Transgender Ideology

Helpful Resources in Combating Transgender Ideology

on January 15, 2020

Transgender ideology is permeating society, including some religious institutions, despite being a relatively new concept deserving careful consideration.

Contemporary Protestant Christianity lacks universal agreement on these matters, especially within oldline Protestant churches.

Creator of YouTube series, “Transgender and Christian,” Austen Hartke identifies as a transgender person of faith who interprets biblical passages as transgender-affirming. Hartke is a member of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America and a graduate of Luther Seminary’s Master of Arts program in Old Testament/Hebrew Bible Studies.

“I believe God made all of me—gender identity included—and intended for me to be a transgender person who sees the world through a different lens,” Hartke writes. “I don’t think God made a mistake. I think God made me transgender on purpose.”

It’s not just individuals. Many Protestant churches have become divided over these issues. An impending split in the United Methodist Church testifies to this sad truth.

For those struggling to understand and find clarity, Roman Catholic teaching on gender may prove to be a helpful resource. It offers insight into the human person, created in the image and likeness of God, and rooted in family and society.

The resource below is a collaboration of excerpts from Roman Catholicism assembled by the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops. Some more notable excerpts are added below. While the list is by no means exhaustive, it may prove to be instructive for a wider church audience.

“Gender theory”/“Gender ideology” – Select Teaching Resources

  • A selection of excerpts which provide information on “gender theory”/ “gender ideology:”

Every human person, male and female, is created by God with equal dignity.

CCC #2393 “By creating the human being man and woman, God gives personal dignity equally to the one and the other.  Each of them, man and woman, should acknowledge and accept his sexual identity.”

Gender theory denies the reality of the two sexes and separates them from the context of marriage and the family. To separate sex and gender in different realities is to go against the Creator and His creation.

Apostolic Exhortation Amoris Laetitia (No. 56) “Yet another challenge is posed by the various forms of an ideology of gender that ‘denies the difference and reciprocity in nature of a man and a woman and envisages a society without sexual differences, thereby eliminating the anthropological basis of the family. This ideology leads to educational programs and legislative enactments that promote a personal identity and emotional intimacy radically separated from the biological difference between male and female. Consequently, human identity becomes the choice of the individual, one which can also change over time.’ It is a source of concern that some ideologies of this sort, which seek to respond to what are at times understandable aspirations, manage to assert themselves as absolute and unquestionable, even dictating how children should be raised. It needs to be emphasized that ‘biological sex and the socio-cultural role of sex (gender) can be distinguished but not separated.’ …It is one thing to be understanding of human weakness and the complexities of life, and another to accept ideologies that attempt to sunder what are inseparable aspects of reality. Let us not fall into the sin of trying to replace the Creator. We are creatures, and not omnipotent. Creation is prior to us and must be received as a gift. At the same time, we are called to protect our humanity, and this means, in the first place, accepting it and respecting it as it was created.”

God created man, male and female. Attempts to change a person’s sex goes against the Creator and His plan for sexuality as procreative. Therefore, surgical procedures should only be performed for the purpose of restoring bodily health and not on healthy tissue and organs.

CCC #2297 “Except when performed for strictly therapeutic medical reasons, directly intended amputations, mutilations, and sterilizations performed on innocent persons are against the moral law.”

Ethical and Religious Directives for Catholic Health Care Services (5th Edition)

(No. 53) “Direct sterilization of either men or women, whether permanent or temporary, is not permitted in a Catholic health care institution. Procedures that induce sterility are permitted when their direct effect is the cure or alleviation of a present and serious pathology and a simpler treatment is not available.”

Instead of body alteration, individuals struggling with gender dysphoria should be given help and guidance to learn acceptance of their body.

Encyclical letter Laudato Si’ (2015)  (No. 155) “Learning to accept our body, to care for it and to respect its fullest meaning, is an essential element of any genuine human ecology. Also, valuing one’s own body in its femininity or masculinity is necessary if I am going to be able to recognize myself in an encounter with someone who is different. In this way we can joyfully accept the specific gifts of another man or woman, the work of God the Creator, and find mutual enrichment. It is not a healthy attitude which would seek to cancel out sexual difference because it no longer knows how to confront it.”

Along with accepting the body, there should be an acceptance of a wider range of masculine and feminine expression in the family and society.

Apostolic Exhortation Amoris Laetitia (2016) (No. 286) It is true that we cannot separate the masculine and the feminine from God’s work of creation, which is prior to all our decisions and experiences, and where biological elements exist which are impossible to ignore. But it is also true that masculinity and femininity are not rigid categories… A rigid approach turns into an over accentuation of the masculine or feminine, and does not help children and young people to appreciate the genuine reciprocity incarnate in the real conditions of matrimony. Such rigidity, in turn, can hinder the development of an individual’s abilities, to the point of leading him or her to think, for example, that it is not really masculine to cultivate art or dance, or not very feminine to exercise leadership.

The Roman Catholic Church stands firm that all should accept their sexuality which is first and foremost ordered to marriage and the family.

Compendium of the Social Doctrine of the Church (No. 224) “Faced with theories that consider gender identity as merely the cultural and social product of the interaction between the community and the individual, independent of personal sexual identity without any reference to the true meaning of sexuality, the Church does not tire of repeating her teaching: ‘Everyone, man and woman, should acknowledge and accept his sexual identity. Physical, moral and spiritual difference and complementarities are oriented towards the goods of marriage and the flourishing of family life. . . .’ According to this perspective, it is obligatory that positive law be conformed to the natural law, according to which sexual identity is indispensable, because it is the objective condition for forming a couple in marriage” (emphasis in original, internal citation omitted).

Throughout these various documents and addresses, Roman Catholicism seeks to reaffirm the dignity of the human person as being made in the image and likeness of God. Human sexuality, marriage, and the family are centered upon the complementarity of men and women. Because marriage and the family are such an integral part of society, laws should not deviate from the truth of human sexuality.

All Christians struggle. The Church is not condemning those who struggle with their sexuality but to offer the truth as well as God’s hope and mercy in his plan for each of his children.

For further reading on the question of gender theory and how to approach it in education, see the Congregation for Catholic Education’s:  “MALE AND FEMALE HE CREATED THEM” TOWARDS A PATH OF DIALOGUE ON THE QUESTION OF GENDER THEORY IN EDUCATION.

  1. Comment by Dee on January 15, 2020 at 8:57 pm

    Fetal testing can now determine several intersex conditions. In an online survey, parents were more often encouraged (by their medical providers) to abort their intersex fetus. Intersex and transgender are not the same – but conservatives’ emphasis on a gender binary convinces many would-be parents to abort an intersex fetus.

    As a retired kindergarten teacher, age 70, I remember children who were clearly gender-queer, transgender, or simply did not fit neatly the stereotypical boxes of little girl/little boy roles.

    Five year old Randy loved to “cook” at the housekeeping center. He was born into a religiously conservative family. Took his life while in high school – could not transform himself, even with God’s help and that of his parents, into a straight man

    Alton’s religious parents sought the help of a professional counselor when they found him at age 4 trying to do away with his penis (covered it with a sock to make it disappear). Alton loved dressing up – in kindergarten – with a long gown, high heals, wig, and jewelry. He wanted an easy bake oven and baby doll for Christmas. Now in his twenties, Alton identifies as gender queer and expresses themselves with an androgynous appearance. His religious parents did everything to make him a gender-normative boy. Didn’t work.

    Brendan was four when entering kindergarten. Brendan’s confuses classmates alerted me to Brendan’s conversations with them as it quickly became apparent that Brendan was insistent and consistent with telling classmates “I’m a girl”.

    I spoke with Brendan. Asked if mom knew about Brendan’s insistent, “I’m a girl,” Brendan said “no” and then added, “If I tell her, she’ll tell me ‘I’m a boy”. That was the most painful thing Brendan feared – even at this young age, Brendan feared emotional devastation of parental rejection.

    Pauline, identified as female at birth, loves women. She identifies as lesbian. Her natural hormone levels reflect what is typically found in males (in regard to sex hormones). Pauline believes she might be transgender, but has no strong inclination to identify as male (though her sexual attraction is exclusively to women). Is Pauline intersex, transgender, or lesbian and why should it matter? She is clearly created as non-typical for male or female.

    If God created a zillion varieties of flowers, trees, birds, fish, people, etc – then it makes no logical sense to assume this God who delights in such vast variety would design a binary either/or gender system.

    My life experience confirms God delights in a variety of gender-expressive humanity.

    Ms. Clare is obviously young and lacking in life experience.

  2. Comment by Palamas on January 15, 2020 at 9:05 pm

    I’m 61, have plenty of life experience as a counselor, and my reaction to your stories is: yes, it’s true. There is a lot of mental illness in the world. The difference between you and me, I suspect, is that I’d like to help people find relief, and if possible transformation. You’d be happy to have them wallow and suffer in it to suit your need for ideological self-righteousness.

  3. Comment by Dee on January 16, 2020 at 1:05 pm

    The child who took his life was told he had to change his sexual identity. When I had an lgbtq group of friends meeting regularly in my home in the early 1990s, all of those raised by religious conservatives struggled to affirm their identity. The one individual who never struggled, was happy, successful, self-accepting and accepted by his family was raised in a non-religious household. Condemning religion has the capacity to harm. I noted that Alton, now an adult, is very happy and successful. No signs of mental illness.

    If folks want lgbtq folks to find relief, just drop the religious condemnation. Of course, those who label others not like themselves to be “mentally ill,” can’t change themselves or their ideology. I find it disturbing that an individual commenting to my post – identifying as a “counselor who wants to help” diagnosed total strangers as mentally ill simply because they don’t fit said counselor’s ideology. Very telling!

  4. Comment by David on January 16, 2020 at 10:16 am

    While there may be no particular “gay gene,” personalities that do not fit into the normal male or female type develop at a very early age. This may be due to hormonal effects on the fetal brain, though this is understandably difficult to study in humans. People need to get over that sexual orientation is some sort of sinful choice. The futility of orientation change treatments has resulted in a number of states outlawing the practice as medical quackery.

    Gays, etc. are a small percentage of the population, but it seems the smaller a group is, the more dangerous it becomes. Jews were only 1% of the German population in the 1930s and look what happened to them. It seems some people always need an enemy.

  5. Comment by DOUGLAS E EHRHARDT on January 16, 2020 at 5:17 am

    Thanks Palamas, Could not have said it better.

  6. Comment by Wild Bill on January 17, 2020 at 7:20 pm

    Further action is needed. Organize locally to vote out school boards who push the agenda.

  7. Comment by richard zander on January 17, 2020 at 10:03 pm

    Very helpful. Thanks Clare.

  8. Comment by David Soo on January 17, 2020 at 10:20 pm

    Great post clare, as a young Christian it really saddens me to see our leadership give in to the world and change what the bible clearly outlines as wrong. Thank you 🙂 We should be more scared of what God believes than lgbtq+ activists

  9. Comment by David Gingrich on January 19, 2020 at 8:45 am

    So, if I said, “I like 5-year-old boys, I don’t think God made a mistake”?????

  10. Comment by Penny on January 21, 2020 at 12:47 am

    If medical science can turn a “boy” into a “girl”, then they can certainly help a “girl” be a “girl” or a “boy” be a “boy”. I taught only K, first and second for over 30 years and did not have any of the experiences that “Dee” speaks of. I doubt the veracity of the examples. Sorry.

  11. Comment by Dee on January 21, 2020 at 3:11 pm

    While you did not have the same experiences teaching, others have. I was on a panel at a teachers’ forum with diversity as the topic. When I spoke of intersex children , quite a few teachers spoke up and told of children they’d taught that were intersex or gender-nonconforming (not the same thing).

    Several states allow a birth certificate’s gender marker be removed and a new certificate issued for those born intersex and who affirm a gender identity that differs from that which was assigned at birth.

    As to the contributor who thinks science can turn a transgender child “back again”, a famous Johns Hopkins study was done on a pair of twin boys. One lost his penis while being circumcised as an infant. Doctors surgically reconfigured the child to have an external female appearance. The parents were told to raise the child as a girl, providing hormonal therapy during therapy. Didn’t work – the grown child, who was never told as a child of the surgical slip and resulting agenda – eventually identified as male and expressed his sense of being male as a child.

    Birth-given genitalia or surgically changing genitalia later does not confer maleness or femaleness.

    Transgender people are offered appropriate therapy to lessen the depression and suicidal ideation that many transgender people experience. Some transgender folk do not seek and/or never desire hormone or surgical therapy or change in gender expression (how one presents oneself as in dress, hair style, etc). Some transgender folks are satisfied, happy and successful by simply having the freedom to change gender expression to one that reflects their gender identity (which differs from their birth-assigned gender marker). Others may be happier with hormone therapy and/or surgical confirmation of their gender identity. Trained, compassionate counselors and doctors work with transgender individuals to determine the therapeutic options best suited to the individual’s needs. Which is why a growing number of states no longer require surgical removal/alteration of body parts (breasts, genitalia) to have birth certificates re-issued to reflect a transgender or intersex person’s gender identity.

  12. Comment by Dan on January 21, 2020 at 4:02 pm

    With all due respect, unless there is a specific biochemical, hormonal, or DNA anomaly present, transgenderism is a psychiatric condition. This can be demonstrated by the fact that the vast majority of prepubescent individuals who claim to experience gender dysphoria will “grow out of it.” Also, the fact that John Hopkins shut down its gender reassignment surgery operation when those undergoing surgery and hormonal therapy had no better emotional outcomes than those who did not also points to the fact that transgenderism is just another fad, for the most part, that has captured the zeitgeist. No one should treat individuals claiming to be transgender with anything but respect and compassion, but that does not mean we need to blindly affirm them.

  13. Comment by Penny on January 22, 2020 at 4:48 pm

    Thank you, Dan. Dee is spouting too many liberal talking points and her insistence is suspect. Probably trolling.

  14. Comment by Dee on January 23, 2020 at 8:37 pm

    Ah, a “liberal” is someone to disdain because the truth doesn’t coincide with yours? Deception and/or ignorance is better? You clearly hopped on Dan’s conservative bandwagon because he made points that agree with your ideology. However, Dan omitted the very important reality/fact that Johns Hopkins has returned to providing gender-affirming surgery for transgender individuals. Guess that didn’t suit his agenda? He played you for ignorant and you swallowed the bait.

  15. Comment by Dee on January 23, 2020 at 11:20 pm

    In today’s news:
    “A new study published this month in the American Academy of Pediatrics’ peer-reviewed medical journal, Pediatrics, explores the link between adolescent access to puberty blockers as an adolescent and future suicidal ideation among trans adults—the first study to examine such a link.

    After analyzing data found in the National Center for Trans Equality’s 2015 survey on trans life in the United States—the largest such study to date, with over 27,000 respondents in all 50 states—the researchers behind the Pediatrics study found that there is a significant inverse association between getting pubertal suppression treatment among youth who want it and dealing with lifetime suicidal ideation as a trans adult who wanted such treatment during adolescence but did not get it.”

    In other words, transgender teens have a positive long-term benefit of lessening psychiatric suicide ideation (an indicator of mental illness) through adulthood if they receive hormone-blocking treatment during puberty (blocking of hormones associated with their birth-assigned gender). Hormone-blocking treatment is both a choice and reversible.

    As a cis-gender woman who has used medically-prescribed hormone therapy for more than a decade without unwanted side effects and for gender-related health concerns (though not related to trans-issues), I find this study reiterates the need to be responsibly supportive of trans youth seeking to transition. Hormone blocking has a positive, long-term benefit in lessening suicide ideation. Great news! Of course, this contradicts Dan’s arguments (see his comments above), but Dan has a negative bias. His comments failed to include the fact that Johns Hopkins has returned to doing gender confirmation surgery.

    Time to stop denying facts and support our transgender folks!

    (Study reported by several news outlets on Jan 23, 2020).

  16. Comment by Dr GC on January 26, 2021 at 11:20 am

    Hi Clare,

    What about ambiguous genitalia people? How should they identify or how should their parents or drs help them to identify?

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