This week I read an article on gender medicine in Christianity Today, a magazine I appreciate and nearly always agree with. It happens I fully agree with the writer that adolescents should not be receiving gender-altering treatment, but it was disappointing that their argument seemed to have so little sense of the issue either for parents trying to understand or communicate with their “trans” kids or people of any age who experience gender dysphoria/incongruence. Worse, the writer’s use of the biblical text was scant and superficial yet their conclusion allowed no room for discussion.

This shouldn’t be a surprise. It is actually the most common way we Evangelicals have responded to “new” ethical or moral dilemmas. We have a lot of confidence in our existing and shared scriptural understanding; so much so that we barely crack our Bible open to see if we’ve actually understood correctly in relation to the issue we’re discussing or if there might be more to learn. We also often fail, especially early on, to try to understand what is going on in the lives of the people we’re talking about.

Rushing to an answer is completely understandable for people muddling through a real relationship in real-time with no previous experience, but it is not okay for those of us who have the luxury of distance. We can do better than to cement our views in place before we’ve done the hard work of study and understanding.

It is important, especially to us as Anabaptists that we collectively work to understand what the Bible says and how to apply it, not fearing, following or reacting to culture: To read the Bible, discuss, pray, read it again, listen to people in the middle of the issue at hand, test, debate, even argue and read some more, all the while applying our best understanding in the most loving and Christ-like way we know how.

This issue of Growing Together, though with only one article, is a contribution to that process. You are invited to respond and can do that by replying to this email.

Erica Fehr

GT Editor