Latest / Pastor John Piper's answers / On So-Called ‘Gender Pronoun Hospitality’

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On So-Called ‘Gender Pronoun Hospitality’ · Pastor John Piper's answers

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  Speaker 1: We got our first question about so called gender pronoun
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  Speaker 1: hospitality exactly five years ago in December of twenty nineteen.
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  Speaker 1: Many email sins, most recently in this urgent question from
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  Speaker 1: an anonymous elder. Hello, Pastor John, thank you for this
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  Speaker 1: podcast and for taking my question. I serve as an
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  Speaker 1: elder in my church. We are blessed with a college
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  Speaker 1: nearby where we have an active ministry presence. There, we
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  Speaker 1: team up with a large parachurch ministry helping churches serve
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  Speaker 1: college campuses. During a recent training session, this ministry asked
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  Speaker 1: us to consider using gender pronoun hospitality on our local campus,
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  Speaker 1: a suggestion that has now come before the elders of
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  Speaker 1: the church to see if we will allow our members
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  Speaker 1: and those we support locally who work on the campus
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  Speaker 1: to do so. The argument is that there are times when,
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  Speaker 1: for the sake of evangelism, one may decide to call
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  Speaker 1: a person by their chosen gender. If such an act
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  Speaker 1: removes a possible barrier in sharing the gospel. The ask
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  Speaker 1: for our church is for a to have the freedom
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  Speaker 1: in the moment to do this. Limited to evangelism contexts,
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  Speaker 1: limited to conversations with those who are not believers. If
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  Speaker 1: someone claims to be a follower of Christ, such pronoun
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  Speaker 1: hospitality would not apply. But Article seven in the Nashville
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  Speaker 1: statement seems to me to show no wiggle room here
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  Speaker 1: at all. Pastor John, what do you think of this
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  Speaker 1: so called gender pronoun hospitality?
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  Speaker 2: I see five issues that need to be addressed in
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  Speaker 2: this question. I'll take them from what I think is
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  Speaker 2: the least to the most important. First, when you're dealing
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  Speaker 2: directly with a person who says he is a woman
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  Speaker 2: or she is a man, the pronoun that you use
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  Speaker 2: is you, not he or she? Hello, how are you?
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  Speaker 2: So it may be possible to engage a person directly
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  Speaker 2: without touching the issue of pronouns. Now. Of course, that
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  Speaker 2: doesn't work when dealing with proper names itself. Is Andy,
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  Speaker 2: now Angie. You may not even know that Angie was
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  Speaker 2: once Andy, so stepping into the conversation, you may not
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  Speaker 2: have any choice unless you simply avoid the name, which
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  Speaker 2: is possible. Second issue, even in a slogan, I think
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  Speaker 2: connecting the beautiful biblical word hospitality with the unbiblical concept
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  Speaker 2: of gender pronoun is unhelpful and misleading.
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  Speaker 1: Now.
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  Speaker 2: I know it's just a catchphrase, but catchphrases reveal things.
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  Speaker 2: We ought to be hospitable, but we ought not to
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  Speaker 2: be affirming of pronouns that designate a destructive choice and
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  Speaker 2: a false view of reality. It is possible to be
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  Speaker 2: hospitable and honest. Third issue, the very use of the
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  Speaker 2: word gender is a compromise with sinful views of reality.
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  Speaker 2: I think we should be using the word sex everywhere
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  Speaker 2: we are distinguishing male and female, and I think the
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  Speaker 2: word gender should be reserved for the reality distorting designation
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  Speaker 2: that it is. Gender as a designation for persons, not grammar,
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  Speaker 2: was pushed into our vocabulary by radical feminists fifty years
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  Speaker 2: ago in the seventies, who believed that the givenness of
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  Speaker 2: sexual distinctions forever condemned women to kinds of existence they
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  Speaker 2: may or may not want, and therefore to create the
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  Speaker 2: freedom to define their existence. Gender was used as an
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  Speaker 2: alternative to sex because gender can be chosen and sex
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  Speaker 2: can't be. Sex is bondage. Gender is freedom, so it
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  Speaker 2: was thought. I think using the word gender where the
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  Speaker 2: right word is sex is like using the word marriage
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  Speaker 2: for a relationship between two men or two women. It's
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  Speaker 2: not marriage, it is so called marriage. In our present context,
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  Speaker 2: Maleness and femaleness. Are sexes not genders? Fourth, how much
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  Speaker 2: of the Gospel's implications and purifying power should be shared
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  Speaker 2: up front in evangelism. Peter stated the Gospel like this
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  Speaker 2: in One Peter two twenty four, Christ bore our sins
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  Speaker 2: in his body on the tree that we might die
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  Speaker 2: to sin and live to righteousness. So Peter attaches the
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  Speaker 2: substitutionary death of Jesus with the sin conquering effect of
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  Speaker 2: that death. In one sentence, when the rich young ruler
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  Speaker 2: asked how to inherit eternal life, Jesus said, sell your
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  Speaker 2: possessions and give alms to the poor, and then follow me,
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  Speaker 2: he led with an effect or a fruit of the gospel.
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  Speaker 2: Now we don't always do that, but we might. Sometimes
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  Speaker 2: It would go like this. Perhaps I know you intend
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  Speaker 2: to change your sex, but you are my friend, and
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  Speaker 2: I think there's a better way. Jesus has a better
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  Speaker 2: way forward for you. He's full of grace, he's full
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  Speaker 2: of forgiveness. May I share that with you, this legitimate
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  Speaker 2: evangelism from the get go, and it might be a
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  Speaker 2: good way. Finally, this is the most important issue. I think.
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  Speaker 2: How serious is the issue when a man claims to
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  Speaker 2: be a woman or a woman claims to be a man.
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  Speaker 2: How serious is that? Now you can judge what I
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  Speaker 2: think the answer is from these ten points. They go
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  Speaker 2: by very fast, and you can pause and think about them.
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  Speaker 2: Number one, it defies God. The Nashville statement is right
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  Speaker 2: to say. Quote self conception as male or female should
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  Speaker 2: be defined by God's holy purposes in creation and redemption,
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  Speaker 2: as revealed in scripture. Close quote. But calling a man
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  Speaker 2: a woman or a woman a man defies that holy
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  Speaker 2: purpose of God. It defies God. Number two. It involves
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  Speaker 2: living a lie. A woman does not become a man,
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  Speaker 2: nor a man a woman by wanting it to be so,
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  Speaker 2: or by changing names or performing surgeries or taking hormones.
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  Speaker 2: It is a life built on a lie. Number three.
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  Speaker 2: Being a man or a woman is not like being
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  Speaker 2: left handed or right handed. It goes far deeper and
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  Speaker 2: touches the depths of our created nature. Number four, It
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  Speaker 2: regularly leads to destructive and irreversible surgeries and treatments irreversible. Five.
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  Speaker 2: When that happens, it destroys the god designed potential. Appropriation
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  Speaker 2: and will bring I say will bring, not might bring,
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  Speaker 2: will bring sooner or later, profound and sometimes suicidal regret.
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  Speaker 2: Six It expresses the deeply anti God commitment to human
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  Speaker 2: autonomy over against the will of God. I will decide
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  Speaker 2: the essence of my being, not God. Seven. It contributes
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  Speaker 2: to the cultural disorder of sexuality that tends to undermine
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  Speaker 2: God's pattern from male and female, and thus confuses and
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  Speaker 2: destabilizes our young people and increases the prevalence of sexual dysphoria,
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  Speaker 2: and treats it as a legitimate guide to future happiness,
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  Speaker 2: which it isn't. Eight It overlooks alternative ways forward that
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  Speaker 2: takes seriously, Yes, takes seriously a person sexual confusion or rebellion,
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  Speaker 2: and yet leads people out of dissatisfaction into new hope
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  Speaker 2: and embrace of their God given sins sectuality through Christ. Nine.
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  Speaker 2: It is the prelude to future perversions in which a
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  Speaker 2: person marries an animal and chooses to no longer be
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  Speaker 2: he or she, but now demands the pronoun it. Just
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  Speaker 2: go to Wikipedia and look up human animal marriage. You
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  Speaker 2: think I'm overstating things. This is not far fetched. It
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  Speaker 2: is consistent with a worldview that says, I, not God,
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  Speaker 2: define my essence. We don't want to encourage that progress
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  Speaker 2: which has already gone tragically too far ten. Therefore, the
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  Speaker 2: greatest possible care should be taken before one gives any
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  Speaker 2: impression of approving or even being mildly disagreeable toward so
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  Speaker 2: called transgenderism.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, thank you best, John. This is our seventh episode
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  Speaker 1: now on transgender issues featuring John Piper. For the others
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  Speaker 1: see APJAS three fifty seven, three fifty eight, six, forty one,
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  Speaker 1: eight fifty nine, nineteen thirty, and twenty twenty six. All
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  Speaker 1: of them available right now and ask pastor John dot com.
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  Speaker 1: Just jot them down and type those episode numbers into
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  Speaker 1: the search bar. Three fifty seven, three fifty eight, six,
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  Speaker 1: forty one, eight fifty nine, nineteen thirty and twenty twenty six.
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  Speaker 1: If you've listened this far in the episode, all of
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  Speaker 1: those are really worth listening to as well. We're back
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  Speaker 1: next time to look at one writer's dilemma, a dilemma
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  Speaker 1: relevant for all the media that we consume and make.
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  Speaker 1: Pastor John and I will see you back here on Thursday.
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  Speaker 1: Thanks for listening.