Taboo #4: Be nice to transgender people because 42% ...

 

I read Taboo, so you don't have to.

"[T]here's something I need to tell you about transgender people, something that deserves 110% of your attention, especially if you are a follower of God who loves the entire world. The experience of gender dysphoria is so agonizing that, according to the America Academy of Pediatrics, 42 percent of trans teenagers have attempted to kill themselves. Forty-two percent! And not just thought about it, but actually tried it. That means 42 percent of those precious souls have grabbed a razor blade or a bottle of pills or a gun and attempted to escape the brutal battle in their brains. The daily struggle of gender dysphoria is so heavy that trans teens will try to end their lives three times more often than their non-trans friends. I need you to understand that. Before you minimize this with some crude joke like, 'well, I'm identifying as a unicorn today,' before you post some snarky meme, remember those kids are killing themselves. And they are watching us. They are reading our comments. They are listening to our reactions. They are trying to figure out if we'd listen, if we'd sympathize, if we'd love them. So, I beg you, if you have been less than loving towards trans people, repent and publicly apologize."

The 42% number should give us a sense of urgency and even bluntness in our witness, not coddling them by being winsome and inoffensive in the hope that we could 'hear their story' and 'empathize' which is what we've seen repeated several times in our synod this year: Mike Novotny leaving preferred pronouns to Christian freedom, Ben telling us we need to put ourselves in homosexual shoes, and one of the Honest Conversations panelists telling us it would not be loving to share the Gospel if that's what not they are looking for at that time. Relationship-building is antithetical to the Biblical witness of always being prepared to give an answer for the hope that you have (1 Peter 3), recognizing the time is late (2 Peter 3) and remembering it is not me but the Holy Spirit that works to will and to work for His good purpose (Philippians 2 and the explanation of the Third Article).

I'd also like to note: "the brutal battle in their brains" belies a certain materialistic view that we as Christians should refrain from entertaining. This isn't a chemical imbalance; this isn't dissonance in thought: this is a demonic onslaught. Ephesians 6. Believe them when they say Satan is an ally. Believe them when they say "did God really say" I'm male/female. Believe them when they offer you their surrogate saints. Don't confirm them in their sin by affirming a pronoun. Satan can't create, he can only resort to manipulation and disfigurement. 

Don't tiptoe around the issue, charge at it head-on with the Sword of the Spirit. Deo Volente!