Gender Dysphoria and “Practical Application”: A Rejoinder to Mark Yarhouse

Sep 16, 2016 by Jill

By Robert A J Gagnon:

I just recently realized that First Things had posted on Nov. 15 a response (“Understanding Gender Dysphoria: A Reply to Gagnon“) by Mark Yarhouse, a professor of psychology at Regent University in Virginia, to my Oct. 16 critique (“How Should Christians Respond to the Transgender Phenomenon“) of his Christianity Today article (“Understanding the Transgender Phenomenon“). Mark is a good man. I did not then, and do not now, make any character attack. As I stated in my article, “Yarhouse would certainly prefer that persons with gender dysphoria make peace with their biological sex. He thinks counseling should be directed to ‘how best to manage gender dysphoria in light of the integrity lens’ and advising persons with GID to explore their other-sex desires ‘in the least invasive way possible.'”

However, having said that, I still disagree with his view that in church meetings (and elsewhere) we should address a man who thinks he is a woman by his chosen female name and use feminine pronouns, and a woman who thinks she is a man by her chosen male name and use masculine pronouns. According to Dr. Yarhouse, “it is an act of respect, even if we disagree, to let the person determine what they want to be called.” I view it as a scandal to the church, an accommodation to sin that God finds abhorrent, and a complicity in the offender’s self-dishonoring behavior that does him no favor.

I also don’t agree that the church should allow in church meetings those with transgender desires “to identify with aspects of the opposite sex, as a way to manage extreme discomfort.” I cannot support Dr. Yarhouse’s theological conclusion that “faithfulness” to Christ and how one manages “gender dysphoria” are two entirely distinct matters. Dr. Yarhouse contends that “redemption is not found by measuring how well a person’s gender identity aligns with their biological sex.” I would rather say, based on my reading of Jesus and Paul (and Scripture generally), that while redemption is unmerited, an active pursuit of a “transgender” life would be at odds with minimal standards for repentance, faith, transformation, and a claim to “faithfulness” to Christ.

Read here