Recent studies indicate that only about 0.5% of the U.S. population identifies as transgender. Yet, every parent needs to be concerned about the effect transgenderism will have on their children. If the percentage of people who are transgender is so small, why do all parents need to be so concerned?
This issue (along with the full range of LGBT issues) will be a line in the sand for our children. Culture’s championing of sexual autonomy and self-identity will force everyone to choose where they will stand. You can stand with God and the authority of Scripture, or you can stand on the side of the sexual revolution. There is no middle ground.
In teaching classes and seminars, I have noticed that what the older generation rejects, and what the middle generation isn’t sure of, the youngest generation likely adopts. But adopting culture’s understanding of sex and gender requires jettisoning God’s revealed design.
From a certain perspective, the issue is as simple as: whom will I believe?
At a gay-affirming conference a few years ago, the main organizer told the audience that what changes people’s minds so that they become gay-affirming is having a close relationship with someone who is LGBT. The speaker is right. This is why we must train our children up to have a deeply rooted biblical worldview that begins with God creating us. As Genesis 1 says, He made us “male and female.” The very first chapter of God’s revelation to us tells us that God intentionally made two sexes that are complementary. This wasn’t arbitrary; it was so we could fulfill His design for us to fill the earth with other people who would love and worship God.
If our children reject God’s revelation of who we are and how we were created, it will not be long before other essentials follow. Most doctrinal issues find their start in a rejection or misunderstanding of all or part of the first three chapters of Genesis.
We are in a battle today over ideas: Who gets to define who and what we are? Who gets to define what love is? Who gets to define how we should live? There are only two options; either we (as the creation) define this, or our Creator God defines it. But more than just a battle over ideas, we are in a battle for hearts. If our children do not know and agree with the God of the Bible, they will not love the God of the Bible.
Hunter Leavine and I wrote the small book “GENDER: A Conversation Guide for Parents and Pastors” to help equip parents and ministry leaders to lead the conversation about gender in their homes and churches.