Cedarville Magazine, Spring/Summer 2016

The Gender Revolution: Are We Getting It Right? by Dannah (Barker) Gresh ’89 Our country is in the midst of a gender revolution, and as believers, we cannot stay silent. Sadly, the most vocal evangelicals have been either hatefully accusative or completely affirming. Thankfully, hate-fueled accusers who use Leviticus as a beating stick for the lost are a dwindling minority. Those who are affirming often use an appeal to compassion and are a growing sector of the Christian family. It is unkind to ignore the emotional trauma, but let’s take a closer look. The Center for Disease Control’s website states that “MSM (men who have sex with men) are at greater risk for mental health problems” 1 including major depression, bipolar disorder, anxiety, and a greater risk of suicide. 2 According to Cambridge University, lesbian women are twice as likely to have “longstanding mental health problems.” Bisexual women were nearly three times as likely to suffer. 3 Here’s the problem with the appeal to affirmation in the name of kindness: high rates of post-traumatic stress disorder, suicide, and psychiatric disorders are prevalent and undisputed in the gay 4 and transgendered communities 5 both before and after coming out/completing gender reassignment surgery .There is a reason that Johns Hopkins University, once the national leader in gender reassignment surgery, no longer performs operations but instead seeks to provide psychological support for those suffering. It is not kind to offer false hope. As true followers of Jesus Christ, we should be heartbroken and poised to respond. But how should we respond? There is a Christian conversation that gets to the root of diminishing the pain and depression of those struggling with same-sex attraction and gender dysphoria. Russell Moore of the Ethics and Religious Liberties Commission (ERLC), a favored chapel speaker at Cedarville, has coined the phrase “convictional kindness” ( cedarville.edu/convictionalkindness ) . He applies it liberally to all arguments of sexual choice, whether our modern-day gender reformation, the tolerance movement, or the sexual reformation of the 60s and 70s. According to Moore, the devil deceives us in two ways: affirming us as we make our own truth and/or accusing us for our choices. The devil stands on both sides to coach us along. For example, the sexual revolution of the 1960s brought us the birth control pill and abortion. “No one is more pro- choice on the way into the abortion clinic than the devil,” Moore said, “and no one is more pro-life on the way out of the abortion clinic than the devil. Because what he wants to do is deceive on the front-end. He seeks to say on one hand, ‘You’re too good for the Gospel,’ and the other hand, ‘You’re now too bad for the Gospel.’” How do we build a conversation that’s based on convictional kindness? I think we follow the example of our Savior. When Jesus walked the earth, He was on the end of a different kind of sexual culture shift: the divorce revolution. The people of the day were reveling in their freedom tomarry and divorce at will. It was their modern-day revolution.They wanted to build their own morality concerning marriage. Sound familiar? As true followers of Jesus Christ, we should be heartbroken and poised to respond. But how should we respond? God’s Design for Man and Woman in Marriage Cedarville Magazine | 21