The U.S. News and World Report carried an article on September 12, 2018 that the New York City Council adopted a legislation to allow men and women who don’t identify as male and female to change the gender designation on their birth certificates to “X.”   It says, “The bill adopted by a 41-6 vote will also allow parents to choose the ‘X’ designation for their newborns, and it will permit adults to change the gender on their birth certificates without an affidavit from a doctor or mental health professional.  ‘Today is a historic day for New York in its role as a worldwide champion for inclusivity and equality,’ said City Council Speaker Corey Johnson, a Democrat.  ‘New Yorkers will no longer need a doctor’s note to change their gender on their birth certificates, and will no longer be treated as if their identity was a medical issue.’”  Now the challenging issue is beyond gay and lesbian controversies.  Now today’s men and women are thrown into confusion about their own identities.  They do not know whether they are male or female, until they feel like they identify with one of them.  At the same time, we know that there are people claiming to be bisexuals.  Then, issues are getting more complicated.  Australia is not too far away from liberal America. 

Most of us must have heard the term, “transgender.”  It is the “T” of LGBTQ.  The Oxford Living Dictionary defines transgenderism as, “A state or condition in which a person’s identity does not conform unambiguously to conventional ideas of male or female gender.”  It is interesting to see that this definition uses terms like “state” or “condition,” as if it is something solid and concrete.  Transgenderism has been considered as a mental disorder until the American Psychological Association changed its position on this matter only in recent times.  If we simply describe who transgender people are, we may say that they were assigned as either male or female gender at birth, but wish to live as a different gender from the assignment.  Thus, they might cross-dress or are gender-queer. 

Then what is our understanding of transgenderism biblically?  The late Dr. R.C. Sproul writes that Coram Deo “literally refers to something that takes place in the presence of, or before the face of, God. To live Coram Deo is to live one’s entire life in the presence of God, under the authority of God, to the glory of God.”  We desire to know of God’s creation of sexes to live a life in the presence of God.  He created both male and female (Genesis 1:27).

Albert Mohler wrote a book in 2015, We Cannot Be Silent: Speaking Truth to a Culture Redefining Sex, Marriage & and the Very Meaning of Right & Wrong.  The following are a few helpful quotes from his book to understand the issue from a Christian worldview. 

1. The ability to “transform” gender and have “gender reassignment surgery” is so new that it was not even considered a prominent part of the gay rights movement when it emerged in the 1960s.
2. Arguing that we should draw a clear distinction between who an individual wants to go to bed with and who an individual wants to go to bed as requires the dismantling of an entire thought structure and worldview. This is why the transgender revolution, even more than the movement for gay liberation, undermines the most basic structures of society.
3. The transgender revolution, however, undermines any understanding of human identity based on the Christian tradition, the trajectory of Western civilization, and the worldview that has shaped today’s world.
4. A biblical response to the transgender revolution will require the church to develop new skills of compassion and understanding as we encounter persons, both inside and outside our congregations, who are struggling.
5. The movement makes a sharp distinction between gender with regards to an individual’s self-understanding and an individual’s sex, which refers to the biological sex determined at birth.
6. As with the gay liberation movement, the transgender movement looked to liberal theologians who helped further their cause.
7. Transforming the way children think of gender is actually central to the transgender movement. Oprah Winfrey, whose television show was viewed by millions of Americans, became a major advocate for transgender issues, particularly among children.\
8. If the gay liberation movement gained its greatest traction when it succeeded in convincing many Americans that its aims were non-threatening, the opposite may be the case for the transgender revolutionaries.
9. The transgender revolution presents a vexing dimension to the challenge Christian churches, families, and institutions will face regarding religious liberty.
10. The Christian response to the transgender movement must begin with Scripture.
11. What differentiates the transgender movement is the intention to change one’s gender identity from one’s biological sex.
12. We unflinchingly hold, therefore, that to be born male is to be male and that to be born female is to be female.
13. We affirm that biological sex is a gift of God to every individual and to the human community to which that individual belongs.
14. We must understand that the argument that says the brain is wired differently than the body does not justify a reason for sex reassignment surgery or the transgender option. Rather, it testifies to the brokenness of creation and the effects of human sin. It is an opportunity for the Christian to respond with the message of the gospel and with the recognition that every Christian is a broken individual seeking wholeness in the only place it can be found—in obedience to Scripture under the Lordship of Christ.
15. If nothing else, the transgender revolution shows Christians that the gospel confronts ideologies, patterns of deception, and spiritual opposition in every generation.
16. The church must also respond to the transgender movement by rejecting both the reality and the morality of gender reassignment surgery.
17. Scripture itself attests to the fact that our bodies are not accidents that happen to us, but part of God’s intention for us.
18. The gospel provides the only true remedy for sexual brokenness. The theological and pastoral challenges we face in the transgender revolution are indeed enormous but they are not beyond the sufficiency of Christ’s cross and resurrection.

Lovingly,

Your Pastor

More Lively Hope

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