The Problems of Transgenderism, as told by my 4-year-old
- Roger Browning
- Oct 26, 2016
- 6 min read
(I'm very happy to include a guest BLOG from my good friend, Roger Browning. Roger is a regular contributor to A Clear Lens, a website and podcast dedicated to Christian Apologetics and Worldview...Tony)
Sometimes I think we adults have an innate ability to over-complicate things. I’ll demonstrate that by not actually addressing the title of this post until the last paragraph. So, if you’re just here for the click-bait, scroll on down. Or, stick around a few paragraphs because I think we can all learn something from the transgender movement.
Can I be honest for a moment? I think Christians often miss an aspect of Jesus prominently expressed in Scripture. I know I’m largely guilty of this and it’s not for lack of understanding; it’s the lack of ability. Jesus was a master of seeing hearts over heads. I think one of the clearest depictions is when Jesus spoke with the woman at the well. Let me share the story (John 4):
7 When a Samaritan woman came to draw water, Jesus said to her, “Will you give me a drink?” 8 (His disciples had gone into the town to buy food.) 9 The Samaritan woman said to him, “You are a Jew and I am a Samaritan woman. How can you ask me for a drink?” (For Jews do not associate with Samaritans.) 10 Jesus answered her, “If you knew the gift of God and who it is that asks you for a drink, you would have asked him and he would have given you living water.” 11 “Sir,” the woman said, “you have nothing to draw with and the well is deep. Where can you get this living water? 12 Are you greater than our father Jacob, who gave us the well and drank from it himself, as did also his sons and his livestock?” 13 Jesus answered, “Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, 14 but whoever drinks the water I give them will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give them will become in them a spring of water welling up to eternal life.” 15 The woman said to him, “Sir, give me this water so that I won’t get thirsty and have to keep coming here to draw water.” 16 He told her, “Go, call your husband and come back.” 17 “I have no husband,” she replied. Jesus said to her, “You are right when you say you have no husband. 18 The fact is, you have had five husbands, and the man you now have is not your husband. What you have just said is quite true.” 19 “Sir,” the woman said, “I can see that you are a prophet.
Most of the discourse is Jesus talking to the spiritual realm/the non-physical while the woman is hearing his words as earthly/physical; she knows nothing of the world he is referring. As the well-side chat draws to an end, Jesus opens her eyes by speaking to the woman in a way only she would recognize. He calls her inner-most secret to the forefront; he brought light to the hidden, water to the thirsty.
For years, when I read accounts like this and reflected on Jesus’ ability to read hearts, I read it in a way that I could never be that much like Jesus. Reading the hearts and revealing secrets is only possible with the knowledge of the Creator. In order to do what Jesus did, I would need to be Jesus.
This thought came spinning back at me as the transgender movement began rearing its head. Case after case, policy change after policy change, my heart burned for a way to tell the transgender people that they are fearfully and wonderfully made. They don’t need to change the physical to find their identity. More and more I wished I had Jesus’ ability to show the transgender people they didn’t need to make an identity for themselves, their identity was in Christ—in the living water like at the well.
That’s when I realized what Jesus said. Or, to be more specific, what Jesus didn’t say. Jesus didn’t try to change the woman in the process (at least not at first). His first course was to meet her where she was, follow her thinking to the futility of the conclusion, and offer a solution. What if we applied the same logic to transgender thinking? Well, as it turns out, embracing transgenderism is actually really good for Christianity.
Transgenderism is a result of the mind not matching the body. A person who believes they are a woman, but has the gender build of a man is an example of transgender. This was the case with Bruce/Caitlyn Jenner. Bruce Jenner spent a lot of money to change his outward appearance to match his inward feelings of identity. He became she.
In other words, the non-physical mind was deemed superior to the physical body. In the case of the woman at the well, she could only see the physical water and didn’t recognize the non-physical solution Jesus offered. In the case of the transgender people, they already understand that what cannot be seen is superior to what can be seen. And that’s where my 4 year old paints this picture perfectly.
If you skipped to the end, start reading here.
My son is well on his way to understanding his individuality in life. He has his own temperament, his own personality, and he wants to do things his own way. This is probably most notable in his dressing habits. He loves to dress himself. The only issue…he does it backwards. He loves wearing all his clothes backwards.
Every morning I (ha! My wife does this, I’m totally the procrastinator) lay his clothes out so he can get dressed. When he does, he puts everything on backwards: his shirt, his pants, even his little boy undies go on backwards. When I ask why, he insists that’s how it’s supposed to go—to him, it feels right.
There is just one problem.
When he gets to his shoes, they don’t go on backwards. His feet are his feet.
I could support his decision to go backwards, I could pay for his feet to be removed and have implants placed on his legs so they are facing backwards (his new forward), but that only opens the door for more problems. If surgeons could ultimately turn his entire body around, just to fit his clothes, he would just end up putting his clothes on forward (now backwards to him).
See, that’s really the problem at the heart of the issue. The problem isn’t that transgender people are dressing opposite their gender. It’s not even a problem that they feel different than their bodies. The issue is that the solution they are seeking will only leave them seeking a different solution.
The identity they are seeking is only found in Jesus.
And the logic supports the conclusion. If it is the non-physical mind that supersedes the physical body, then it can only be concluded that the physical world is a secondary piece of reality.
And that’s where Jesus’ example with the woman at the well is so perfect. Perhaps it’s not necessary to hold up signs advertising the sins of transgenderism. Perhaps we don’t need to fight the movement in order to win the day. What if we approached the issue like Jesus?
7 When a transgender woman came to have her identity changed, the Christian said to her, “Will that surgery help me ?” 9 The transgender woman said to him, “Your identity matches your body. Why would you ask if it would work for YOU? (For it is not a necessity.)” 10 The Christian answered her, “If you knew the gift of God and who it is that asks you, you would have asked him and he would have shown you your identity already matches your body.” 11 “Sir,” the woman said, “you have nothing to convince me what you say is true. I feel in my heart that I am not a woman, but a man. 12 If your God does exist, he messed up—he got me wrong” 13 The Christian answered, “Everyone who seeks to make their own identity will seek to make their own identity again, 14 but whoever finds identity in Christ will ever be satisfied. Indeed, the identity given to them will become in them a spring of water welling up to eternal life.” 15 The woman said to him, “Sir, give me this identity so that I won’t keep making my own.” 16 He told her, “Go, show me the source of your identity.” 17 “I have no source, it is a feeling within,” she replied. The Christian said to her, “You are right when you say you have no source. 18 The fact is, your source is immaterial, and the worldview you have is materialistic. What you have done is demonstrated that transgender surgery is not going to address the identity problem you seek.”