It seems that the transgender movement is growing, preying upon adolescents who don’t like their bodies, and despise how God made them. Transgender advocates often speak of how common self-harm is in the transgender movement, and that is not surprising. It is a movement that teaches people that to love themselves, they have to hate themselves. It is a no-win situation. It is like being stuck in a bad dream.

Imagine you are a youth soccer coach, and a girl you have coached for five seasons takes you aside at practice and asks you, “Coach: I’m going through some changes in my life, and one of them is that I’ve decided I want to be known as a guy. Can you please address me by he/him, instead of her/she?”

What would you say?

This scenario is becoming more and more common. Last year I wrote about a teacher in the area who was fired by his school for asking the school board to not compel him to use “preferred pronouns” for students. He said, “I love my students too much to lie to them.” That cost him his job.

What would you do?

Here are some principles I’d want to communicate to the person:

1). “I love you and care for you.” The transgender movement teaches people—and in particular kids—that anyone who does not affirm their preferred gender is acting out of hate to them. It is important to bracket your response to the person by refuting that head-on.  Any response has to be framed in love (Leviticus 19:18; Matthew 19:19; Mark 12:31; Romans 13:9).

2). “I love you the way God made you.” The heart of the transgender movement is an attempt to sever gender from sex. This is not an issue the Bible is silent about. The Bible uses the expression “male and female” over fifty times, often to drive home the point that God makes people male and female. For example: “When God created man, he made him in the likeness of God. Male and female he created them, and he blessed them and named them Man when they were created” (Genesis 5:1-12). Or: “From the beginning of creation, ‘God made them male and female” (Mark 10:6). In fact, many of those fifty references to “male and female” go on to connect the distinctions of the sexes to the biological ability to procreate (including Mark 10:7).

The point is, God makes us male and female. Biology is not a Choose Your Own Adventure.

Thus, for me to affirm my love to you, I have to affirm my love for you the way God made you.

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