Did you know that part of God’s definition of godly manhood is being watchful? Paul closes his letter to the church at Corinth, “Be WATCHFUL, stand firm in the faith, act like men, be strong” (1 Cor 16:13). As protectors of our homes, churches, and nation, we must be alert, vigilant, WATCHFUL. We must see the dangers heading towards our loved ones. One of the menaces imperiling our daughters today is the explosion of radical gender ideology in the social media, taking teen girls captive, causing them to reject their feminine body and adopt a transgender identity. The goal of this episode is to make you alert to what is happening.
The command to be watchful is far more prominent as a requirement of men’s discipleship than I had realized. The Greek word GREGOREO means be watchful, vigilant, wide-awake, alert, on the lookout. Webster also says the word, watchful, includes being aware of recent developments. Peter commands, “Be sober-minded; be WATCHFUL. Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour” (1 Pet 5:8). God created Adam to be the garden’s protector; hence on the lookout for approaching danger. Hebrews 13:17 builds on this idea of being protectors as the spiritual leaders of our homes and churches when it commands those under our care, “Obey your leaders and submit to them, for they are KEEPING WATCH over your souls, as those who will have to give an account.” Furthermore, as those called to shine the light of God’s truth in a dark world, Paul commands believers, “You are all children of light…. So then let us not sleep, as others do, but let us KEEP AWAKE and be sober” (1 Thes 5:5). The dangers in 2022, from which we must protect the daughters of our homes, churches, and land are not marauding Vikings who seek to rape, capture, or kill them—but false ideas that capture and enslave them. Paul described the nature of this fight when he said it is to “destroy strongholds. We destroy arguments and every lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God and take every thought captive to obey Christ” (2 Cor 10:4). Ideas have consequences. Bad ideas have victims. The victims we consider in this episode are not just girls who end up in the trans life, but our wives, daughters, and granddaughters who don’t experience the confidence, wholeness, emotional health and spiritual flourishing that come from embracing Gods design of womanhood because Satan’s assault upon God’s gender design in our culture has made them doubt that design.
Our ministry is in the process of publishing a 48-page mini book to equip parents, youth leaders, and church officers to confront with grace and truth the radical gender ideology behind today’s explosion of trans identity in teen girls and harming the daughters of our homes, churches, and nation. It is entitled, Our Daughters and the Transgender Craze: Responding with Grace and Truth. The following is an excerpt from this soon-to-be-released mini book:
Last October, Barna Research released its finding that 30 percent of Millennials now identify as LGBTQ, and this increases to 39% among ages 18 to 24. These numbers are fueled by the recent explosion of teen girls claiming trans identity, often girls raised in Christian homes. These girls reject what the Bible teaches about gender, immerse themselves in trans ideology through trans social media influencers, become more hostile towards their “transphobic” parents, and insist on finding a doctor who will prescribe puberty blockers and testosterone. This mini book seeks to give you 1) a picture of what is happening, 2) a biblical perspective on this phenomenon, 3) a strategy to minimize the likelihood that our own daughters will embrace radical gender ideology, and 4) practical suggestions for being light to the secular world in the fields of medicine, public education, government policy, and athletics. Our little girls’ futures and bodies are being permanently marred by radical gender ideology’s increasing influence in our culture. If Christians remain silent, this destruction will continue.
The term transgender refers to a girl who thinks she is a boy in a girl’s body or vice versa. It is important to note that a girl who rejects her feminine body, choosing a trans identity because she wants to be a boy, does not necessarily experience sexual or romantic attraction to other females. Being a lesbian and trans are different things. A lesbian does not deny her femininity, dislike her female body, or want to be a man. Being trans is about identity, not sexual attraction. (As Christians, we know they belong together; but trans is not homosexual.) Other terms that we need to understand are (from glossary of book).
Binary: A view of gender identity based upon biology that recognizes two genders.
Non-binary: A view of gender based on one’s subjective feelings about themselves.
Cisgender: One whose gender identity aligns with his biological gender.
Cis women: Radical gender ideology’s term for women who believe they are women.
Gender affirming care: The medical protocol requiring that all doctors immediately affirm a child’s self-diagnosis of having a wrongly gendered body and help the child medically transition to the opposite sex.
Gender identity: How one views himself as male, female, or other. Trans gender identity does not imply anything about sexual orientation.
Gender dysphoria: Emotional turmoil resulting from a lack of congruity between a person’s gender identity and biological sex.
Gender nonconforming: Politically correct term for those claiming transgender identity.
Love: Giving to another what helps him or her flourish according to the way God designed them.
Puberty blockers: Chemicals given to children approaching adolescence that block their bodies’ sexual development by shutting down part of the pituitary gland
Sex assigned at birth: Extreme radical gender ideology’s term for biological sex.
Transgender or trans: Designating a person whose sense of personal identity and gender does not correspond to that person's biological sex.
Transitioning: Using puberty blockers, cross-sex hormones, breast, or genital surgery to try to change the body into the opposite sex.
In 2007, the U.S. had one pediatric gender clinic. As of this writing, there are over three hundred. Planned Parenthood gives out testosterone on a first visit, in some states giving it to minors. PP also gives testosterone to 15-year-old girls on their own recognizance; they don’t even need a parental note. Kaiser dispenses it as do other HMOs. So, for today’s teens, whether they have a history of childhood gender dysphoria or not, testosterone is readily available. In some states, double mastectomy is readily available without parental approval, or even a therapist’s note being required. Our Lord would never have closed his heart to what is happening to the daughters of our homes, churches and nation. To think, biblically, about the transgender movement, it is valuable to consider three different groups: 1) transgender adults who exhibited childhood gender dysphoria, 2) teen girls who never experienced childhood gender dysphoria but as teens experience rapid-onset gender dysphoria, 3) radical gender ideology activists.
TRANSGENDER ADULTS WHO DID HAVE CHILDHOOD GENDER DYSPHORIA
A. The Situation. Adult gender dysphoria, i.e., severe discomfort in one’s biological sex, is real and very disorienting. This classic presentation of gender dysphoria has been exceedingly rare, typically afflicting .01 percent of the population or one in 10,000 and overwhelmingly males. This phenomenon typically began in early childhood—two to four-year-old little boys saying, “no Mommy, I’m not a boy I am a girl,” These boys were insistent, consistent, and persistent that they were in the wrong body. For the nearly one-hundred-year history of diagnosing gender dysphoria, these little kids were what psychologists and pediatricians were concerned with. The condition was called gender identity disorder by the American Psychiatric Association until 2013 when it was changed to gender dysphoria because of the influence of radical gender ideology on the APA. If this population of children experiencing gender dysphoria is left alone, over 70% of these kids typically outgrow gender dysphoria on their own. (Some of the 70% would end up gay men and others heterosexual men.) The remaining 30% were known as transgender.
This group of gender dysphoric people has historically not been politically inclined, nor have they insisted that they are somehow really women. Their goal in hormonal treatments or gender changing surgery isn’t so much to fool others as it is to achieve a comfort level with themselves. As Christians, we know this is a mistake. But we need to know that most transgender adults in this population (having had gender dysphoria as a kid) have no desire to compel others to use a different pronoun for them or to force radical gender ideology upon the sports world. It is unfair and incorrect to automatically view as radical activists all those who identify as transgender.
B. Biblical Perspective. Gender is not a social construct. The first mention of gender in the Bible occurs with the very first mention of humanity itself. “In the image of God, he created him; male and female he created them” (Gen 1:27). This means that our maleness or femaleness is not incidental to our humanness. God does not make us into generic humanity that he later differentiated into two different sexes. From the start, we are male or female. Every cell in our body is stamped XX or XY. God intentionally designed male and female differently so that in the marriage union they contribute what is lacking in the other. In a glorious way, this completion of each other shows God to the world.
This excruciating dilemma of transgender adults who feel like their body doesn’t match their sense of who they are is just one manifestation of the way that our race’s fall into sin has fractured us all. Precious trans human beings are made in the priceless image of God and deserve enormous dignity and respect for that reason. Those who experience gender dysphoria or same-sex attraction are experiencing the same moral disease that afflicts us all—sin. As Christ-followers, we are given the example of Jesus, known as the friend of tax collectors and sinners, to be an unambiguous picture of how we should treat those ensnared in the LGBTQ life. Consider Jesus’ dinner at the home of Simon the Pharisee. We read,
“A woman of the city, who was a sinner, when she learned that Jesus was reclining at table in the Pharisee's house, brought an alabaster flask of ointment, and standing behind him at his feet, weeping, she began to wet his feet with her tears and wiped them with the hair of her head and kissed his feet and anointed them with the ointment. Now when the Pharisee, who had invited him, saw this, he said to himself, ‘If this man were a prophet, he would have known who and what sort of woman this is who is touching him, for she is a sinner’” (Luke 7:37-39).
C. Practical Application. Jesus not only welcomed her into his presence he allowed this prostitute to touch his body. Letting her hair down in public to use it to wash his feet was itself a scandalous act. Touching his body and washing his feet was a non-sexual, but intimate act. Jesus allowed closeness to him by this woman, despite her sexual brokenness. Then Jesus defended her when her dignity was assaulted by the Pharisee. From Jesus’ example, here are some practical suggestions for responding to gay or trans friends and relatives.
- Welcome them into your presence.
- Take the initiative to speak to them.
- Choose to befriend them.
- Seek ways to affirm their value as human beings.
- Defend them from verbal assault upon their dignity, from bullying, or any other harm.
- Respect their right to call themselves trans but affirm their birth gender. “I respect your right to pursue a trans path, but I liked you a lot back when you said you were a female.”
- Don’t deny your convictions about God’s gender design but realize being trans is usually a symptom of a deeper issue. Their greatest need is to know Jesus; so, stay focused on introducing them to him.
D. Discerning Love. Our call to love trans people does not mean being naïve about the place that the transgender movement has in the current spiritual battle in our culture. The right to determine one’s own sexual identity is the epitome of rebellion against our creator. Furthermore, as Carl Trueman points out, the normalization of transgenderism reflects a long history in Western thought of attempting to define the self subjectively—apart from God and objective reality, demanding that others conform to the SELF we have made We also see that transgenderism is, at its core, an assault on God, because it is an assault on the way God has chosen to IMAGE himself among humans—through creation of two distinct genders, differently, to complete or complement one another.
For the nearly one-hundred-year history of treating gender dysphoria, the term has referred to mostly little boys. But in the last decade, a period that corresponds to the explosion of social media influence upon teen girls, a completely different population has begun to lead all categories of those claiming to have the wrong bodies. Teen girls. This is a population that never before in history had gender dysphoria in any significant numbers. In fact, before 2007, there was no scientific literature extant on teen girls having gender dysphoria at all. Next week we will examine this phenomenon.
We began this episode with the call to be watchful, to be alert, to be AWAKE. I want to personally ask you to help our ministry WAKE UP the Christian community to what is happening to the daughters and granddaughters of our homes, churches, and nation. Be sure to listen to the next 2 podcasts and look for the link to this 48-page mini book that can help you spread the word, once it is released.
God forbid that we, the men of the church BE ASLEEP as Satan’s attack on our daughters and granddaughters destroys their confidence in God’s design of their gender and of themselves.
For Further Prayerful Thought
- Describe what the classic cases of gender dysphoria looked like over the past one hundred years.
- How should Jesus be an example to us of disapproving one’s lifestyle, but still treating them with acceptance?
- Why do you think Jesus did NOT say, to the prostitute at Simon’s house, “I disagree with your lifestyle,” before receiving her expressions of friendship?
