The Gender Agenda

The term ‘trans’ is commonly used as an umbrella and shorthand for anyone whose gender identity does not completely match the gender status (or sex) they were assigned at birth.

‘Gender dysphoria is a condition where a person experiences discomfort or distress because there's a mismatch between their biological sex and gender identity.’

Transphobic bullying is any behaviour or use of language that makes a trans person feel unwelcome or marginalised because of their gender identity, whether actual or perceived.

Historically, the Bible has been used to legitimise ethnic cleansing, slavery, apartheid, the death penalty and the imprisonment of gay men, as well as to justify beating children and withholding the vote from women to name but a few. Indeed, there are significant parts of the Church who still – on their particular reading and interpretation of the Bible – speak of the doctrine of the ‘complementarity’ of men and women rather that their ‘equality’.

Firstly, we must ask, what does it actually mean to be made in the image of God? God, of course, is spirit. God has no physical body parts. And the scriptures are insistent; they describe God as both male and female rather than either/ or. Whatever the phrase ‘Imago Dei’ implies (and there is much written about its implications), it is not about hormones and chromosomes, or the binary nature of humanity.[25]

As David Smith puts it, so poignantly, in his book Mission After Christendom, ‘Those who have broken new ground for the sake of Christ have found themselves carpeted by the guardians of orthodox faith’.[28]

‘The very survival of Christianity … depends upon the emergence of men and women able to think new thoughts and devise new strategies at the real frontiers of mission today.’ Adding the warning that such people are ‘always likely to face misunderstanding, criticism and serious opposition. Like Peter the Apostle…those who are ready to confront the challenge posed by Western culture must not be surprised if they are accused of unorthodoxy, even heresy, or are verbally attacked by people who interpret their … vision as something liable to undermine the moral purity and integrity of the Church of Jesus Christ.’