The institutional Church has capitulated completely to transgender ideology.
At the General Synod meeting in July 2017, the CofE formally agreed to welcome and affirm transgender individuals, as part of Justin Welby’s agenda of ‘radical inclusion’. At the time, the Synod agreed merely to ‘consider’ how to go about this (official theological debates are not expected to conclude until 2020) and the idea of a new liturgy was later rejected. Now, somewhat confusingly, a guidance document has been released for clergy, adapting existing liturgy to mark gender transition.
Some are already claiming it to be compulsory, prompting calls for clarification from the House of Bishops, which produced the document in conjunction with three transgender vicars.1
The guidance not only asks clergy to welcome transgender individuals ‘unconditionally’ into their congregations; it instructs them to celebrate gender transition with a special service conveying the Church’s blessing on the person’s new gender and new name. So the CofE now calls for transgenderism to be celebrated as part of our God-given human diversity!
Statements of opposition have been released from such as GAFCON and Synod member Andrea Williams, CEO of Christian Concern, who remarks that the guidance “continues the Church of England’s devastating trajectory towards an outright denial of God and his word”.
Indeed, it is difficult to see the document as anything else but another step towards – or off – a cliff from which there may be no possibility of return for Britain’s established Church.
Affirmation and Celebration
The guidance starts with the unequivocal statement: “The Church of England welcomes and encourages the unconditional affirmation of trans people, equally with all people, within the body of Christ, and rejoices in the diversity of that body into which all Christians have been baptized by one Spirit.”2
It goes on to make suggestions for services to mark gender transition, recommending readings and including advice for rites, gifts and certificates. There is no mention at all of the age of participants; one is left to assume that if you are old enough to be confirmed in the Church of England, you are old enough to change your gender and receive a formal blessing from your vicar.
The CofE now calls for transgenderism to be celebrated as part of our God-given human diversity!
At least there can be no allegations of obfuscating the issue: the CofE’s position is as plain as day and makes no attempt to concede anything to those who hold faithfully to the Bible’s teaching on these matters.
As previously with the issue of homosexuality, Christian welcome and care are conceived of only in terms of affirmation and celebration, as if the former were not possible without the latter.
Unsurprisingly, then, the guidance omits mention of the deep psychological, physiological, emotional, social and spiritual issues which accompany transgenderism and which – one would think – would be of central importance to address in ‘pastoral’ guidance to clergy seeking to discharge proper care for their congregants. Only last month, a tortured trans person wrote to The Telegraph in protest of the Government’s proposals to make transition easier, saying “I would not want others considering such drastic, irreversible action to end up like me, lost in a twilight world of fear and loneliness.”3
In its celebratory stance, the guidance rejects any sense that change may be necessary, as it is with everyone - not in order to come to Christ but as the only possible consequence of receiving Christ - as unfair, unequal and un-Christian. It therefore leaves by the wayside that part of the Gospel which involves repentance, turning away from ungodly lifestyles and being set free from the power of sin to live a completely new life of righteousness, with the help of the Holy Spirit.
Hijacking Baptism
Except that, oddly enough, that part of the Gospel isn’t left by the wayside entirely. Instead, it is inverted and appropriated, particularly through the hijacking of the concept of baptism, which the guidance document recommends that clergy reference as part of their celebration services.
Baptism is commended to unbaptised transgender individuals as the “natural liturgical context for recognizing and celebrating their identity in Christ and God’s love for them”. Those who have already been baptised are encouraged to re-affirm their commitment under their new name, with the sprinkling of water and the use of anointing oil.
Our established Church is misappropriating one of the deepest and most profound symbolic acts God has given humankind.
The guidance states that “it is important not to give the impression of a second baptism”, since baptism is a statement of faith in Christ and should only be done once. However, its mere referencing as part of marking gender transition confuses the issue of identity and implies strongly that transition should be viewed as a profound spiritual step worthy of public celebration; even as comparable with/part of receiving ‘new life’ in Christ: “In the journey of a trans person this liturgy will probably constitute a watershed in their Christian discipleship.”
So, our established Church is misappropriating one of the deepest and most profound symbolic acts God has given humankind, not only to mark something other than Christian conversion (that alone is deeply disturbing) but to affirm practices and lifestyles which the Bible clearly teaches are part of our fallen nature and sinful world – things that should be shed upon receiving Christ.
The depth of this perfidy is difficult to verbalise. Theologian Ian Paul argues, “not only is [baptism] central to Christian understandings of initiation and discipleship, baptism actually enacts bodily death and bodily resurrection in the immersion in and coming up out of the water. We tamper with these foundational understandings at our peril…Fools rush in where angels fear to tread”.4
Inverting the Gospel
As part of their services, clergy are encouraged to offer individuals some kind of written commemoration, like a certificate or an inscribed Bible, to mark the occasion – using their new name and preferred gender pronoun, of course.
Outrageously, the guidance actually tries to justify this biblically, saying “It should be noted that the giving or adoption of a new name has a long history in the Judeo-Christian tradition as may be evidenced from Scripture.” Later, passages such as the changing of Sarai’s name to Sarah, or Jacob’s name to Israel, are recommended for use in the service.
It would be laughable if it were not so awful. Again, we see transgenderism not only being celebrated, but being made equivalent to a life-changing spiritual milestone - even to the biblical concept of leaving behind one’s former life as part of Godly spiritual transformation.
This amounts to little more than a hijacking of Christianity to serve transgender ideology, in a barefaced inversion of the Gospel that should be untenable to any believing CofE member – congregation or clergy.
Heaping Judgment Upon Itself
Caught up in all this, of course, are well-meaning members of the CofE who are trying avidly to avoid a Christianity that forces people with gender confusion to suffer in silence or feel rejected by God. But responding with a Christianity that sanctions and encourages this confusion (and all the demonic life upheavals to which, unchecked, it can lead) as somehow a normal expression of being made in God’s image, to be embraced and celebrated as part of a faithful Christian life, is simply abusive of those who are suffering, who are in desperate need of God’s loving rescue. It is not real love and it is not true Christianity.
This ill-conceived ‘guidance’ document goes beyond a poor understanding of Scripture to an inexcusable warping of the Gospel, affirming practices which deny and deface God’s beautiful, deliberate creation of man and woman: even deigning to call these practices biblical. Truly, the CofE is calling good evil and evil good.
This guidance document goes beyond a poor understanding of Scripture to an inexcusable warping of the Gospel.
It is a frightening fulfilment of Romans 1:32, that “Although they know God’s righteous decree that those who do such things deserve death, they not only continue to do these very things but also approve of those who practice them” (my emphasis).
The CofE is harming the vulnerable and heaping judgment upon itself – as is already evident from its plummeting membership and deep divisions. And the unbelieving world justifiably heaps contempt on its pathetic attempts to curry favour.
Thankfully, it is the Lord’s responsibility to sort out this dire situation. Nevertheless, believing Christians can at least defend those ministries who support people trying to escape and recover from LGBTQ+ lifestyles, as well as ‘dissenting’ clergy who take a stand against the prevailing direction of the Synod. God help us all.
References
1 See the official press release for more information.
2 Read the guidance document here.
3 Read the full letter on this page.
4 Wisdom and folly: the bishops’ guidance on transgender welcome. Blog post, 13 December 2018.
