Transition?

God created male and female for His distinct purpose, as we read in the creation account in Genesis. That distinction, that is being blurred in society today, is reinforced throughout the Bible, including in 1st Corinthians chapter 11:
11 Nevertheless, neither is man independent of woman, nor woman independent of man, in the Lord.
12 For as woman came from man, even so man also comes through woman; but all things are from God.

There are distinctions between male and female, yet there is an homogenization of gender roles and even attempts to alter one's biological sex today.  This is diametrically opposed to the plan of God. While there are those who want to engage in gender transition and deviant sexual practices, that are clearly warned against in Scripture, we can demonstrate a Biblical clarity, appreciating the way we were created in order to fulfill the plan of God, and to operate in human relationships in a manner that reflects His intent.

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In the book of Genesis, we can gain insight into God's plan for humanity and his creation of them as male and female. In chapter 1, we can read:

26 Then God said, "Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth."
27 So God created man in His own image; in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them.

Dropping down to verse 31, we find that the creation of man and woman completed creation in a magnificent way; it says:
31 Then God saw everything that He had made, and indeed it was very good. So the evening and the morning were the sixth day.

On the Tuesday edition of The Meeting House on Faith Radio, I featured a conversation with Jeff Barrows of the Christian Medical and Dental Associations about the agenda promoting so-called "gender identity" and "sexual orientation" and attempts by the government to support efforts by a person who wishes to "change" his or her gender, believing that perhaps he or she is trapped in the "wrong body" or who is really not the gender he or she is "assigned" at birth.

The Alabama Legislature and lawmakers across America are adamant against experimental treatments that have an aim of aiding in a gender transition, and have proposed and passed legislation that prevent these treatments, therapies, and even surgeries from being used on minor children. 

No wonder there has been backlash in Christian media about a story that Fox News ran during June to observe LGBTQ Pride Month.  Faithwire described the piece as a "controversial story about two California parents who helped their 5-year-old biological daughter transition to become a boy named Ryland."  The Faithwire article stated:

Fox News Correspondent Bryan Llenas explained in his report that Ryland’s parents Jeff and Hillary Whittington began sex experimentation on the child after determining that “Before Ryland could even speak, ‘he’ managed to tell his parents that he is a boy.”

“It wasn’t him trying to be a brat,” Ryland’s mother Hillary said as the video showed Ryland wearing girl’s clothes. “It was really painful for him to have to wear feminine clothing and for us constantly telling him you’re a girl.”

“And unlike some trans kids, when Ryland came out at age of 5 a few years later, he had the full support of his parents,” Llenas stated in his report.

Matt Walsh of The Daily Wire was strong in his rebuttal, tweeting out: "I know for a fact that many people at Fox do not approve of this and never would have agreed to air radical far left trans propaganda,” adding, “But Fox reporter Bryan Llenas chose to do this story and someone at Fox chose to put it on the air. Everyone involved should be fired immediately.”  Walsh also stated: "The poor kid is 14 now with a permanently altered body, condemned to live forever with an identity imposed as a small child. It is horrifying, evil, and sick. And it is what Fox chose to promote..."

Commentator Allie Beth Stuckey stated, "I hated dresses and bows as a child and insisted on only wearing jeans and a white t-shirt,” adding, “Thank God my parents didn’t see my ‘discomfort’ as a sign that I’m actually supposed to be a boy. ‘Transitioning’ a child is abusive. Let them grow up.”

A CBN article featured comments with former homosexual George Carneal, who is a past Meeting House guest. He said, "I knew when they opened the floodgates it's never going to be enough really until we look at the bigger picture of what the agenda is really," adding, "And that is silencing Christians and all opposition to this agenda and anything that is pro-family, pro-Christian, pro-life, pro-America."  The article goes on to relate:

He warns Christians against accepting Hollywood's glamorization of the homosexual lifestyle because it gives the public a sanitized version of the true nature of homosexuality.

"Until you sit down and listen to the testimonies of every gay, lesbian and transgender individual who has come out of that life and you listen to the horror stories of what we've been through and the reality of that life... the life is so different from what Hollywood and from what the media portray," Carneal insisted.

The New York Post reported on one such horror story, stating:

When Chloe was 12 years old, she decided she was transgender. At 13, she came out to her parents. That same year, she was put on puberty blockers and prescribed testosterone. At 15, she underwent a double mastectomy. Less than a year later, she realized she’d made a mistake — all by the time she was 16 years old.

Now 17, Chloe is one of a growing cohort called “detransitioners” — those who seek to reverse a gender transition, often after realizing they actually do identify with their biological sex. Tragically, many will struggle for the rest of their lives with the irreversible medical consequences of a decision they made as minors.

“I can’t stay quiet,” said Chloe. “I need to do something about this and to share my own cautionary tale.”

The power of suggestion seems to be a principal contributor to feeding this perceived need to "transition," according to Dr. Lisa Littman, a former professor of Behavioral and Social Sciences at Brown University; the Post says that she "coined the term 'rapid onset gender dysphoria' to describe this subset of transgender youth, typically biological females who become suddenly dysphoric during or shortly after puberty. Littman believes this may be due to adolescent girls’ susceptibility to peer influence on social media."

The article notes that, "A variety of studies suggest that as many as 80% of dysphoric children could ultimately experience 'desistance'— or coming to terms with their biological gender without resorting to transition."  But the American College of Pediatricians cites studies that place the number perhaps even higher.  It says: 

Gender dysphoria (GD) in children is a term used to describe a psychological condition in which a child experiences marked incongruence between his or her experienced gender and the gender associated with the child’s biological sex. Twin studies demonstrate that GD is not an innate trait. Moreover, barring pre-pubertal affirmation and hormone intervention for GD, 80 percent to 95 percent of children with GD will accept the reality of their biological sex by late adolescence.

The treatment of GD in childhood with hormones effectively amounts to mass experimentation on, and sterilization of, youth who are cognitively incapable of providing informed consent. There is a serious ethical problem with allowing irreversible, life-changing procedures to be performed on minors who are too young to give valid consent themselves; adolescents cannot understand the magnitude of such decisions.

To me, the science is clear.  So is the teaching of Scripture. The Daily Citizen of Focus on the Family states: 

Christians cannot avoid this revolutionary effort to confuse the meaning of sex and gender for a very substantial reason: It is an attack on the very image and goodness of God. This might seem like a dramatic overstatement, but if we properly understand the first thing God tells us about Himself in scripture, we see that it is not.

And if God’s very image and goodness are open to question, then so is the entirety of Scripture. See the great danger at play here?

The article goes on to say:

Christians must have the eyes to see and ears to hear the spiritual and practical implications of what is happening here with this contemporary effort to bring confusion about what it means to be male and female in the world today. It is why no Christian can avoid or hope this issue will just go away. It is nothing less than Satan whispering in the ears of our generation … and to our children,

“God is wrong. Male and female are not His divine image. They can be whatever you want them to be. And God is certainly not good in giving you your male or female body. You will only be happy when you cast off what He has given you. Be true to yourself!”

Be true to yourself - is that who you think you are or who God says that you are?   Each of us is made in the image of God, with special characteristics - biological and psychological.  We are intended to fellowship with our Creator.  To reject God's design and purpose means that we become vulnerable to be defined by the world and to face the consequences.  

We have to stand strong against "buying in" to the agenda that exalts one's perception about his or her gender identity from the reality of biology.   As the Daily Citizen article says:

If you don’t think the present gender revolution is a battle over divine reality, try dissenting from it and see what happens. Public disagreement is not allowed. You will be canceled. You could lose your livelihood. You will be called vile names and be assigned the worst of intentions. But you are simply recognizing nature as it is. This is why Christians cannot ignore this issue or hope it will just go away.

We can continue to ground our lives in Biblical truth.  That means that we have to be honest about what the Bible teaches in the area of sexuality and not be deluded by the aggressive deception of the enemy of our souls and the activation by the world.  Young people are being allowed to make permanent, life-altering decisions and even parents are being deceived.  In love, we have to be sensitive to the troubled thinking that entraps children and parents alike.