Transgenderism: Hopes, Tensions, and Biological Roadblocks

00:00:00.000 | Rob Smith joins us one more time.

00:00:07.720 | Rob is a theologian who lectures in systematic theology and ethics at Sydney Missionary and

00:00:12.120 | Bible College in Australia.

00:00:13.880 | He also serves as honorary assistant minister at St. Andrew's Anglican Cathedral in Sydney.

00:00:19.400 | He approaches the topic of transgender revolution as a biblical theologian, a historian of the

00:00:23.960 | movement and as a pastor whose own family has been touched by the realities and the

00:00:28.240 | tensions of gender dysphoria.

00:00:30.960 | We close out the week talking about transgenderism, which is somewhat of a misleading term.

00:00:36.400 | I mean, biologically for a transition of a male to a female or of a female to a male,

00:00:42.440 | Rob, what cannot happen physically?

00:00:45.000 | I mean, what will simply not be able to happen to the body in a transition?

00:00:49.640 | I'm thinking of a male to female transition, which would not bring with it monthly cycles

00:00:56.280 | or a womb or a biological clock.

00:00:59.760 | So what biological functions are simply not transferable between the genders?

00:01:03.880 | Yes, now here you're stretching my knowledge of current medical possibilities and even

00:01:11.080 | what's being attempted as we speak.

00:01:13.280 | Obviously, I think one of the key words in what you just said is the word natural.

00:01:18.920 | It's certainly not possible to create a natural biological clock in a man or for a womb to

00:01:27.880 | naturally develop.

00:01:29.400 | However, there is, well, I believe there are attempts going on to work out how to transplant

00:01:35.240 | wombs.

00:01:36.240 | In fact, I think even this year it happened in the case of a woman who couldn't conceive

00:01:42.160 | from one.

00:01:43.160 | I can't remember the details, but basically her mother's womb, the uterus was transplanted

00:01:49.120 | into the daughter so the daughter could carry the child.

00:01:54.280 | So there are those who are trying to work out how can we transplant a womb into a man.

00:02:00.600 | And it's easy for us at this point to think how ridiculous that's impossible, but of course

00:02:06.800 | there are all kinds of things happening now that 10 years, 100 years ago we would have

00:02:10.400 | thought were ridiculous and impossible.

00:02:12.160 | So it's hard to know where this will or might stop.

00:02:17.280 | But as you say, there are all kinds of things that just cannot be true of someone who transitions.

00:02:23.080 | And I guess at the base level, the level of their chromosomes, you can't.

00:02:30.320 | So I don't know if you ever will be able to change a person's chromosomes.

00:02:34.680 | So what we're really doing is simply creating an illusion.

00:02:38.800 | And it's one of the ways in which people in the transgender community talk.

00:02:43.280 | Their goal is to, and the word they use is pass, that is pass off as the, to convincingly

00:02:50.840 | pass off as the other, which sadly reveals the fact that they know they're not actually

00:02:57.760 | the other.

00:02:58.760 | But it's a deception.

00:03:01.560 | It's an illusion.

00:03:02.560 | They're trying to look on the outside in such a way that they can convince others that they

00:03:08.320 | are what they seem.

00:03:10.320 | And look, there are some convincing transitions in that way.

00:03:13.480 | A tragic story I read of recently of a man who was married to a trans woman and didn't

00:03:19.360 | know until, well, they wanted, he wanted at least to conceive a child.

00:03:27.840 | And when that wasn't happening, suggested, you know, sort of medical exploration at that

00:03:33.560 | point.

00:03:34.560 | And, well, the wife revealed that she was a trans woman, not an actual woman and that

00:03:41.720 | destroyed the marriage.

00:03:43.320 | So he was obviously fooled for many years.

00:03:47.040 | So it is remarkable what can seem to be done.

00:03:50.560 | But, but as you say, there are all kinds of things that are not possible.

00:03:55.320 | And even if they are made possible, it'll be highly questionable as to whether they're

00:03:59.880 | remotely responsible.

00:04:02.920 | So look, I'm really speculating as I guess anyone would at this point.

00:04:07.960 | But I suppose this one, one of the other thing to add here is this where Germaine Greer got

00:04:12.960 | into trouble in the UK when she was challenged that a trans woman was not a real woman and

00:04:23.880 | got held down, of course, by the particular university where she was meant to be speaking.

00:04:30.920 | But she was right.

00:04:31.920 | A trans woman hasn't gone through all the experiences of a natural woman and in one

00:04:37.800 | sense, therefore can't speak to those and can't really say I've had, you know, I guess

00:04:43.960 | a properly female experience of life.

00:04:46.480 | Wow.

00:04:47.480 | A man wanting to pass as a woman, but getting offended at not being affirmed as an ontological

00:04:52.960 | woman.

00:04:53.960 | I mean, that seems like terribly unresolvable tension.

00:04:56.280 | That's right.

00:04:57.280 | Massive tension.

00:04:58.280 | And it's running all through this.

00:05:01.920 | Transgender ideology is full of conflicts and contradictions, as is, I suppose, as we

00:05:07.960 | just revealed, this massive tension between feminist ideology and transgender ideology.

00:05:13.840 | One at the heart of some ways of feminism is the idea that only bodies are male or female.

00:05:21.240 | There's no such thing as a male brain or a female brain.

00:05:25.080 | And therefore, you know, it's part of the wish of women to be able to do anything a

00:05:29.080 | man can do in that sense.

00:05:32.920 | Whereas in the transgender scene, you've got people saying, no, no, I have a male brain

00:05:36.880 | in a female body.

00:05:37.880 | And well, is that really the case?

00:05:39.640 | So yeah, look, there are conflicts and contradictions and tensions and complexities running through

00:05:44.000 | all of this.

00:05:45.000 | And it fascinates me that the sort of there's a well, the whole LGBT IQ, a umbrella of of

00:05:54.720 | agendas is not as unified as you might think.

00:05:58.640 | When you sort of put the microscope on them, you have all of these clashes and ideological

00:06:07.680 | tensions there.

00:06:08.960 | The one the one thing I think is worth adding on top of all the things we've discussed is

00:06:15.720 | that for any and every human being, whatever our particular set of life struggles, and

00:06:21.520 | because we all have some particular set of life struggles, we've been made by Jesus Christ

00:06:27.480 | for Jesus Christ, and we'll only truly know ourselves and be ourselves in Christ.

00:06:33.760 | And so finding our identity in him is really the only place for any of us to begin.

00:06:40.560 | Now, this, of course, may be highlighted in a special way for those who are battling unwanted

00:06:47.360 | same sex attraction as it is for those battling unwanted gender dysphoria.

00:06:52.980 | But it's actually true of all of us.

00:06:56.120 | Until we find our rest in Christ, we will be trying to invent ourselves in some way

00:07:03.640 | or another in a way that in the end, we'll learn the end in tears.

00:07:07.800 | Amen.

00:07:08.800 | That is true of all of us.

00:07:09.800 | We are all in this boat needy of Christ.

00:07:12.920 | None of us are freaks.

00:07:14.600 | All of us are broken sinners.

00:07:15.600 | Thank you, Rob.

00:07:16.600 | And thank you for listening to the Ask Pastor John podcast this week with our special guest,

00:07:20.680 | Rob Smith from Sydney, Australia.

00:07:22.520 | As we have talked about, the transgender movement is something we need to know about and understand

00:07:26.420 | as Christians.

00:07:28.160 | For more details about this podcast, to catch up on past episodes from the week, or to subscribe

00:07:32.540 | to the audio feed, or even to send us a question of your own, go online to desiringgod.org/askpastorjohn.

00:07:39.800 | Well Monday, Pastor John returns and we will discuss how over the years he handled little

00:07:44.080 | children in big church and what age children participate in our corporate gatherings on

00:07:49.720 | Sunday.

00:07:50.720 | I'm your host, Tony Reinke.

00:07:51.880 | Have a wonderful weekend and we'll see you on Monday.

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Transgenderism: Hopes, Tensions, and Biological Roadblocks

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