The Standard July 8, 2023
As Christians, it is important to evaluate current trends in thinking through the lens of a biblical worldview. Our analysis of ever-changing thought patterns should be careful and our reaction to those who oppose our conclusions kind. Most of all, we must reflect Jesus in our interactions. Some who do not share our spiritual convictions might agree with our reasoning, while others might become offended by it. All of us should allow a variety of opinions to be expressed and remember that different foundational principles typically lead to different outlooks.
In discussions of human biology, we often make generalizations such as asserting that babies are born with two arms and two legs plus the ability to see, to hear and eventually to walk, since the overwhelming majority are. Experts say that human brains do not fully develop until about the age of 25. We recognize that most females, at varying times between menarche and menopause, are physically equipped to bear children. We understand that the strongest and fastest men are stronger and faster than the most able-bodied women. Having gone through male puberty brings a huge competitive advantage amongst top athletes. Of course, the sad truth is that many children are born unable to see or to hear. Some are born without limbs or with limb reductions. Some never walk. There are those whose brains never fully develop. Many women find themselves unable to get pregnant. Without question, however, all people are created in God’s image and are beloved.
The vast majority of babies are born with reproductive and sexual anatomy usually associated with definitions of male or female. Some are not, and this is called “intersex.” Estimates vary that .018% to 1.7% of births are intersex, depending on how broad one’s definition is. The high range includes conditions which often go undetected during a person’s life, or syndromes like Klinefelter or Turner, as well as late-onset adrenal hyperplasia. Fausto-Sterling included these in a study of intersex “traits.” Others believe that the term “intersex” should be used only in cases where chromosomal sex is not consistent with phenotypic sex, or when the phenotype cannot be classified as either female or male, thus resulting in the 0.018% figure.
I first learned about intersex by reading a most disturbing book called As Nature Made Him: The Boy who was Raised as a Girl. In it, through multiple interviews with David Reimer, his twin brother Brian and their mother, John Colapinto tells the story of a boy from Canada whose circumcision was botched in infancy. Desperate parents turned to the famous psychologist and sexologist, Dr. John Money, who founded the Gender Identity Clinic at Johns Hopkins University. Money balked at what he considered Victorian taboos against sex and believed best societies encouraged free expression of affection and love in sexual ways, even between a child and an adult – perhaps even an adult relative. He promoted childhood “sexual rehearsal play.” One of his theories was that intersex infants could be raised just as successfully as a girl or a boy, if they were consistently guided towards gender norms of one or the other.
Money convinced the twins’ parents that if David were castrated and never told he had been born a boy, but given hormones and sex-reassignment surgeries and raised like a girl, he eventually would become well-adjusted. The parents and relatives strictly abided by the plan, yet David, renamed Brenda, lived a tortured existence. Brenda felt horribly uncomfortable dressing and playing the way adults were encouraging. In annual visits without the parents in the room, Money spoke crudely of body parts and sexual activities to the twins and at a young age had them assume certain sexual positions, sometimes taking photographs.
In middle school, after 12 years of these traumatic visits, daily inner turmoil, failing a grade in school and seeing multiple psychologists and therapists, Brenda refused any interaction with Dr. Money and became suicidal. The parents finally broke down and told Brenda the truth about being born a boy. The news came as overwhelming relief. Immediately Brenda wanted to revert to “the sex written in his genes and chromosomes.” David’s extreme discomfort with most childhood memories was obvious in the few interviews he agreed to as an adult, and at the age of 38 he committed suicide.
Throughout his career, Dr. Money touted this case as an overwhelming success and as more proof that sex was malleable. David Reimer, not by name, became one of the most famous patients in history, based on a lie. Contemporaries Dr. Paul McHugh, former Psychiatrist-in-Chief at Johns Hopkins, Biologist Dr. Milton Diamond and Psychiatrist Dr. Keith Sigmundson extensively studied sexual identity cases and disagreed with most of Money’s theories. McHugh was outspoken in his doubt about any psychological benefits of sex reassignment surgery. In his mind transgenderism, or an individual’s gender identity not matching the sex to which they were assigned at birth, needed to be treated with therapy. That idea is offensive to some.
Many who believe a biological man can become a biological woman and vice versa agree with some of Money’s theories but condemn his practices. They and most advocates of children having irreversible changes to their bodies through hormones and surgeries truly think they are promoting what is best for conflicted kids. They, like most of us, have the best intentions. Our contradictory assumptions, however, can’t all be right, and those from opposing sides often believe children are being harmed by the opposite approach.
The relatively small number of children exhibiting extreme discomfort with their assigned sex and fitting into their society’s gender norms at an early age and their resulting trauma traditionally were studied as the roots of transgenderism. Data shows, however, that the number of girls within one friend group who are suddenly identifying as males, without any indication of this inclination when they were young, is skyrocketing. Many social influencers are convincing tweens and teens that if they ever have any discomfort whatsoever with their bodies, they must be transgender. Tragically, it is not uncommon now for tweens and teens to become suicidal over gender dysphoria. It is reminiscent of young people whose lives are at risk from losing so much weight due to body dysmorphia like anorexia or bulimia. It’s hard to imagine how gut-wrenching this is for children and parents. These issues are uniquely deep, complex and painful. Above all, Christian parents must affirm God’s love and their love for their children and the sincere desire for what is best for them. Parents will not all come to the same conclusions about how best to deal with children who question their gender identity. Ultimately, we want our kids to be healthy and to understand their unique, important place in God’s design.
“’Haven’t you read,’ he [Jesus] replied, ‘that at the beginning the Creator ‘made them male and female,’ and said, ‘For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh’? So they are no longer two, but one flesh. Therefore, what God has joined together, let no one separate.” (Matthew 19:4-6; Mark 10:6-9)
God had a purpose in creating male and female. We see it throughout nature and must come to informed and wise conclusions regarding the best, most healthy ways to understand biblical truth, science and real struggles so prevalent among today’s children and youth.
celiastone 