What is God’s view of gender dysphoria and the transgender movement?
Imagine being a teenager who doesn’t feel at home in your own body. You never felt you met the typical gender stereotypes of guys playing with trucks and rough sports and girls dressing up and play with dolls. You aren’t happy, and you so badly want to be happy. Like all teenagers through all generations, you want a sense of identity, of who you are. You would love to be known for something, to be celebrated. You watch lots of Tik-Tok videos about others who have changed their gender identity, and they recount stories of being celebrated and affirmed for their courage.
Imagine being a parent with a young teenager who comes to you and says he or she wants to go by a different name and different pronouns. Imagine not knowing who to talk to and wondering if this is a phase that is going to pass. But as the weeks go on, the conviction in your teenager grows stronger. You begin to read articles online and discover that children or teenagers who struggle with gender dysphoria are much more likely to struggle with suicidal thoughts. You are told in online forums that if you don’t help your child transition you are being a cruel and unsupportive parent.
Imagine being a parent who learns that your elementary son’s bathroom at school has a tampon dispenser in it, and you feel conversations with your child have been thrust upon them at too early an age. Or image a parent whose daughter is playing basketball against someone who clearly was born a male, and people in the crowd are perplexed about what to say.
God’s View of Gender Dysphoria
These are not hypothetical situations but questions about gender dysphoria that I have been asked by people in our community and by people I pastor. Last weekend I preached a sermon answering theses questions—with the desire to be full of grace and full of truth. You can see the whole sermon here, What is God’s View of Gender Dysphoria, but this blog serves as a bit of a summation.
Starting with Compassion
Gender dysphoria is the sense of mismatch between physical sex (body) and psychological gender identity (mind). Thus, those suffering with gender dysphoria are experiencing a painful war within themselves. A BBC Film titled, Transgender Kids, says “At the heart of the debate about transgender children is the idea that your brain can be at war with your body.”
Who else believes our mind and our bodies can be at war with one another? Christians.
