The Bible’s view of human sexuality is quite direct: God created them “male and female” (Genesis 1:27). There are two sexes, or genders, and only two. Period.
People may be confused about their sexual identity, but the solution in such cases is to help them reconcile their mental view of themselves with biological reality. It is not to mutilate the human body in a vain attempt to work things the other way round.
Jesus was quite clear that abiding in his word is the key to knowing the truth, and it is the “truth (that) shall set you free” (John 8:32), not hormones or the surgeon’s scalpel.
Modern science has identified plain and unmistakable markers for sexual identity in our DNA. Two “X” chromosomes is the marker for females, and “X” and a “Y” for males. This infallible DNA marker is present at the moment of conception and remains a permanent and indelible marker until the day of death. No amount of drugs or surgery will ever change that stubborn biological fact. Bruce Jenner will be Bruce Jenner until the day he dies.
We might expect that if we tamper with God’s design we will cause trouble for ourselves. And medical research has verified this abundantly. While researchers expected to discover that the male body responds to estrogen the same way the female body does (in menopause), they discovered that there are in fact alarming and even lethal differences.
A study of 5000 people so sexually confused they think they are trapped in the body of someone of the opposite sex revealed that men who pump their bodies full of estrogen are a staggering 80-90 percent more like to have a stroke or heart attack. The estrogen also radically increases their chances of blood clots.
While some stubborn and willfully blind physicians cling to the conceit that hormone therapy is lifesaving for those who pursue it, and can protect them from depression and suicidal ideation, the tragic reality is that the opposite is true.
As the Family Research Council points out, a study carried out in Sweden (a country perhaps less likely than any other country in the world to stigmatize sexual deviancy), the suicide rate among transgenders is 19 times higher than the rate of suicide in the general population. According to the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention and the Williams Institute, a tragic 41% of men who think they are women attempt suicide at some point in their lives, compared to just 4.6% of the rest of society. A dozen studies since 2001 confirm that the suicide rate among transgenders is stratospherically high. According to researchers at the National Center for Biotechnology Information, the suicide rate is anywhere between 32% and 50% in every country they studied.
What is the solution? It begins, continues, and ends with a determination on the part of sexually confused individuals to believe and affirm what the Bible and science teach about their sexuality. Today’s transgenders have been conformed to the world in their thinking with tragic results.
The Scripture says, in contrast, that we are to be “transformed by the renewing of our minds” (Romans 12:2). In other words, the key for an individual trapped in the life-destroying lie of transgenderism is to change his way of thinking about himself. It is for him to renew his mind by reflecting on what the word of God teaches about gender and sexuality, choosing to affirm what it says, and then relying upon the internal power of the Holy Spirit of God to walk in obedience.
Walking in that path leads out of darkness into the light of God’s grace, power, redemption, freedom – and life rather than death.
(Unless otherwise noted, the opinions expressed are the author’s and do not necessarily reflect the views of the American Family Association or American Family Radio.)
