Gender Bent

I read an article today that I never in a million years imagined I would ever read!  It addressed the subject of gender formation as a response to the recent announcement of Target stores to remove gender classification from their children’s areas. The news of the Target announcement was also something I would never have dreamed would be a reality in America in my lifetime.  Yet I got to thinking about how this affects youth ministry. How many gender confused students will we deal with in the next decade? How will we respond? What does the bible teach us about gender and what will we teach our students about how to deal with gender confused peers?

For what it’s worth, Target’s statement that “suggesting products by gender is unnecessary” is not something to get worked up about.  Why does a store need to suggest products anyway?  Let people go find what they like and leave them alone. Girls don’t need to play only with pink legos and I am fine with Barbie and GI Joe being on the same aisle that is labeled simply “action figures”.  But the impetus behind this change at Target is more frightening. It is nothing less than an activist movement to eliminate all gender norms. I’m not suggesting that Target is part of the movement but that they are capitulating to what is going on in our culture at the moment, which is gender blurring.

The article was by Matt Walsh, whose blogging is rather fun to read due to his wit, sarcasm, insights, and clarity of his position.  I am sure some read him as an angry conservative because he is not afraid to boldly and plainly state unpopular views. You can read the article here .

So, what about gender issues and youth ministry? My hunch is that it will become less palatable to teach the simple truth that we find in Genesis chapter one: “So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them.” (Genesis 1:27 ESV) The plain truth is that God created two genders and yet there is momentum in our culture to deny this truth.  The desire they have is for a fluidity rather than clarity.  Walsh’s article emphasizes the importance of masculinity and femininity, which he says get lost when we don’t raise boys to be boys and girls to be girls.  He’s right.  What does it mean to be a man according to the Bible?  What does it mean to be a woman?  Are we teaching this stuff? There are resources out there that can help us teach about gender issues in a way that seeks to be biblical and not culturally bound or reactive. 

My wife is a middle school teacher.  On her first day back to school, she and another teacher had a moment where they were trying to determine the gender of several students in the hallway. She is keenly aware that the day is coming soon when students will arrive at school with a note from their parents indicating that they identify as something other than their biological gender. The parents will then insist that they be treated accordingly.  As a PE teacher, will she allow a boy who identifies as female to change in the girls locker room? You can see the chaos that looms.  But we are not exempt in youth ministry. What happens when that gender confused student comes to youth group? And when they want to go on a retreat with you?

As these issues become more prevalent, I fear that we will end up having to teach in a reactionary way.  We should have seen this coming and we ought to have been teaching all along about the simple truths of Genesis 1. Where as for decades the church was seen at odds with science over the origin of man, we will soon be seen at odds with culture on the gender question.  Time to get teaching about this stuff!  Oh, and this will broaden our teaching on sin, as we have to help students understand that sin is not just the bad stuff we do but the distortion of all that God created as good.