Gender Relations

(All scripture references come from the New English Translation, http://www.bible.org)

The other day, a co-worker and I got into a discussion. He begins by showing me a picture of this relatively cute girl that appears to be in her early teens. He asks me what I think, and respond with the idea that she is cute for her age. He proceeds to scroll up to the headline of the article which reads something like, “Twelve year-old undergoes youngest gender-change surgery.” That fairly cute girl was really a boy who had trans-gender surgeries. The significance was that he/she was the youngest known recipient of this in the world.

This sparked a discussion on the nature of man. He argued that people had to be born gay, because who would choose to, well I’m not going to repeat his exact words, but homosexual intercourse wasn’t that pleasant a concept to him. That particular topic is for another day, and one I will address in the future. What I want to discuss is the role of gender and the role of parents.

First, God created people the way they are. This is established back in Genesis when the author states, “Genesis 1:27 God created humankind in his own image, in the image of God he created them, male and female he created them.” Of course this also leads to quoting from Jeremiah 1:5, “Before I formed you in your mother’s womb I chose you.” While some attempts to change the body are rather benign, such as getting braces to correct bad tooth alignment or wearing glasses or contacts to improve vision. Others are necessary; instances where the spinal cord is exposed, or other life threatening conditions can be surgically corrected are definitely worth undergoing. But the idea of changing one’s gender is beyond the level of what scripture considers appropriate. God created people to be who they are, not who they themselves want to be. God didn’t go through the trouble of making someone a man or a woman only to have them say to God, “I know better than you!” I’m sorry folks, God is God. He does know better.

The other topic I want to discuss is the role of parents. The child previously referenced had to have encouragement to undergo this surgery. For starters there are not many legitimate, Hippocratic Oath swearing doctors that will perform such major surgery on a pre-teen without mountains of parental consent paper-work. Even if the doctor wanted to perform the surgery, he has to follow legal protocol. I will not go into some of the arguments surrounding this case, such as the mother brain-washed the kid. That is not my call to make. But, I can say within reason that the mother had to have consented to this. I don’t know the religious background of the mother, but I doubt there is any strong faith.

We as Christians have to get out and spread the Gospel, because little boys and little girls are being allowed to make life-changing decisions before they are teenagers. There are so many hormones flowing through a child that age that they can’t reason that 2+2=4, let alone that they are supposed to be the opposite sex. In a world that more or less doesn’t care what someone’s sexual orientation is anymore, this article sparked a great deal of controversy. That means that C. S. Lewis’ idea of a Godly moral standard hasn’t been whittled away just yet. To change the world, we have to do something about it.