesn’t equal submitting to an unbiblical ideology. It just means that you care and are open to learning.
“He who gives an answer before he hears, it is folly and shame to him” (Prov. 18:13).
3. Feel compassion.
Understand that your transgender neighbor often feels distress over the conflict between their biological sex and their perceived gender identity. There can be a real sense of alienation they feel from their own body. For some the experience is agonizing. How would you feel if you had to walk a mile in their shoes? We all experience some measure of brokenness due to the fallenness of creation. So we too know what it means to groan (Rom. 8:23). Of all people, that ought to summon forth from us a compassionate response to our transgender neighbors.
“And so as those who have been chosen of God, holy and beloved, put on a heart of compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience” (Col. 3:12).
4. Share the gospel.
The gospel is good news for sinners. It is the true story about a Creator God who loves sinners and who has made a way to reconcile them to Himself through the death and resurrection of His own Son. It’s the best news in the world. How could we possibly withhold that from any friend?
“Now all these things are from God, who reconciled us to Himself through Christ, and gave us the ministry of reconciliation, namely that God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and He has committed to us the word of reconciliation” (2 Cor. 5:18–19).
5. Speak the truth.
Friends are candid about differences. You don’t have to be mean, angry or haughty to speak truthfully. You can do it in a way that is winsome and that shows concern but does not disdain. In short, you can speak the truth in love.
“But speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in all aspects into Him, who is the head, into Christ” (Eph. 4:15).
6. Be candid about differences.
This is a necessary corollary to speaking the truth. A true friend will always find a way to communicate differences that matter. A friendship that glosses over such things can degenerate into flattery and superficiality. Sometimes the truth about God’s Word brings a confrontation no matter how nice and compassionate you try to be in delivering it. But don’t let the fear of confrontation keep you from being candid.
“Faithful are the wounds of a friend, but deceitful are the kisses of an enemy” (Prov. 27:6).
7. Oppose bullying.
Christians must lead the charge to condemn acts of abuse or bullying committed against our transgender neighbors. Take your stand with the oppressed. Speak up for them. Do it even if it costs you social capital or risks subjecting yourself to the same bullying. This is the kind of sacrificial love that bears witness to the way Christ has loved us.
“My son, if sinners entice you, do not consent. If they say, ‘Come with us, let us lie in wait for blood, let us ambush the innocent without cause.’ My son, do not walk in the way with them. Keep your feet from their path, for their feet run to evil and they hasten to shed blood” (Prov. 1:10–11, 15–16).
8. Receive your brothers and sisters.
We should befriend our transgender neighbors even if they are not Christians. But some of them will repent of their sin, trust Christ and become Christians. When they do, be prepared to rejoice and to receive them with open arms as brothers and sisters in Christ. Make sure they know they are received as full members into the body of Christ.
“For by one Spirit we were all baptized into one body … whether slaves or free, and we were all made to drink of one Spirit” (1 Cor. 12:13).
9. Strengthen your brothers and sisters.
Some new converts may experience a complete deliverance from the alienation that they feel from their own bodies. Others may continue to struggle. Be prepared to walk with them and strengthen them for what may be a very difficult obedience. God has given them everything that they need for life and godliness (2 Pet. 1:3), and a part of God’s provision for them is your friendship and encouragement.
“But encourage one another day after day, as long as it is still called ‘today,’ lest any one of you be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin” (Heb. 3:13).
10. Pray.
The devil wants to destroy. Jesus wants to save (John 10:10). Pray for your transgender neighbor that Jesus might have his way. In his own prayer for wayward Peter, Jesus modeled how we might intercede:
“Behold, Satan has demanded permission to sift you like wheat; but I have prayed for you, that your faith may not fail” (Luke 22:31–32).
EDITOR’S NOTE — Denny Burk is professor of biblical studies at Boyce College, the undergraduate arm of Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, Kentucky.
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Legal manual now available for Baptist churches
The Southern Baptist Convention’s (SBC) religious liberty entity has collaborated with a leading legal advocacy organization to provide guidance for churches and other institutions in the face of the advance of “sexual liberty” and same-sex “marriage.”
The Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission (ERLC) and Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF) have published “Protecting Your Ministry,” a legal manual for Southern Baptist churches, schools and ministries. The 44-page booklet is designed to equip SBC and other evangelical churches and institutions with legal protection against sexual orientation and gender identity lawsuits.
The manual includes checklists to guide Christian institutions on maximizing their religious liberty protections under the law and maintaining their freedom to proclaim the gospel of Jesus. It also provides sample documents — such as a membership agreement, facility use policy and article for a statement of faith — to assist churches and other ministries.
Among its checklist items, the ERLC/ADF guide urges each church and/or ministry to:
- Include a statement on gender, sexuality and marriage in its confession of faith.
- Establish formal policies for church membership and discipline.
- Institute a policy describing the weddings a church’s pastors will participate in and the church will host in its buildings.
- Enact religious employment requirements — such as agreement with its confession of faith and standards of conduct — for employees.
- Create and apply a facility use policy faithful to its beliefs.
The enactment of “sexual orientation, gender identity ordinances” by cities has prompted, at least in part, the need for such protections, according to the legal guide.
“These ordinances place terms like ‘sexual orientation’ or ‘gender identity’ in the same category as race or religion,” the ERLC/ADF manual says.
“But they are not designed for the innocent purpose of ensuring all people receive basic services. Rather their practical effect is to legally compel Christians to accept, endorse and even promote messages, ideas and events that violate their faith.”
Sexual orientation normally includes homosexuality and bisexuality while gender identity, or transgender status, refers to what sex a person identifies with regardless of his or her physiological makeup. (BP)
For more information or to access the guide, visit ERLC.com/store.
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How Facebook handles gender issues
After being told that its more than 50 existing options for gender identity were not enough, Facebook now allows users to customize their gender description in a free-form box, if nothing in the list fits their preference.
Some of the existing options included Androgyne, Transgender, Gender Fluid and Intersex.
You also can choose which pronoun you prefer Facebook to call you — him, her or them.
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