The Church and The Gender Issue

The United Methodist Church made national news last week.  The country’s largest Protestant denomination ended its national convention split over the issue of same-sex marriage and the ordination of LGBT clergy.  Officially the Methodist Church voted to maintain the traditional stance on marriage and ordaining gay clergy, but almost half (47%) the delegates to the convention disagreed.   

In some manner, every mainline denomination faces a similar dilemma.  How do you balance the traditional biblical stance with the shift in culture?  How do you stay relevant but maintain God’s plan for marriage and procreation?

In my mind God’s desire for is for a marriage to be between one man and one woman.  Throughout scripture from the Garden of Eden (Genesis 2:24) on, God blesses the relationship between a man and a women.  All marriages and references to marriage in the Bible involve men and women.  The problem with this perspective today is we live in a post-Christian society.  Much of the world operates from a “what feels good for me” perspective.  According to research on today’s teens from the Barna Group, 33% of members of Generation Z 33% of those polled gender has more to do with how a person feels.  While 48% of those surveyed says sex orientation is determined at birth, 12% of those polled say they are “not sure” how a person’s primary gender is determined.  It is obvious today’s teens struggle with this the issue of gender identity.

So, where does this leave us?  Yes we are holding to values that seem outdated from a worldly perspective.  The other thing to remember is that we are called to love people for who they are, not who we want them to be.  That includes those who live lifestyles or hold opinions that run counter to ours.  Remember Jesus words to Nicodemus in John 3:17, “For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.”  From my perspective we are called not to condemn or judge those whose lifestyle or opinions we find objectionable.  Instead, we are called to love them and point them to Jesus.  Only when they come to know Jesus and study God’s word is there hope that they might come to realize God’s desire for their lives.