You may be tempted to think the transgender ideology has come from nowhere. From relative obscurity, it is now dominating the equalities agenda wherever you care to look: schools, government, media, public services.
But the truth of the matter is, the transgender agenda has been simmering away in the background for many years. And keen observers of the sexual revolution have known for a long time that it would be the next big issue to challenge social norms.
Make no mistake about it, the socio-political goal of the movement is to dismantle the biological reality that human beings are either male or female — and to silence anyone who doesn’t use the appropriate language.
Personally, I would distinguish between a troubled individual who is truly experiencing gender dysphoria (the mistaken belief that they are trapped in the ‘wrong’ body) and someone who is grandstanding to push a political agenda.
I am quite willing to show some humanity and sensitivity to a tormented soul, without compromising my beliefs that a person is born male or female and that a person cannot change his sex.
But the activist who wants to shut down debate, and stifle free speech, and dictate gender pronouns to the rest of society will receive little sympathy from me.
Many Christians confuse the two. They confuse the pastoral and the political. They think the command to be loving and merciful means we cannot be robust and resolute. But we must be both pastorally sensitive, and also politically alert.
That’s why the article by Dr Sharon James in this month’s ET is so important. It charts the history of the transgender agenda, showing what it is, where it came from, and where it is going.
This is no side issue. This may affect you in your workplace, it may touch your child’s school, it may alter perceptions of your church in your community, and it may determine whether the government regards you as an ‘extremist’.
As if that were not enough, don’t forget that people, male and female, are made in the image of God. To attack that basic biological reality is to attack the very image of God himself.
