Journal: Journal for Biblical Manhood and Womanhood
Volume: JBMW 21:2 (Fall 2016)
Article: The Clarity Of Complementarity: Gender Dysphoria In Biblical Perspective
Author: Owen D. Strachan

JBMW 21:2 (Fall 2016) p. 31

The Clarity Of Complementarity:
Gender Dysphoria In Biblical Perspective

Owen Strachan

Associate Professor of Christian Theology
and Director of the Center for Public Theology
Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary
Kansas City, Missouri

He wanted to watch wrestling; I wanted to watch the Food Network.

Seven months prior to my short-lived relationship with the guy who won the battle over the remote, I was a lesbian. My long black hair neatly tied into a ponytail. My jeans sagging just enough to show off the boxer briefs I wore faithfully. My white t-shirt covering the breasts that I worked diligently to keep flat, lest I look too much like the woman God made me. And beneath it all lay a soul that God died to save.

Born with an inherent disposition to sin mixed with fatherlessness, molestation, and limited-to-no examples of trustworthy men led me into a lifestyle of homosexuality. It was a way of life I willingly embraced. My style of dress and behavior was somewhat indicative of my personality. A girly-girl could never be used to describe Jackie. An aggressive tom-boy was more like it. Therefore, the girls I attracted were typically everything that allowed me to become what I thought I wanted to secretly be: a man.

So wrote artist Jackie Hill-Perry in a 9Marks essay about her experience of gender dysphoria and later conversion to Christ.1 Hill-Perry’s testimony sheds helpful light on a tough issue facing the church today: how do we approach gender dysphoria? When people feel like they have the “gender identity” of the opposite sex but not the body, what kind of counsel do we provide them?2

JBMW 21:2 (Fall 2016) p. 32

Or, to sharpen the question: does the church of Jesus Christ have anything unique, anything distinctive, anything worth saying, in the modern conversation over gender dysphoria? Are we to sit quietly in the corner as this conversation transpires, offering little but affirmation?

For my part, I believe that the church has something to say on this matter. More than this, we have the wisdom our world desperately needs but utterly lacks. We are staked upon Scripture, the very power of God unto salvation, and Scripture norms our understanding of all of life. The Bible does not merely give us the discrete spiritual formula by which we may be saved. The Bible sets humanity in proper light. It tells us who made us, what we were made for, and how we are to live as enchanted but fallen creatures under the rule of God. This has great import for the conversation surrounding gender dysphoria,...