'Packing Briefs' (sigh)

For all that is in the world—the desires of the flesh and the desires of the eyes and pride of life—is not from the Father but is from the world. And the world is passing away along with its desires, but whoever does the will of God abides forever. (1 John 2:16-17 ESV)

[Does God ever wring his hands? If not, then surely the advent of "packing briefs" gave Him a tic...]

"We’re not yet sure of the person that our son is, he’s in kindergarten," [the father] said. "We don’t label him. He’s not anything."

"He's not anything."

Not anything?

After keeping an eye on (and a cautious distance from) this developing story about a 5-year old boy who thinks he's a girl and his parents who have concluded that, for the time being, he's not anything, I don't know who's confused more, the child, the well-intentioned parents, or me.

After reading this post to The Federalist website, I noted that the child was labelled "trans-questioning" (whatever that means) and that transgender has become an -ism now (perhaps it ought to be capitalized, like Communism?). This would presuppose the existence of Transgenderists, those folks who believe in...oh, never mind.

How does one little kid-- who clearly has issues, yes-- become the hood ornament for this new, um, ideology? Here's how: "The issue became public when the [parents of the 5-year old] demanded the school present transgender materials and information to their child’s classmates."

As I was reading I felt as though I was on a driverless bus about to go off the road, then a guardrail appeared in the form of this excerpt:

The American College of Pediatricians issued a report urging “educators and legislators to reject all policies that condition children to accept as normal a life of chemical and surgical impersonation of the opposite sex. Facts – not ideology – determine reality.”

The report states that “human sexuality is an objective biological binary trait: ‘XY’ and ‘XX’ are genetic markers of health – not genetic markers of a disorder,” and “No one is born with a gender. Everyone is born with a biological sex. Gender (an awareness and sense of oneself as male or female) is a sociological and psychological concept; not an objective biological one.”

More disturbing to me than parents who have decided that their own 5-year old child is NOT ANYTHING, and even more disturbing than transgenderism, and, yes, even more disturbing than "packing briefs" (though not by much) is the thought that there might be an elementary school with an overly quixotic urge to incorporate the book I Am Jazz into its curriculum.

I have to say in all honesty and sincerity that I have a difficult time making sense of it all. I believe that parents who send their kindergarten-age son to school dressed like a girl are but a thin layer of the onion that is our disordered world. And at its core is sin. All I can do sometimes, when my brain fails and my soul hurts is to seek refuge in God's Word and God's Church, not to escape (necessarily), but to find reassurance in Christ's love for all, regardless of ethnicity, race, or (trans)gender. It is through Christ, as revealed to me in God's Word, that I find hope for this mess we've made of things. The Lutheran Church - Missouri Synod's paper Gender Identity Disorder or Gender Dysphoria in Christian Perspective articulates what I believe (not necessarily what I understand); an excerpt:

An underlying assumption of those who press for changes in the church’s understanding of homosexual behavior has been that one’s embodiment should not be a determinative factor in moral behavior. In other words, simply because one is physically male, he should not have to accept that the natural and God-pleasing sexual expression appropriate to him should be toward females. And, if one is physically female, she should not feel morally compelled to restrict any sexual desires for women. Similarly, one who has sexual desire for both men and women, should not seek to deny such desires or feelcompelled to restrict his or her sexual contact only to the opposite sex. And, lastly, just because one has male genitalia, one should not be encouraged to seek treatment for the fact that one feels more like a female.

The entire Christian tradition and the majority of Christian churches today have opposed such changes in perspective. The basis for such opposition is precisely because our embodiment is understood as an aspect of our creation by God and therefore instructive regarding behavior that is good and pleasing to Him. Human embodiment indicates simply and eloquently God’s intention for sexual activity—that male and female by becoming “one flesh” might end their aloneness in lifelong unity with one another and, according to God’s blessing, in the procreation of children (Gen 1:26-28; Gen 2:18-24). Homosexual or bisexual desire and activity is therefore viewed as aberrant (see Gen 19:4-11; Lev 18:22; 20:13; Rom 1:24-27; 1 Cor 6:9; and 1 Tim 1:10), because it contradicts the meaning and purpose of one’s embodiment as male or female.

This biblical view is not unrealistic about human nature in a fallen world. It is true that one result of sin is that desires and behavior become disordered. Husbands and wives inevitably experience (and too frequently act out) sexual desire for men and women other than their spouses. In other cases, men and women experience (and frequently act out) desire for individuals of their same sex.

The very same line of thought would apply to one who is embodied as a man but feels persistent discomfort with his maleness or for a person with a female body who believes she is male. From the standpoint of our bodies—which is the only objective means of determining who is male or female—we have a God-given identity that is either masculine or feminine. One is a man or a woman because that is what the body given by God indicates.

I hope someone soon will tell that little 5-year old that, rather than "not anything," he is a unique and special creation, a child of God, loved for who he is.

Lord, in Your mercy, hear my prayer.