According to the president of Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, Christians who choose to honor pronoun requests in order to avoid hurt feelings for someone dealing with gender dysphoria are, in fact, forfeiting the high ground in any conversation of faith moving forward.
"It's a lie, and it's a slander against God's creation," Albert Mohler said this week on Washington Watch with Tony Perkins.
"We want to respond as kindly and as respectfully as we can, but there are lines Christians can't cross without giving away the store, so to speak, and one of them is the line of this language, especially when it comes to the transgender, nonbinary revolution," Mohler said.
Part of the revolution is the desire of transgenders to be addressed or referenced by the pronouns that correspond with their gender identity.
Pronouns have become a conversation in the workplace and the classroom, but Mohler says the conversation has no place in the Church.
"The moment we begin to use the pronouns and speak as if the transition has actually happened, we're not in a position of credibility to argue for a Biblical position," Mohler said.
Proponents of LBGTQ rights say rejecting preferred pronouns can create discomfort, stress, and anxiety.
There have been numerous hot spots in the transgender debate – one of them in the state of Montana, where Governor Greg Gianforte, the state's first Republican governor in 16 years, on Friday received Senate Bill 99, which would ban "gender-affirming care" for minors. He quickly signed the bill.
Governor's son asks for veto
In late March, Gianforte's 32-year-old son, David, asked him to veto the measure. David Gianforte is homosexual.
"This is affecting families," Mohler said. "The governor of Montana was opposed by his non-binary son in public debate. That's new. We haven't seen this kind of thing before."
The Mayo Clinic lists behavioral therapy as a treatment option for gender dysphoria, but puberty-blocking drugs and surgery often seem to be the preferred treatments. Proponents argue that denying such treatment will lead to increased suicide rates among trans youth.
There are conflicting media accounts of suicide rates among transgender youth.
A study by the Heritage Foundation in 2022 found the likelihood is actually higher in states that allow minor to receive puberty blockers for gender-affirmation.
Matt Walsh of The Daily Wire reported last year how doctors at Vanderbilt University Medical Center appreciated sex-change surgery as a big money-maker.
With more bills on the way to the governor's desk, Montana Democratic Representative Zooey Zephyr, a biological male, told his fellow lawmakers they would have "blood on their hands" if a gender-affirming bill failed.
Zephyr has been banned from participating on the floor of the Montana House but can still vote remotely.
"One of [the Left's] ultimate rhetorical plays is to simply say, 'This leads to violence.' Now let's be clear. You and I are both broken-hearted over any individual so distraught over these issues that that individual, he or she, would seek some sort of violence against himself or herself," Mohler said to Perkins. "I want to turn that back on the Left and say, 'It is not conservatives. It's not biblical Christians who are sowing the seeds of confusion here. It is you; it is the Left.'"
Mohler said LBGTQ proponents create confusion by going into public schools and places with events like a "drag queen story hour" and "saying to teenagers, 'This is a question you must answer about yourself. Are you male or female? What do you feel today?'"
Such scenes are not uncommon.
Evangelicals can be swayed
Mohler says Greg Gianforte's strong stance in light of his son's position is unfortunately unique.
"The polling shows us that one of the most shameful things about American evangelicals and conservatives is that many of them change their position when they get close to someone who holds the opposite position," he noted. "That's not a compliment. That shows a problem in Christians knowing how to draw the line in argument from truth to application."
Mohler encourages Christians to stand firm in difficult times.
"We argue for this not just because we know it's right and true, which we do, but because we know a loving God knows this is right for us and is the way to health and wholeness. There is not going to be any health and wholeness in rebelling against the very structure of creation that God has made for His glory," the seminary president asserted.
