Recently, our church hosted a conversation on gender and sexuality led by Daniel Darling and Josh Wester, both of the Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission of the Southern Baptist Convention.
Our purpose for hosting the event was to help students and parents navigate these important issues from a biblical, Christ-centered perspective, and to provide context for ongoing conversations between parents and children and within the congregation at large.
Making disciples of Jesus and loving our neighbors well mean helping Christians walk with people who share various views and live diverse lifestyles.
The statements included here are my takeaways from our Truth Talks event. I’m not sure which are direct quotes from Josh and Dan and which are my own summary statements. So let’s concede that the profound ones are theirs and the other ones are mine. I trust they will all be helpful.
- God created humans distinctly male and female by design and for a purpose, and we each therefore, possess profound dignity and worth.
- As Christians, we believe the Bible and yield to its teachings even when those teachings make us uncomfortable.
- Sex is powerful. It’s very good when experienced in the context of biblical marriage between a man and a woman. It’s extremely harmful when experienced in any other context.
- Jesus affirmed gender distinctions in the marriage relationship. And the New Testament teaches that biblical marriage reflects Jesus’ love relationship with His people.
- We cannot claim to follow Jesus and ignore what He said about marriage and sexuality.
- Not every natural desire should be pursued or fulfilled. We do not determine what glorifies God or even what is best for us. God does that, and He has preserved and given us the Bible to show us the way.
- When we turn to Jesus, place our faith in Him, and become a Christian, Jesus saves us from the penalty of sin, but we are still being saved from the power of sin. Sexual temptation, and the struggle with other temptations for that matter, are a natural part of the human experience generally and of walking with Jesus specifically.
- We affirm biblical manhood and womanhood, but many cultural stereotypes of masculinity and femininity are not biblical at all. So when boys or girls struggle to fit into those stereotypes, we direct them back to the Bible. We affirm them, their unique bent and interests, and show them that God knit them in their mother’s womb, and that they are fearfully and wonderfully made. (Psalms 139)
- Feeling uncomfortable in the body we were born with is not completely uncommon or unreasonable. We are fallen creatures, marred with a sin nature. Discomfort is part of our story, but it is not beyond Jesus’ redeeming work.
- Children and adolescents will often struggle with their identity. The overwhelming number of children who struggle with gender identity work through it and find peace with themselves as they grow into the late teenage and young adult years. So show patience with them. We love and encourage them. We pour God’s Word into them, and show grace and kindness as they learn how God has designed them.
- People who struggle with same sex attraction and gender dysphoria as well as those fully involved in a homosexual lifestyle are people, fellow human beings whom God stamped with His image. They possess dignity and they are worthy of respect.
- Speaking the truth is not bigoted or unloving. Being bigoted is bigoted and being unloving is unloving. As Jesus followers, we look to Jesus as our example, and Jesus was never a jerk. Faithful Christians treat people, all people, with compassion because loving people is not a compromise. It’s a command.
- People may think a biblical worldview of marriage, gender, and sexuality is weird and freakish. That’s because it is weird and freakish. That’s okay. Many things Christians believe are outside the cultural mainstream.
- Expect hardship and even rejection for your faithfulness to Jesus and His Word. Jesus said to expect persecution, and He promised to be with us every step of the way. So we deny ourselves and stay the course as we invite people to experience new life in Jesus and to follow Him with us.
- Many people who have adopted an alternate lifestyle are broken, hurting, and lonely. They are skeptical of God and of Christians. They aren’t sure anyone will ever truly love them. So when we show kindness and respect, pray for them, and pursue genuine friendship, we offer them a more complete and compelling picture of the Gospel.
- No sexual sin or brokenness (heterosexual or homosexual) is beyond God’s willingness or ability to redeem through the person and work of Jesus. So we faithfully show and share the Gospel inviting every person to come to Jesus.