Christian Author Bizarrely Claims Gender Ideology is an ‘Alternative Gospel’
Christian zealots often cast the conflicts between trans people’s existence and their faith teachings in apocalyptic terms. That is their choice, not a necessity.
by Evan Urquhart
In the Gospel Coalition, which is an evangelical Christian webste, we found a recent post by Josh Glaser and Paula Rinehart advising parents on how to talk to children about what they call “gender ideology.” It’s a bit of a chore to read because it brims with an unearned confidence that the authors understand what gender dysphoria is and why some people are transgender. Unfortunately the authors don’t seem to have made even a rudimentary attempt to understand the subject. Hence, paragraphs like this one:
That’s anodyne enough, but there are some truly awful suggestions in this essay. Reading it as a trans person it’s hard not to picture a home environment that thrives on gaslighting and borders on abuse. The authors main suggestions are an array of leading questions which center a false idea that all children who question their gender identity are confused, and can be gently corrected into loving and accepting their god-ordained, biologically based, sex roles. It’s somewhat disturbing stuff, so we thought we’d share an example where they’ve strayed seamlessly into a totally seperate evangelical hobbyhorse, namely, birth control:
What’s perhaps most interesting, more than dreary advice on how to gaslight the next generation into becoming culture warriors like mum and daddy, is what the authors write about the struggle between their version of Christianity and the existence of transgender people.
In this view (which you often also hear from Catholics), a transgender identity offers a false promise of salvation. The authors have placed it in direct competition with their religion, saying both make the same promises, and their religion’s promises are true ones. But in truth, transition only promises relief (or drastic reduction), in one thing; the specific sensation of gender dysphoria, that is common among trans people.
To be clear, you don’t have to experience gender dysphoria to transition. At Assigned we generally believe in self-determination, and no transgender person will ever have to justify themselves to us. However, most trans people seem to experience gender dysphoria, and the only “promise” anyone has ever made about transition is that it will most likely reduce your gender dysphoria, and may help with any problems that stem directly from your gender dysphoria. For some trans people this can mean depression, thoughts of self harm, low self worth, etc, but there’s no promised land in transition, and it offers no salvation. Trans people transition in order to live normal lives where we can seek for meaning like anybody else, but without constantly fighting the horrifying sensation that something is terribly wrong about our bodies. This means, in short, there’s nothing incompatible with faith about transition, except when a specific tradition, such as evangelical Christian and Catholic faiths, insists upon it.