The first summer we lived in Southern California, I took Evie, my youngest, on a trip to San Francisco. We explored the city, rode bikes over the Golden Gate Bridge, took a chocolate tour, hung out at Fisherman’s Wharf, and went to the Exploratorium, which many believe is one of the best children’s museums in the world. In the summer of 2019, there was a seasonal display on identity called Self, Made. The exhibit stated this:
Meanwhile, categories once thought to be firm and fixed—race, gender, and even humanity—grow blurry and in some cases dissolve under scrutiny. Like it or not, none of us can point to a single, unchanging self. We all live at the intersection of many selves—a shifting set of labels, identities, and affiliations that morph and modulate as we make our way through this world.
Clearly, at a kid’s museum with my daughter, I found myself at a display advocating an ideology that you can decide your gender. “Evie, let’s sit down and talk about this. What do you think this is saying?” She was smart, as kids are smarter than we often think. “That I can change and become anything,” she replied. I asked, “Evie, doesn’t that sound like a lot of pressure? To constantly define who you are? Wouldn’t it be better to receive who you are from God? We sing a song at church, ‘I am who You say I am.’ Which is a better way to live? ‘I am who You say I am,’ or ‘I am who I am deciding I am today?’” “To be who God made me sounds way better,” she replied. She was right. You are not who other people say you are. You are not your past or your struggles. But you also don’t have to live with the pressure of figuring out who you are. You are not self made. You have been made by God, and He is the One who gives joy.
What is God’s view of gender dysphoria? Here is what we say to those struggling among us: “We do not dismiss you in your struggle. We know what it is to believe we are not at home in this world. We do not speak in a derogatory way of you, as we believe you are created in His Image. And at the same time, we believe Christ wants to disciple you towards health and integration of body and mind.”
This article on God’s view of gender dysphoria originally appeared here, and is used by permission.
