Transgender Identity: Let's Look at the Bible

By Brandon Showalter, Opinion writer and social commentator Friday, August 11, 2017

"Christians have an obligation and a responsibility to love people who identify as transgender and to seek to act redemptively toward them," Land emphasized, adding that those who struggle with gender dysphoria should never be made fun of or mocked.

At the same time, pastors should not affirm transgenderism as normative.

"You do them no service by acquiescing to their malady and calling it normal," Land said. "Calling it normal does not make it normal, affirming it as healthy does not make it healthy.

"God has set the norms and when you live in a society where there are no norms, everything is normal, and that is a recipe for madness."

For Jackson, he outlined three things he would tell someone who has gender confusion:

"1) God loves them, 2) they are not an accident, and 3) they should be willing and expect the grace of God to help them comply with God's commandments for their behavior on any level," he explained.

"We have to understand that the people who come to us for help in the context of Christian ministry, they have to be willing to accept the Bible as the highest authority for human behavior, and whatever counseling and encouragement and help will be based prescriptively on what the Bible teaches."

Jackson said that if he pastors someone who thinks that ministers are prejudiced against them, he said he cannot help it, because he's not going to change the doctrine of his church to accommodate an exceedingly small minority of people.

People must come to understand that when they accept Jesus, it is a call to a lifestyle and journey with God, Jackson added, emphasizing that it's imperative for churches to find a way to teach about these things in a loving but directive manner in order to set people on a course to have a normal family life as they pursue God and the Scriptures.