Gender Confusion

© kushit – Fotolia.com

On May 21 ABC reporter Simon Lauder posted a news piece on the ABC (Australia) website titled: “Teenage gender identity clinic treating more patients”.  He wrote: “The specialist clinic at Melbourne’s Royal Children’s Hospital treats teenagers who feel trapped in the wrong body and want to suppress puberty”.  The clinic was set up in 2003 to treat gender identity disorders.  Lauder reports: “In its first year the clinic saw only one patient, but last year it treated eight children”.  Children have been referred from other states which have yet to establish such clinics.  Lauder also reports that a doctor at the clinic “admits the long-term psychological and health outcomes of cross-sex hormone treatment are unknown”.  Victoria is leading the way into the unknown, and the number of children seeking this first step to gender reassignment is on the increase.

No Doubt they Mean Well
Children with this disorder suffer confusion, anxiety and depression.  We should have sympathy, I think, for what I would view as an awful psychological malady.  Most of us struggle at times with difficult thoughts and feelings.  However we should make a sharp distinction between a real, and sad, malady and how it should be treated.  I find it shocking that the State and medical system can sanction gender reassignment.  No doubt they mean well.  But this is just one more example that shows just how far our Western society is moving away from its Christian roots, and greatly to its detriment.  This story portrays an enormous modern confusion over gender.

A Short Step Away from Gender Confusion
Feminism asserts that equality between the sexes means sameness in role; it seeks to minimise the difference between men and women.  The Bible, I believe, teaches that men and women are equal, but different.  Difference in role does not imply inequality.  The point is, however, that feminism is a short step away from gender confusion.  Evangelical feminists, I believe, are misreading the Bible about gender roles.  However they still hold to an orthodox hermeneutic regarding the issue of active homosexual relationships.  Yet surely the logic doesn’t follow?

If men and women are essentially the same, then it should follow that a man and a man can be together, or a woman and a woman.  That is, undermining the difference in gender roles leads to a confusion that is a very small step indeed away from advocating same sex relationships.  I believe Evangelical feminists are simply inconsistent on this point.  And such issues as gender reassignment are only one more step away.  Our sad, recent, modern confusion over gender roles will cause great pain not only to our churches but to our broader society as well.

God help us!