Denny Burk's proposed Resolution on Transgender for the SBC
- Per Denny Burk’s article, “700,000 Americans perceive their gender identity to be at variance with the physical reality of their biological birth sex”
- Per the US Census population site, the population of the US is 318,175,000
- So 700,000 / 318,175,000 = .0022 of the population. This article suggests that (with regard to LGBT) “precise numbers do not exist”)
- Personal observation: I’m almost 65 and I know personally (the she/he works in my building) 1 transgendered person
- My question: Is a resolution really needed to address something so statistically insignificant
- My comment: don’t think so
Transgender relations and rights are the next front on the LGBTQIA battleground…a battleground that is largely lost. Most Christians have no idea how to prepare or handle a situation like this:
- A 22 year old female college student is under heavy pressure from their friends to ‘come out’ and declare that they are, in fact, a man instead of hiding it to ‘fit in’.
- A 36 year old husband and father of three leaves his wife because he’s decided to embrace his feminine side and become ‘who she really is’.
- A 14 year old comes home and wants to know what to say to the friend who told them that daddy sometimes wears mommy’s clothing.
If this wasn’t an issue, it wouldn’t be the cover article for last week’s Time Magazine issue, after already being discussed in Newsweek. NY state has made a move this week to allow parents to alter their child’s birth gender if they so choose.
It may be only .0022% of the population according to your numbers, but the media and the politics are exaggerating the scope of transgendered persons in order to make it seem normative. Just as only 5% of the US population is practicing homosexuality, but it’s represented as the new normal and in most television shows in order to break down barriers.
It is important that Christians begin to discuss this issue and formulate a Scriptural response to the topic before someone shows up seeking pastoral counsel as to reconciling their female self with their male body or any of the other related issues. John Piper began to address it in his podcast today, and we must be prepared to address the issue in either a counseling role or in light of I Peter 3:15.
"Our task today is to tell people — who no longer know what sin is...no longer see themselves as sinners, and no longer have room for these categories — that Christ died for sins of which they do not think they’re guilty." - David Wells
LGBTQ students at the University of Chicago are circulating a petition objecting to slurs gay rights activist Dan Savage used during a exchange at the school’s Institute of Politics event last week. They said they were made to “feel uncomfortable” by a “transphobic slur” used during Savage’s presentation.
The incident occurred when, according to several sources, Savage and [the event hostess Ana Marie] Cox began discussing [Savage’s] personal history as a gay man. According to a first-year student and member of the LGBTQ community who asked to be identified as Hex, Savage used the slur t—– as an example in an anecdote about reclaiming words. Cox then added, “I used to make jokes about t—-ies,” audience members recounted.
“That was one of the most hurtful parts,” Hex said, explaining the perceived insult was that Cox used the slur to refer to the group of people she joked about. “In that context, it was like being applied to all transgender people,” it said. (“It” is Hex’s chosen pronoun.)
And this is a result of a gay activist speaking to the Univ. of Chicago student body. This is the world we live in.
"Our task today is to tell people — who no longer know what sin is...no longer see themselves as sinners, and no longer have room for these categories — that Christ died for sins of which they do not think they’re guilty." - David Wells
[Jim]
- Per Denny Burk’s article, “700,000 Americans perceive their gender identity to be at variance with the physical reality of their biological birth sex”
- Per the US Census population site, the population of the US is 318,175,000
- So 700,000 / 318,175,000 = .0022 of the population. This article suggests that (with regard to LGBT) “precise numbers do not exist”)
- Personal observation: I’m almost 65 and I know personally (the she/he works in my building) 1 transgendered person
- My question: Is a resolution really needed to address something so statistically insignificant
- My comment: don’t think so
It depends on where you live, Jim. Those with abnormal traits of all kinds flock to major urban centers.
So for example, I regularly see transgender people on my commute to work (though honestly you never really know) and at times I’ve worked in places where up to 20% of the workforce is gay or lesbian (and also good fellow employees and many are friends of mine despite differences). Many of these folks left more rural areas for the city, and culture flows downhill from cities.
Discussion