Does the government have the authority to tell a person to transition?

Last month President Trump signed an executive order stating that the government will only recognize two sexes—male and female. The Executive Order also stated that “sex” will be used instead of “gender.” 

The Executive Order can be read here:

Defending Women From Gender Ideology Extremism And Restoring Biological Truth To The Federal Government – The White House

This seems to be an extension of a campaign that happened in the election to target people who identify as transgender. 

I have grave concerns about this Executive Order and this campaign to target people who have or will transition. 

I’m not sure what authority the government has to decide if people are going to transition. Many of my conservative friends have told me they want the government out of their lives. On many issues this makes sense to me. And on the issue of gender and sexuality this makes a lot of sense. 

I grew up in Worthington, Minnesota. I knew of no person who publicly transitioned between genders. If I had come across a person who transitioned or wanted to transition, I would have not understood the decision. So I have appreciation for people who don’t understand why a person would transition. 

However I’m not going to ignore the experience of 1.4 million people in the United States who, according to the National Center for Transgender Equality, identify as transgender.  Chain of Lakes has people who attend our congregation who have transitioned. I am so glad that they have found our congregation to be a welcoming and accepting place. 

What authority does the government have to define a person’s experience of gender? Who should have the final authority on this issue? 

I’ve been a pastor for 33 years, so often people will share with me that the Bible has authority on issues of human biology and sexuality. And the Bible does have a lot to say about the goodness of humans and our propensity to sin or fall short. 

Some would argue that Genesis 1:27 would make an argument that a person would not transition. “So God created humankind in [God’s] image, in the image of God [God] created them; male and female [God] created them." 

To me the writer of Genesis wasn’t making an eternal pronouncement that gender is not fluid or finalized at birth. I don’t think the writer of Genesis was trying to make a statement about the experience of people who wanted to transition in 2025 or that gender is static. What I do think the writer of Genesis was saying is that each of us is created in the image of God. 

If I want to learn more about gender I’m going to go to the best biologists and doctors in the world who study this issue. People like the Mayo Clinic who provide quality care for transgender people Transgender and Intersex Specialty Care Clinic in Minnesota - Overview - Mayo Clinic or Johns Hopkins who also provides quality care. Center for Transgender and Gender Expansive Health | Johns Hopkins Medicine

If someone close to me was transitioning, I don't think I would call up the City of Blaine or any other governmental agency to see what should be done.

What I’m also not going to do is fit a view on biology into a narrow reading of the Scriptures. To do this would be to make the same historical mistake that some in the church have done. Galileo was convicted in a trial in 1633 for his belief that the earth revolved around the sun. The church believed differently based on its literal reading of the Bible. The leaders of the church at that time wanted to pigeon-hole a belief about the stars into its reading of Genesis. 

That didn’t work then; it doesn’t work now.  

Ultimately my final authority is Jesus and the way he loved people. Jesus went out of his way to love the outcast—the Samaritan, the women at the well, prostitutes, and lepers. It hurts me to think that a person who has transitioned would be treated as an outcast in 2025, but the recent Executive Order by President Trump makes me wonder. If Jesus was alive today he would go out of his way to love a person who has transitioned. 

I’m proud that in 2018 the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church passed a statement encouraging “congregations of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) to welcome transgender and gender non-binary people into the life of the church and to continue to grow in compassion and knowledge about the full expression of our individual and respective gender identities.” 

In commenting on that statement the Advisory Committee on Social Witness wrote, “our committee is very concerned about the mistreatment of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender persons by others who use religion to demean and discriminate. We hope that Presbyterians will not only repudiate the mistreatment of any persons but will affirm the God-given humanity of people of all gender identities. Transgender and gender non-binary persons have amazing gifts to offer the church, and their calls to membership and leadership deserve both affirmation and celebration.” PC-Biz                      

This statement is a much clearer expression of what Jesus would have us do than the recent Executive Order. 

Who does have the final authority to decide if a person will transition. I don’t think it’s the government.

The wisdom of Atticus

 

Two weeks ago I shared at the beginning of a sermon that “To Kill a Mockingbird” was in my canon, that is it reflects the values that are dearest to me. After the sermon a number of people came up to me and shared how much they love the book and they love Atticus. One person even said they named their son, “Atticus.” 

The experience made me realize that I needed to read “To Kill a Mockingbird” again. I read the book for the first time in college in a literature class where I learned how to write. I don't know how many times I've read it since, but the book has been close to me. Though the actual book I had was so worn out that I ordered another one. It didn’t take long to finish this time as I’ve challenged myself to read fifty pages of some book every day. And even though I do my reading at an ungodly early hour, I fell in love with Atticus again. 

I kept coming across quotes from him that captured my imagination. Quotes like: 

The one thing that doesn't abide by majority rule is a person's conscience. 

I put that one on my Facebook page and received many comments. 

Other meaningful quotes for me were:

You never really understand a person until you consider things from his point of view . . . until you climb into his skin and walk around in it. 

“Simply because we were licked a hundred years before we started is no reason for us not to try to win.” 

“The one place where a man ought to get a square deal is in a courtroom, be he any color of the rainbow, but people have a way of carrying their resentments right into a jury box.” 

“It’s never an insult to be called what somebody thinks is a bad name. It just shows you how poor that person is, it doesn’t hurt you.”

Atticus lived in a different time. I’ve been wondering since I read this book again how he would respond to the culture that we all find ourselves. It’s much easier to criticize publicly via Social Media those with whom we have disagreements. The thoughts that we shared behind closed doors are now frequently shared in public. 

I wonder how Atticus would have handled this. Would he have a Facebook/Twitter/Instagram account? 

His task was to try to understand the person in front of him—and to understand that person in a non-judgmental way. He would try to live in that person’s shoes for a while in order to come to the conclusions about why that person acted as he or she did. 

So thought he disagreed with Bob Ewell and the jury who unfairly sentenced Tom Robinson, he still wanted to understand both. 

I’ve tried to embrace this line of thinking in the past two weeks. I have as strong opinions about what is happening in our culture as most. I’ve avoided sharing my opinions via Social Media or even in my sermons. I’m still in the “understanding” phase. I’m doing my best to walk in the other person’s shoes and look at the world from that person’s perspective. 

And admittedly I can respond as a person of privilege, just as Atticus was. I don’t have to immediately take actions. I am personally not suffering from what is happening in the culture. Atticus thought he wouldn’t suffer by defending Tom Robinson. But he was wrong and was fortunate that Bob Ewell didn’t kill his children. 

Some have questioned whether Atticus did enough in the novel to earn the praise that he has.

The Contested Legacy of Atticus Finch | The New Yorker 

And some have wondered if Atticus fit into the mold of a “White Savior” that actually disempowers people of different races. Atticus Finch, Abraham Lincoln, and the Imagination of White Educators - National Council of Teachers of English

These questions are important. 

However right now we need more people to act like Atticus. To respond with integrity, to put themselves in another person’s shoes for an extended period of time and try to imagine how that person came to their conclusions, to fight for justice even when the result will be loss. 

I’ve made a commitment to myself to read “To Kill a Mockingbird” every year in the foreseeable future. And who knows maybe next year I’ll be captured by Scout or Jem or even Boo Radley. But for now I’m doing my best to look at the world through the eyes of Atticus. I believe we need his wisdom.