Christians and Transgender Pronoun Usage: Some Articles and Resources

What should Christians think of the practice of "volunteering pronouns" and using someone's preferred pronouns if they differ from their biological sex? Here are a number of articles that address the issue by arguing that Christians should not engage in this practice 

NEW: Ask Chris T ollefsen: An Ethics Advice Column (May 30, 2024)

• This is the question Tollefsen is addressing in this column:

I’m wondering if it is ever permissible to use the “new” or chosen name and pronouns of a person suffering from gender dysphoria (that are not in accord with their biological sex) despite this action’s implicitly affirming this incongruence of their thoughts with human anthropology and biological truth? 

The specific situation that comes to mind is if a patient presents to the hospital in a mental health crisis (a suicide attempt) and [hospital staff’s] refusal to use [his preferred] names or pronouns would be counter-therapeutic, diminish patient–physician trust/rapport, and exacerbate the mental suffering of a person in need of acute psychiatric care. 

 

Christians Volunteering Pronouns? by Andrew T. Walker at American Reformer (August 19, 2022)

A Response to an Employer's Request for Pronouns by Amy K. Hall at The Stream (May 11, 2023).  Provides a nice example from a real-life situation as well as a template of what to communicate and how to do with courage and wisdom.

Why I No Longer Use Transgender Pronouns--and Why You Shouldn't Either by Rosario Butterfield at Reformation 21 (April 3, 2023)

Words as Weapons: Why We Must Stand Our Grounds Over Pronouns by Jonathon Van Maren at The European Conservative (February 7, 2022)

"Language is the first domino in the war over reality—and pronouns have nothing to do with politeness and everything to do with ideological submission... 

"What do we actually cede if we play along with ‘preferred pronouns’? We are conceding that the person demanding that he be called a ‘she’ actually is a woman. Once that is established, what grounds do we have for keeping him out of the female bathroom, or off the girl’s swim team, or out of a rape crisis center for women traumatized by men? The simple answer is that there are none. He has demanded that we call him a woman, and we have agreed to do so to be courteous. That courtesy will then be used as a bludgeon." 

 Is It a Sin for a Christian to Use Transgender Pronouns? by Michael Brown at Ask Dr. Brown (April 4, 2023)

Examining the Case for "Pronoun Hospitality" by Richard Klaus at White Rose Review (January 6, 2021)

Cognitive Liberty: Freedom of Speech, Freedom of Conscience and "What Are Your Pronouns?" Video interview with Dr. Nicholas Meriwether at Ratio Christi: Thoughtful Christianity (September 30, 2022)

• The U.S. Sixth Circuit of Appeals decision in favor of Dr. Nicholas Meriwether.

Why Pronouns Matter... a Lot by Greg Koukl at Stand to Reason (6/1/2021).

Why Agree to Use Preferred Names but Not Preferred Pronouns? by Amy K. Hall at Stand to Reason (1/20/2022).

Lamentations for Michael Brown: Properly Applying the Prophetic Word

Over at Mike Bird's blog Euangelion he has a guest post by Jill Firth-- Book Notice: Soong-Chah Rah on Prophetic Lament.

Firth gives the following description:

Prophetic Lament is a commentary on the book of Lamentations in the Resonate series that seeks to connect Biblical books with contemporary voices of hope and lament, in a practical, pastoral and culturally conscious ‘un-commentary’. In each chapter, Rah moves between the text of Lamentations and its historical setting in the fall of Jerusalem, and contemporary or historical situations in American life such as the death of Rah’s father, the establishment of the slave trade, the ignoring of women’s voices, and racial violence in America today.

In attempting to link the message of Lamentations to contemporary events, Rah brings up the shooting of Michael Brown in the following manner:

Rah connects the book of Lamentations to responses to the fatal shooting of 18 year old Michael Brown by a white police officer on August 9, 2014 in Ferguson, Missouri. After his death, Michael Brown was left uncovered in the August sun for four hours. Rah comments, ‘Michael Brown was deemed no better than roadkill.’

On the Amazon page for Rah's book one can "look inside" the book and find the following lamentation based on chapter of five of Lamentations:

Remember Lord, what happened to Michael Brown and Eric Garner;

look, and see the disgraceful way they treated their bodies.

Our inheritance of the image of God in every human being has been co-opted and denied by others. 

The children of Eric Garner have become fatherless, widowed mothers grieve their dead children. 

We must scrap for basic human rights; our freedom and our liberty has great price. 

Corrupt officers and officials pursue us and are at our heels; we are weary and find no rest. 

We submitted to uncaring government agencies and to big business to get enough bread. 

Our ancestors sinned the great sin of instituting slavery; they are no more--but we bear their shame. 

The system of slavery and institutionalized racism ruled over us, and there is no one free from their hands. 

We got our bread at the risk of our lives because of the guns on the streets. 

Michael Brown's skin is hot as an oven as his body lay out in the blazing sun. 

Women have been violated throughout our nation's history; black women raped by while slave owners on the plantations. 

Noble black men have been hung, lynched and gunned down; elders and spokesmen are shown no respect. 

Young men can't find work because of unjustly applied laws; boys stagger under the expectation that their lives are destined for jail. 

The elder statesman and civil rights leaders are gone from the city gate; young people who speak out in protest through music are silenced. 

Trust in our ultimate triumph has diminished; our triumphant dance has turned to a funeral dirge. 

Our sense of exceptionalism has been exposed. Woe to us, for we have sinned! 

Because of this our hearts are faint, because of these things our eyes grow dim 

for our cities lie desolate with predatory lenders and real estate speculators prowling over them. 

You, Lord, reign forever; your throne endures from generation to generation. 

We do you always forgets us? Why do you forsake us so long? 

Restore us to yourself, Lord, that we may return; renew our days as of old 

unless you have utterly rejected us and are angry with us beyond measure.

I put in bold-face the two lines which refer to the treatment of Michael Brown's body.  In the epilogue to Rah's book he has the following statements:

The deceased body of Michael Brown was left uncovered out in the heat of an August afternoon for four and a half hours, with friends and family denied access to the body.  Michael Brown was deemed no better than roadkill.

And a few paragraphs later, Rah writes:

The dead body of Michael Brown was not accorded proper respect.  The literal dead body lying on the streets of a quiet apartment complex in a Midwestern suburban town demanded a proper funeral dirge in the community.

I appreciate Rah's desire to find contemporary significance and application of the prophetic word.  Having recently preached through the prophets of Jonah and Nahum I have been thinking of these issues.  I read Julie Woods' essay The West as Nineveh: How Does Nahum's Message of Judgement Apply to Today? Themelios 31/1 (October 2005), 7-37.  Woods quotes the work of Grant Osborne on how to properly interpret and apply the ancient text.

* Determine  the surface message

* Determine the deep structure principle behind the message

* Note the original situation

* Discover the parallel situation in the modern context

* Decide whether to contextualize at the general or specific level 

In order to properly apply the text to the modern context one must accurately understand the contemporary situation.  The problem with Rah's applications of Lamentations to the death of Michael Brown is that he has failed to understand all the available facts regarding Michael Brown.  Rah argues that Brown's body was not accorded a proper respect due to its being left on the hot pavement for four hours.  Rah, however, has left out some crucial facts that provide the context for the treatment of Brown's body.

The Department of Justice Report on Michael Brown's death provides this important information which explains what happened and why:

Wilson shot Brown at about 12:02 p.m. on August 9, 2014. Within minutes, FPD officers responded to the scene, as they were already en route from Wilson’s initial radio call for assistance. Also within minutes, residents began pouring onto the street. At 12:08 p.m., FPD officers requested assistance from nearby SLCPD precincts. By 12:14 p.m., some members of the growing crowd became increasingly hostile in response to chants of “[We] need to kill these motherfuckers,” referring to the police officers on scene. At around the same time, about 12:15 p.m., Witness 147, an FPD sergeant, informed the FPD Chief that there had been a fatal officer- involved shooting. At about 12:23 p.m., after speaking with one of his captains, the FPD Chief contacted the SLCPD Chief and turned over the homicide investigation to the SLCPD. Within twenty minutes of Brown’s death, paramedics covered Brown’s body with several white sheets. 

The SLCPD Division of Criminal Investigation, Bureau of Crimes Against Persons (“CAP”) was notified at 12:43 p.m. to report to the crime scene to begin a homicide investigation. When they received notification, SLCPD CAP detectives were investigating an armed, masked hostage situation in the hospice wing at St. Anthony’s Medical Center in the south part of St. Louis County, nearly 37 minutes from Canfield Drive. They arrived at Canfield Drive at approximately 1:30 p.m. During that time frame, between about 12:45 p.m. and 1:17 p.m., SLCPD reported gunfire in the area, putting both civilians and officers in danger. As a result, canine officers and additional patrol officers responded to assist with crowd control. SLCPD expanded the perimeter of the crime scene to move the crowd away from Brown’s body in an effort to preserve the crime scene for processing. 

Upon their arrival, SLCPD detectives from the Bureau of Criminal Identification Crime Scene Unit erected orange privacy screens around Brown’s body, and CAP detectives alerted the St. Louis County Medical Examiner (“SCLME”) to respond to the scene. To further protect the integrity of the crime scene, and in accordance with common police practice, SLCPD personnel did not permit family members and concerned neighbors into the crime scene (with one brief exception). Also in accordance with common police practice, crime scene detectives processed the crime scene with Brown’s body present. According to SLCPD CAP detectives, they have one opportunity to thoroughly investigate a crime scene before it is forever changed upon the removal of the decedent’s body. Processing a homicide scene with the decedent’s body present allows detectives, for example, to accurately measure distances, precisely document body position, and note injury and other markings relative to other aspects of the crime scene that photographs may not capture. 

In this case, crime scene detectives had to stop processing the scene as a result of two more reports of what sounded like automatic weapons gunfire in the area at 1:55 p.m. and 2:11 p.m., as well as some individuals in the crowd encroaching on the crime scene and chanting, “Kill the Police,” as documented by cell phone video. At each of those times, having exhausted their existing resources, SLCPD personnel called emergency codes for additional patrol officers from throughout St. Louis County in increments of twenty-five. Livery drivers sent to transport Brown’s body upon completion of processing arrived at 2:20 p.m. Their customary practice is to wait on scene until the body is ready for transport. However, an SLCPD sergeant briefly stopped them from getting out of their vehicle until the gunfire abated and it was safe for them to do so. The SLCME medicolegal investigator arrived at 2:30 p.m. and began conducting his investigation when it was reasonably safe to do so. Detectives were at the crime scene for approximately five and a half hours, and throughout that time, SLCPD personnel continued to seek additional assistance, calling in the Highway Safety Unit at 2:38 p.m. and the Tactical Operations Unit at 2:44 p.m. Witnesses and detectives described the scene as volatile, causing concern for both their personal safety and the integrity of the crime scene. Crime scene detectives and the SLCME medicolegal investigator completed the processing of Brown’s body at approximately 4:00 p.m, at which time Brown’s body was transported to the Office of the SLCME. [pp. 8-9]

This listing of the details and the volatile and dangerous situation that was ongoing for hours helps to explain why Michael Brown's body was not moved sooner.  It had nothing to do with failing to honor his body.  Rather, there was a concern to keep the scene free from contamination so an accurate examination could be conducted.  Rah mentions nothing about the gun-fire and the potential violence involved at the scene.

Rah may have some important truths to teach the church from his understanding and applications from Lamentations but his understanding of the Michael Brown incident is woefully inadequate.  Rah has not spoken the truth in this matter.  Yes, lamentation is needed in the contemporary church but let's be sure we are lamenting real crises (there are many!) and not foolish distortions. 

Michael Brown's Appeal to Joel and Victoria Osteen

Michael Brown has recently written what is essentially an open letter to Joel and Victoria Osteen calling them to greater faithfulness to the Lord.  This is important in that Dr. Brown is a defender of the charismatic movement against the likes of such staunch critics like John MacArthur.  Dr. Brown shows himself willing to publicly rebuke those elements in the charismatic arena that need attention.  Below is the just a few paragraphs of Dr. Brown's letter.  Be sure to read the full letter HERE.

Dear Joel and Victoria, I hope and pray that you will read this letter and that you take to heart the things I'm sharing. I write as a friend wanting to help, not an enemy wanting to hurt, and everything I write, I write out of love for God, love for you, and love for the church and the world.

I have said many times that I'm glad to see your smiling faces on TV as you speak about Jesus rather than some stern-faced, joyless, angry Christian leader. And I believe you genuinely do care about people and want them to find wholeness in the Lord.

Joel, I appreciate the fact that you end every service by asking people to get right with God, having them pray a prayer where they say to Jesus, "I repent of my sins, come into my heart, I make you Lord and Savior."

The big problem is that you haven't told them what their sins are, and you haven't told them what real repentance is. And since you are speaking to people around the world, you can't possibly assume that all of them understand the meaning of sin and redemption and repentance. (Most American Christians don't even understand these things today.)

In short, you have not shared with them the whole counsel of God, and by telling them only part of the story, you have done what the false prophets of ancient Israel did: "You superficially treat the fracture of My people saying to them, 'All is well, all is well,' when nothing is well" (Jer. 6:14, my translation).

A true physician tells his patients what they need to hear, not what they want to hear. As one preacher of old, Jean Daille, once said, "Ministers are not cooks, but physicians and therefore should not study to delight the palate, but to recover the patient."

Have you been more of a junk-food cook than a physician? Have you been afraid to tell people their true condition? Have you been so concerned with making them feel good about themselves and giving them a sense of hope that you failed to diagnose their terminal sin disease?

Paul said to the elders of Ephesus, "I testify to you this day that I am innocent of the blood of all, for I did not shrink from declaring to you the whole counsel of God" (Acts 20:26-27).

Do you really believe in your heart of hearts that you have declared the whole counsel of God to your listening audience?

God has given you one of the largest platforms for the gospel in human history. Can you say before Him that you are "innocent of the blood of all"?

Have you ever taught extensively on the words of Jesus from the Sermon on the Mount? Have you ever worked your way through one of the letters of Paul? If not, why not?

Proverbs tells us that, "Whoever rebukes a man will afterward find more favor than he who flatters with his tongue" (28:23). Do you believe God's Word, or do you feel you have found a better way to do His work?

I appreciate the fact that you hold up your Bible before you preach, as your father did, and you have people make a confession about God's Word, as you also learned to do from your father. But do you really preach that holy Word?

Shortly before Paul was martyred for his faith, he reminded Timothy that, "All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness" (2 Tim. 3:16).

He also gave him this solemn commission: "I charge you in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who is to judge the living and the dead, and by his appearing and his kingdom: Preach the word; be ready in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, and exhort, with complete patience and teaching" (2 Tim. 4:1-2).

Is this your pattern of preaching and ministry? Do you rebuke in love (Prov. 27:5) as well as exhort and encourage?

Perhaps it's time to ask yourself honestly where you fit in this warning from Paul: "For the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching, but having itching ears they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions, and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander off into myths" (2 Tim. 4:1-4).

Wouldn't it be utterly heartbreaking if, on the day you stand before God, you discovered that you were one of these teachers? Wouldn't it be tragic if your efforts were found to be wood, hay and stubble on that great and glorious Day (1 Cor. 3:11-15)? And may I ask you candidly if you even talk about that holy day of accounting?

"Strange Fire"--Michael Brown Responds (Twice!)

Michael Brown is a charismatic scholar who recently wrote the commentary on Jeremiah for the revised  Evangelical Bible Commentary.  The biographical statement on this work states this about Dr. Brown:

Michael L. Brown, (PhD, New York University) is president and professor of practical theology at Fellowship for International Revival and Evangelism School of Ministry. He has also served as adjunct professor of Old Testament at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School in Deerfield and adjunct professor of Jewish apologetics at Fuller Theological Seminary School of World Mission. He has contributed to the Oxford Dictionary of Jewish Religion, and the Theological Dictionary of the Old Testament.

Dr. Brown is also the author of the important book Israel's Divine Healer which is part of the series "Studies in Old Testament Biblical Theology."

These statements are put forward to show Dr. Brown's commitment to the written Word of God.  Dr. Brown has recently published two articles critiquing John MacArthur's "Strange Fire Conference."

The first article is entitled John MacArthur, Strange Fire, and Blasphemy of the Spirit.  In it he writes:

Without a doubt, there are horrific things being done in the name of Jesus and the Spirit, often onChristian TV for the whole world to see—and this stuff is downright shameful, bringing reproach to the reputation of the Lord. Along with other charismatic leaders, I have renounced these things for decades. But is it the responsibility of every charismatic-Pentecostal pastor and leader to renounce these things all the time?

Pastor MacArthur has called on his Pentecostal brothers and sisters to stand up and speak out against these abuses, joining him at his upcoming conference; but if a pastor is shepherding his flock and feeding them God’s Word and his people are not guilty of these abuses or watching these TV preachers, why is it his responsibility to address these errors? Does Pastor MacArthur feel the responsibility to monitor the preaching of tens of thousands of non-charismatic pastors across the country and publicly renounce their errors? Why, then, must Pentecostal and charismatic pastors renounce extremes in their movement to somehow prove their orthodoxy?

He goes on to write:

Again, I am not for a moment excusing doctrinal errors, emotional manipulation, financial greed or other spiritual abuses often perpetuated in the name of the Spirit, but it is absolutely outrageous that Pastor MacArthur claims, “The charismatic movement is largely the reason the church is in the mess it is today. In virtually every area where church life is unbiblical, you can attribute it to the charismatic movement. In virtually every area—bad theology, superficial worship, ego, prosperity gospel, personality elevation. All of that comes out of the charismatic movement.”

And he is quite wrong when he states, “Its theology is bad. It is unbiblical. It is bad. It is aberrant. It is destructive to people because it promises what it can't deliver, and then God gets blamed when it doesn't come. It is a very destructive movement.”

In reality, more people have been saved—wonderfully saved—as a result of the Pentecostal-charismatic movement worldwide than through any other movement in church history (to the tune of perhaps a half-billion souls), as documented recently in Allan Heaton Anderson’s To the Ends of the Earth: Pentecostalism and the Transformation of World Christianity. And professor Craig Keener has provided overwhelming testimony to the reality of God’s miraculous power worldwide today (see his brilliant two-volume study Miracles).

Tragically, rather than recognizing the outpouring of the Spirit worldwide—God’s true fire, falling in abundance in many nations—and focusing on the spiritual deadness that exists in many Spirit-denying churches, Pastor MacArthur has chosen to focus on aberrations and extremes in the charismatic movement, even making the extremely dangerous claims that charismatics are blaspheming the Spirit and attributing “to the Holy Spirit even the work of Satan.”

To be perfectly clear, I am not for a second claiming that Pastor MacArthur is blaspheming the Spirit (God forbid!), but in the New Testament, blasphemy of the Spirit is knowingly attributing the works of the Spirit to Satan (Mark 3:23-30), and I am far more concerned about denying the true fire than I am about putting out every aberrant charismatic brush fire.

Dr. Brown's second article is entitled An Appeal to John MacArthur to Embrace God's True Fire.  A few relevant comments are:

Today, the Holy Spirit continues to move in wonderful and sometimes unusual ways, overpowering some people with His presence, producing in others a deep conviction of sin that moves them to cry out and groan, producing in still others a glorious and inexpressible joy that moves them to dance and shout, and confirming the Word with signs following—the greatest sign of all being radically changed lives for the glory of God.

Yet rather than recognize this, Pastor MacArthur claims that charismatics have “stolen the Holy Spirit and created a golden calf and they are dancing around the golden calf as if it is the Holy Spirit. ... The Charismatic version of  the Holy Spirit is that golden calf ... around which they dance with their dishonoring exercises”—and in this scathing indictment he names fine godly leaders like Mike Bickle and Lou Engle, claiming that they are guilty of blaspheming the Spirit.

Recognizing the many wonderful things that Pastor MacArthur has done for God’s people and for the name of Jesus, I urge him to sit down with these leaders whose ministries he attacks (or to sit with me as a former leader in the Brownsville Revival) to listen to their extensive teaching of the Scriptures and to meet with some of the thousands of young people who have been impacted by their lives and who are now burning bright for Jesus, reaching the lost on college campuses, seeking God earnestly in day and night prayer, contending for the lives of the unborn and pursuing holiness in the fear of the Lord.

I too reject many abuses in the charismatic movement—including our flesh-exalting personality cults; our carnal prosperity message; our manifestation mania; our superficial sensationalism; our mindless gullibility; our cheapening of the word “apostolic”; our constant fascination with the latest trend—but I recognize these as part of the dirty bathwater to be thrown out rather than the precious baby to be nurtured.

We can only hope that Dr. MacArthur would be willing to sit down with responsible charismatic teachers like Dr. Brown and engage in true critical interaction.  Without this responsible interaction I'm afraid that the "Strange Fire Conference" will just be one large exercise in the logical fallacy of beating up straw men.