by Mike Willis
Synopsis: Contemporary culture has embraced transgendering psychology and surgery to relieve the psychological needs of those who have experienced gender confusion. What does the Bible teach about gender?
A high school music teacher was fired in a town within five miles of where I live because he refused to call transgender children in his class by their preferred name. He offered a compromise of calling all students by their last names, but since that was not acceptable to the school board, he was offered the alternative of either resigning or being fired. The transgender issue is probably already present in a school near you! You may have become aware of the transgender movement when Bruce Jenner decided to become Caitlyn Jenner. The campaign encourages teens suffering from gender dysphoria (i.e., the distress a person feels due to a mismatch between one's gender identity and the sex assigned at birth) to use drugs to retard puberty until they decide whether they are male or female, to have irreversible medical procedures to change their body's genitalia, and, in the case of women, to remove their breasts, uterus, and ovaries in separate surgeries to change their gender.
Does the Bible speak to the issue of transgender? "Yes," although not directly in the sense of a single passage expressly forbidding transgendering. Just as the internet has expanded man's ability to sin by lusting after a woman (cf. Ps. 101:3; Matt. 5:28), modern medical developments have expanded what man can do in unlawfully mixing the roles of men and women. Let's consider some things that the Bible says that are relevant to the subject.
As I sat in the school board meeting and heard the parents and students who told stories of teens who were on the verge of suicide because of their not fitting into what their stereotypical views of what a boy/girl or man/woman should be, my heart ached for both the parents and the children. When parents are afraid that their children might commit suicide, their insides are torn apart. In their desperation, they are willing to try unheard-of things that might provide relief (much as those suffering an incurable disease might seek out expensive alternative medicines or faith healers). They will follow a doctor's advice to put their children on puberty blockers and cross-sex hormones to prevent their child from committing suicide.1
The Bible teaches Christians to have compassion for those who are suffering under Satan's oppression. We should show true Bible love in reaching out to those involved in the sins associated with homosexuality, just as we do toward fornicators and adulterers.
"So God created man in His own image; in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them" (Gen. 1:26). The text affirms the obvious: God only made two genders. Those who argue that gender is a matter of sexual preference may begin with the assumption that they had no creator and are the product of a random combination of matter, that gender is something that one is at liberty to alter (just as one may change the color of one's hair), or that their Creator made a mistake when he formed them in the womb. Instead of appreciating the blessing God has given them in making them either male or female, such individuals resent it and wish to have what is not theirs by divine creation. Chromosomes determine one's gender.2 One can no more choose one's gender than one can choose one's race.
Paul described the foolishness that derives from removing God from his world view: "Although they knew God, they did not glorify Him as God, nor were thankful, but became futile in their thoughts, and their foolish hearts were darkened. Professing to be wise, they became fools" (Rom. 1:21-22). In today's politically correct environment, doctors and parents fill out birth certificates stating that the newborn child is neither male nor female, but "other," so that the child can determine for oneself what one's gender is! "Professing to be wise, they have become fools!"
"Or do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and you are not your own? For you were bought at a price; therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are God's" (1 Cor. 6:19-20). One must recognize that God the Creator formed us in the womb. Jeremiah records God to have said about him, "Before I formed you in the womb I knew you; before you were born I sanctified you; I ordained you a prophet to the nations" (1:5; cf. Isa. 49:1, 5; Luke 1:15).
Every human being has his DNA that was created by God. DNA is the hereditary genetic material that determines one's race, gender, eye color, hair conditions (color, thickness, male pattern baldness, etc.), and many other parts of who one is. An individual's DNA is so unique that if DNA material is found linking one to a crime, it is sufficient evidence to convict a person in a court of law. The point is that I am what I am because God made me this way. I should accept who I am. I will never be able to dunk a basketball, run a four-minute mile, give birth to or nurse a baby, etc. I will find my true purpose by learning what my natural-born strengths are and using them to the best of my abilities by compensating for my weaknesses. One might as well try to surgically change one's race as to change one's gender surgically! Do not be misled by Satan's lies.
God has programmed me in such a way that an attractive woman catches my attention. While a man might notice an attractive girl, this does not mean that it is morally right for him to act on every thought that passes through his head. On June 18, 1966, I stood before H.E. Phillips and a small gathering of friends and brethren, and vowed to forsake all other women in order to be sexually faithful to one female—my wife of fifty-four years! Thankfully, Sandy made the same commitment to me. The point is this: A person does not have a God-given right to act upon every sexual impulse he has. A person in the midst of sexual dysphoria may think that it is morally acceptable for him to act on every feeling toward another person. God does not grant that right to any male or female.
Genetics is not the only factor affecting sexuality. Medical and psychological research evidence suggests that sexuality is not irrevocably determined by God-given programming, but is also shaped by subsequent factors. Women with a traditional upbringing are much less likely to feel sexual attraction than women with a modern upbringing. Surely this change must be the result of cultural factors, not the result of some change in God-given programming. Again, one monozygotic twin may be attracted to males, whereas the other genetically identical may be attracted to females. Such attraction is not irrevocably determined by God-given programming, but must also be shaped by life experience and personal choice.
Your body belongs to God, and He has given you that body as a house for your immortal spirit. It belongs to God, not you; it is His temple, not yours. You and I should determine from God's revelation in His word what God wishes for us to do with our bodies and then obey His word. He has not given us the liberty to follow every fleeting imagination that passes through our minds.
Those passages that speak of homosexuality or sodomy reflect men leaving the woman's natural use and burning in their lusts one for another (Rom. 1:26-27). The text acknowledges a "natural use" of a woman in sexuality and a kind of sexual expression that leaves the woman's natural use in which men burn in their lust toward one another. It is not merely atypical; it is abnormal, and unnatural. In 1 Kings 14:24, the Bible speaks of some associated with pagan religion who were "perverted persons" (RSV), "sodomites" (KJV), "male cult prostitutes" (RSV). The word is from the Hebrew root word qodesh ("to be set apart"), used in the masculine form for a male cult prostitute (Deut. 23:18; 1 Kings 15:12; 2 Kings 23:7; Job 36:14) and in the feminine form for a female cult prostitute (Gen. 38:21; Deut. 23:18; Hos. 4:14; 1 Kings 14:24; 22:47). In 1 Corinthians 6:9, Paul uses two words for homosexuality. The term "effeminate" (KJV; NKJV, "homosexuals") is from the Greek word malakos. BDAG defines it as "pertaining to being passive in a same-sex relationship, effeminate especially of catamites, of men and boys who are sodomized by other males in such a relationship" (613).
The second phrase, "abusers of themselves with mankind," is from arsenokoitēs, "a male who engages in sexual activity with a person of his own sex, pederast . . . of one who assumes the dominant role in same-sex activity, opposite malakos" (BDAG, 135). The two different words distinguish between the homosexual who plays the role of the man and the homosexual who assumes the woman's role. Both roles in homosexual behavior are condemned as sinful.
Particularly interesting is the Mosaic Law found in Deuteronomy 22:5—"A woman shall not wear anything that pertains to a man, nor shall a man put on a woman's garment, for all who do so are an abomination to the LORD your God." Regarding this text, James M. Freeman and Harold J. Chadwick wrote,
In light of the final clause of our text-verse it's obvious that the entire reference is not to the principles of fashion, but to the practice of transvestitism, which is a deviant sexual behavior in which the person adopts the dress and behavior of the opposite sex. Its danger lies in its close association with the forbidden practice of homosexuality (Lev. 18:22, 20:13) and the fact that cross-dressing was often associated with the worship of pagan gods. God created man and woman distinctively and uniquely different (Gen. 1:27), and any attempt to erase or blur that distinction is in His eyes an "abomination," and so called throughout the Scriptures (Freeman & Chadwick, 179).
The text is related to other passages that forbid unlawful mixtures: (1) sowing different kinds of seeds (Deut. 22:9), (2) plowing with different kinds of animals (Deut. 22:10), (3) bestiality (Exod. 22:19; Lev. 18:23; 20:15-16; Deut. 27:21)3, and (4) wearing clothes made from different kinds of treads (Lev. 19:19; Deut. 22:9-11). Keil and Delitzsch wrote,
The immediate design of this prohibition was not to prevent licentiousness, or to oppose idolatrous practices . . .; but to maintain the sanctity of that distinction of the sexes which was established by the creation of man and woman, and in relation to which Israel was not to sin. Every violation or wiping out of this distinction . . . was unnatural, and therefore an abomination in the sight of God (945).
The blurring of the sexual lines in modern America has extended beyond what other generations could imagine.
In answer to this question, I want to quote two lengthy paragraphs from Ryan T. Anderson:
One rigorous study, conducted by researchers at the University Hospital and the University of Bern in Switzerland and published in 2009, looked at the quality of life fifteen years after sex reassignment surgery. Using a control group of females who had undergone at least one pelvic surgery, this study found that "postoperative transsexuals reported lower satisfaction with their general quality of health and with some of the personal, physical, and social limitations they experienced with incontinence that resulted as a side effect of the surgery."
The largest and most rigorous academic study on the results of hormonal and surgical transitioning, published in 2011 by Cecilia Dhejne and her colleagues at the Karolinska Institute and Gothenburg University in Sweden, found strong evidence of poor psychological outcomes. For example, the rate of psychiatric hospitalization for postoperative transsexuals was about three times the rate for the control groups, adjusted for previous psychiatric treatment. The risk of mortality from all causes was significantly higher, and so was the rate of criminal conviction. Suicide attempts were nearly five times more frequent, and the likelihood of death by suicide was nineteen times higher—again, after adjustment for prior psychiatric illness. It is important to be clear about what the Dhejne study says and does not say. It does not speak to whether sex reassignment was the cause of these poor outcomes. What it does suggest is that those procedures may not alleviate the mental health problems associated with transgender identities (Anderson, 103).
I empathize with those parents and children caught in the sexual dysphoria of the twenty-first century. Laws are being passed in some states that make it a crime to use conversion therapy in attempting to restore a person's genetic sexual orientation or gender identity (twenty states now prohibit conversion therapy); parents can lose their parental rights if they stand in the way of their child transgendering; support groups provide a "safe place" to escape the oppressive influence of one's parents. Christians need to equip themselves and make themselves available to those hurting parents and children caught up in the twenty-first century transgender nightmare. Any Christian parent of a homosexual has experienced that nightmare and may be able to provide you guidance on equipping yourself to help others.
1 The best studies of those who express a discordant gender identity show that 80-95 percent of those children will come to identify with their bodily sex if natural development of their bodies is allowed to proceed (Anderson, 2).
2 One's gender cannot be determined by one's internal and/or external organs, because gender remains unchanged no matter how those organs may be modified or removed by surgery. A woman who has had a hysterectomy is still a female. Similarly, if those organs are congenitally absent: a woman with congenital absence of the vagina and uterus is still a woman, because of her chromosomes (XX or, rarely, XXX). Exactly the same point may be made about race: it is determined by one's genetic lineage, not by any particular external or internal physical characteristics. (An albino of Chinese or Nigerian genetic lineage is externally white-skinned but is still racially Chinese or Nigerian.)
3 Confirming the association with unlawful mixing, Leviticus 18:22-23 also joins homosexuality and bestiality: "You shall not lie with a male as with a woman. It is an abomination. Nor shall you mate with any animal, to defile yourself with it. Nor shall any woman stand before an animal to mate with it. It is perversion." Leviticus 20:13-16 has the same association, homosexuality and bestiality (and, in addition the unlawful marriage of a mother and her daughter).
Anderson, Ryan T. When Harry Became Sally: Responding to the Transgender Moment. New York: Encounter Books, 2018.
BDAG = Arndt, William, et al. A Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament and Other Early Christian Literature. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2000.
Freeman, James M., and Harold J. Chadwick. Manners & Customs of the Bible. North Brunswick, NJ: Bridge-Logos Publishers, 1998.
Keil, Carl Friedrich, and Franz Delitzsch. Commentary on the Old Testament. Vol. 1. Peabody, MA: Hendrickson, 1996.
