Christ Community Church

Russell Moore, dean of the School of Theology at the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, has a series he is writing on his blog on how the gospel ministers to transgender people. It springs from his class on Christian Ethics at Southern, in which he presents the class with a problem with which they, as future pastors, have to deal. The problem is this: a transgender person with an adopted child has repented of her sins and believed in Jesus. The person’s name is Joan, but Joan used to be called John. Feeling like a woman trapped in a man’s body, John took some hormone pills, had a sex change operation, and became known as Joan. Compounding the problem is the adopted daughter, who has no idea that her mom used to be a man. The question Moore asks is: what does a faithful pastor do?

As he unfolds his answer, Moore shows great concern both for Joan as well as the supremacy and glory of the gospel. It is a model for how to apply the gospel to very difficult situations.

One quote that has stood out to and convicted me is this one:

The pastor should abandon any sense of revulsion because Joan’s situation is “weird” or “perverted.” All sin is weird and perverted. The fact that any of it (especially our own) seems “normal” to us is part of what we need the gospel for.

How easy it is to look at “Joan” and say, “Sin really did a number on you.” But the reality is that my sin is just as disgusting, perverted, weird, and awful as anyone’s. And, as Moore says, the fact that we ever think otherwise is one of the reasons why Jesus had to die. Jesus did not just die for the people with respectable and acceptable sins. He died for prostitutes, homosexuals, drug addicts, wife abusers, child abusers, rapists, murderers, alcoholics, persecuters of the church, self-righteous legalists, licentious pleasure-seekers, and every manner of sinner. If we feel weird about that, or if all we feel when we see such people is disdain, then that reveals more about us and our lack of an understanding of God’s gospel than it does about anything else.

Here are the entries in the series so far:

Christian Ethics: This Year’s Dilemma

John or Joan? My Answer (Part One)

John or Joan? My Answer (Part Two)

John or Joan? My Answer (Part Three)

John or Joan? My Answer (Part Four)

This may not be something that most of us have dealt with, but, if we are truly out there engaging our world with the gospel, something like will come up. Conversion is messy. Sanctification is even messier. Ministering the gospel in the name of Jesus to sinners is not for the faint of heart.