Gareth Jones
3 October 2024
The current, thorny gender debate is one around the relation between ourselves and our bodies. In this article, Gareth Jones, Emeritus Professor of Anatomy in the University of Otago in New Zealand and an ISCAST fellow, teases apart gender categories and moves us toward a Christian perspective.
Years ago, I read Jan Morris’s memoir Conundrum about the transgender experience, which predated current debate by decades. Its opening lines have never left me: “I was three or perhaps four years old when I realised I had been born into the wrong body, and I should really be a girl. I remember the moment well, and it is the earliest memory of my life.”
My reaction was one of intense interest and empathy as Morris traced the many years of tortuous transition from a highly respected male journalist to an equally respected female travel writer. This was a human story that stretched the margins of my own understanding as a person and a Christian. It was an early illustration of the transgender experience far removed from the strident advocacy of recent years, since it took place in a culture unacquainted with today’s individualism and notions of gender fluidity.
Read more: Churches can protect against harm, national gender violence conference told
Back then, people like Morris were the exception and most people accepted their own maleness or femaleness, although some would have had their private doubts. Now, navigating gender is much more complex, making it essential to understand gender categories as we form a Christian perspective.
The challenging landscape: defining sex, gender, and transgender identities
Before discussing transgender issues from a Christian perspective, it’s important to define some key terms as they are used in contemporary discussions around gender identity.
At birth, sex is assigned as male or female based on biology. Most people feel that their gender – their experience of what “maleness” or “femaleness” means in society and culture – matches the sex they are assigned at birth.
However, some people experience gender dysphoria, where they feel that their gender does not match their assigned sex, and this causes significant distress. The term “transgender” applies to individuals whose sense of gender does not align with their birth-assigned sex. Many, but not all, will experience gender dysphoria, and may take action such as medically transitioning from male to female or vice versa. Further, some may feel that they don’t fit anywhere in the binary model of male and female, but somewhere in-between or outside of this, and identify as “nonbinary” or “gender-fluid.”
Some people are born intersex, which refers to a range of biological conditions where an individual is born with ambiguous gonads or genitalia. This often results from developmental variations, such as missing, incomplete, or duplicate sex chromosomes, or other genetic abnormalities that affect sex hormone levels and function, leading to mixed male and female characteristics.
In Scripture, we can think of eunuchs as being a comparable category to intersex individuals. Here, eunuchs are perceived as outsiders, morally suspect, neither male nor female.
However, Isaiah predicted a time when they would be included with God’s people (Isaiah 56:3-7). Jesus affirmed them in the context of teaching on marriage (Matt 19:12) where three types are mentioned: eunuchs at birth, castrated males, and a third category open to debate. Philip also welcomed a eunuch into the church on the road down from Jerusalem (Acts 8:26-38).
In calling his disciples to learn from eunuchs, Jesus taught them to learn from those whose gender identity was not secure, and that gender identity is not the central value in the kingdom of heaven. For Christians, this is an extremely important principle that can be applied to not only intersex individuals but to the other thornier categories of gender identity.
Responding to gender dysphoria
The rapid rise of discussions about transgender identities in recent years stems from the rise in moral relativism, extreme individualism leading to the notion that humans are in complete control of their own destinies and bodies, and the fading of Christendom.
For some, transgender identification is seen as an ideology, but the transgender rights movement strongly rejects this label. Unfortunately, anyone questioning the validity of someone’s gender identity is condemned by some as transphobic. Simply exploring trans issues makes trans individuals feel vulnerable, leading to conflict.
Within a culture of gender affirmation, gender dysphoria has increased dramatically, with transitions encouraged. This has led to the use of puberty blockers in children, followed by cross-sex hormone therapy. Puberty blockers suppress the production of estrogen in females and testosterone in males, and are promoted as safe, fully reversible, and beneficial for mental health.
Read more: A clear case for freedom in God’s word: The Gender Revolution
However, there is a growing body of opinion questioning these claims and proposing psychological support rather than hormone therapy. The 2024 Cass Review commissioned by NHS England concluded that the evidence base for prescribing hormones was weak. Hormone therapy also poses long-term risks to bone health, and impacts on psychosexual and gender identity development.
Although the Cass Review aims to strengthen scientific integrity and validity, many have opposed its conclusions, and Professor Cass has received considerable abuse. Professionals in these areas are reluctant to discuss the treatment of children if those children question their gender identity. The debate is so toxic that some are deterred from carrying out crucial studies because it will put their reputation at risk.
Nevertheless, following the Cass Review, the NHS stopped routinely prescribing puberty blockers to under-18s, with the UK government imposing indefinite restrictions in England to address risks to patient safety. In contrast, both Australia and New Zealand are more supportive of child gender transitions, with New Zealand having no minimum age for starting puberty blockers, leaving decisions to the child and their family based on consent.
Finding a Christian perspective on the gender landscape
Amid this complex landscape, Christian psychologist Mark Yarhouse proposes three lenses through which to comprehend gender dysphoria: integrity, disability, or diversity in Understanding Gender Dysphoria. These three perspectives can be seen as stemming from three ethical positions: integrity from creation ethics; disability from fall ethics; and diversity from kingdom ethics.
Christians differ in the emphasis they place on one or more of these lenses when faced with conflicting situations. Many find the integrity lens, which upholds birth-assigned sex and gender, most consistent with Scripture. However, differences in human development seem to demand input from one or both of the other approaches.
As we all live in a context that is both personal and cultural, this may not perfectly reflect ideal maleness or femaleness. This is where the disability lens comes into the picture, and its association with therapy, although any management of dysphoria is to be the least invasive possible. Gender dysphoria is viewed as resulting from the fall, rather than a moral choice, and so the individual concerned is not responsible for the dysphoria.
Diversity is a radical alternative and holds that the sex/gender binary in creation may not be prescriptive. The emphasis is on gender choice rather than biological essentialism. Although this challenges a male-female binary model, it emphasises the importance of belonging to a community that understands and accepts broken people.
A Christian approach takes very seriously male-female complementarity, but also recognises that this complementarity does not always apply. For some people, developmental pathways have gone askew, and they need support, empathy, and encouragement. But modifying and enhancing people, especially children, should only be done with enormous caution.
Christians should hold firmly to the fundamental biblical imperatives of loving others, and showing kindness and respect towards those who are intersex or transgender. A human being’s true identity, transformation, and meaning are not to be found in their gender, but in fellowship with God through a living faith in Jesus Christ.
Gareth Jones is Emeritus Professor of Anatomy at the University of Otago in New Zealand and an ISCAST fellow. His latest book is At the Margins: A Life in Biomedical Science, Faith, and Ethical Dilemmas.
For more faith news, follow The Melbourne Anglican on Facebook, Instagram, or subscribe to our weekly emails.