Should Christians entertain so-called gender pronouns?
Gender pronoun hospitality refers to the concept of using someone's “preferred pronouns” or a transgender name for someone who identifies as transgender, despite not agreeing with LGBTQ ideology.
God's truth about human identity and sexuality takes precedence over what we internally perceive in ourselves.
The idea behind gender pronoun hospitality is that using preferred pronouns or transnames at the request of people who identify as LGBTQ maintains a relationship with them. Failing to practice gender-neutral hospitality risks offending and can ultimately destroy relationships, which can create a barrier between people who identify as LGBTQ and the gospel. Practitioners argue that there is. Biblical scholar Preston Sprinkle even describes hospitality as “common courtesy.”
but According to famous pastor John PiperChristians should not engage in hospitality that uses gender as a pronoun. There's a good reason for that.
On a recent episode of the podcast “Ask Pastor John,” Piper spoke about the inhospitality of gender pronouns and whether Christians can use them in relationships with non-Christians in the context of evangelism from church elders who are concerned. answered the question.
what piper said
Piper first noticed a problem with the phrase “gender pronoun hospitality.”
He said it combines a “beautiful Biblical word” (i.e., hospitality) with an “unbiblical concept” (i.e., gender pronoun ideology), making the phrase “unhelpful and misleading.” He explained.
“We should be hospitable, but not affirm pronouns that represent destructive choices or false perceptions of reality,” Piper advised. “It is possible to be hospitable and honest.”
More importantly, Piper said using “gender” in the context of LGBTQ ideology is “a compromise with a sinful view of reality.”
Christians should instead use terms that refer to biological sex. This is because gender is a “designation that distorts reality,'' whereas biological sex distinguishes between men and women.
He explained:
Gender (as a personal designation, not a grammar) was forced into our vocabulary by radical feminists 50 years ago in the 70s. Feminists believed that the givenness of sexual distinction forever forced women into a certain kind of existence whether they wanted to or not. Therefore, in order to create the freedom to define their existence, “gender” was used as an alternative to “sex”, since sex can be chosen but gender cannot. Sex is bondage. Gender is free – or so it was thought. I think using the word “gender” when the correct word is “sex” is like using the word “marriage” for a relationship between two men or two women. It's not a marriage. It's called “marriage”.
After advising Christians to be candid about the “implications and cleansing power” of the Gospel in the context of evangelism, Piper said one of the key arguments against gender pronoun hospitality is undermined. Explained a serious problem.
Most importantly, “it's against God,” Piper said.
Furthermore, the inhospitality of gender pronouns involves upholding lies that distort the true nature of human beings as designed by God and promotes a “deeply anti-God commitment to human autonomy,” leading to the disorder of our culture. sexuality and persuade more people to become its members. Piper explained that sexuality is at the core of humanity.
another big problem
Pronoun hospitality practitioners claim they do not agree with or affirm LGBTQ ideology itself.
However, there is a big problem here. Using the grammar of LGBTQ ideology (such as preferred pronouns and transgender names for people who identify as transgender) can affirm the legitimacy of those categories even though it contradicts objective truth. It will be.
This is why Professor Karl Trueman, in his book The Rise and Triumph of the Modern Self, warns against Christians co-opting the grammar of LGBTQ ideology.
“Society has categories for thinking about people and identities, and the real problems arise when those categories are simply not appropriate or appropriate,” Trueman explains.
“That is the question the Church should be asking about sexual identity: Are the categories that society currently prioritizes really appropriate?” he asks. “If the post-Freudian taxonomy represented by the acronym LGBTQ+ is based on a fundamental categorical error (that gender is an identity), then Christians must thoroughly criticize it. , shouldn't we refuse to define ourselves within that framework?
Truman warns that compromising the “categories” of LGBTQ grammar creates “unfortunate confusion.” It also creates the illusion that it justifies not only the categories themselves, but also the moral and philosophical propositions on which they are constructed.
That is the very reason why Piper warns against engaging in pronominal acts of hospitality and instructs Christians to think seriously about the implications before engaging in such “hospitality.”
God's truth about human identity and sexuality takes precedence over what we internally perceive in ourselves. Christians must stand on God's truth, not compromise.
