Transgenderism and Transformative Holy Love. Dr William Ury (2026) -...

Some basic definitions:

Transgenderism is the experience of a person from which there is a lack of congruence between their physical body and their internal sense of gender. Their birth sex is not aligned with their own self-perception. This dysphoria can take on a large range of expressions.

Gender is the (psychological) means by which a sexed body (biological/physical) is socially manifested in something like an identity. Both sex and gender must be oriented in love to our Creator in order to be whole.

Cisgender is a modern term which was produced to note the correspondence of a person’s gender identity to their birth sex.

Foundational Pastoral Theological Approach:

The ultimate reality of our Triune God as Holy Love.
The full authority of the Word of God interpreted by the Spirit for the people of God.
Power of the Holy Spirit to illuminate, convict, and convince of all truth.
Retain foundational convictions in humble love.
Respect and civility in all communication.
Compassion permeating every aspect of the relationship.

General statement regarding the complexity of this issue and clarity of Scripture and the loving and humble response of the EMC to all who claim a transgender experience:

Since the transgender issue is relatively new in the church and in cultural discussion, nearly all the areas that pertain to what a person claims need patient and informed discussion. While the standards for sexual expression never change for the Christian tradition, there is much that needs to be done on the convoluted issue of gender identity. Biological and physical characteristics are undeniable (except in a very few cases of intersexuality/disorders of sexual development). It is the compounding issues of psychological, social, and cultural aspects regarding transgenderism that serve as challenges to any Christian minister to chart in love and in truth. It is wise, at this point, to be aware of all the offered sources or causes of transgenderism. The EMC is best served to hold these discussions in humble teachableness. But our conviction of creation and regeneration of human beings will not allow us to change our fundamental views of the need of every person to be redeemed through faith in Jesus Christ.

There is also the difficulty in discerning the array of different kinds of transgenderism as a person’s sexual identity (male-to-female, female-to-male, cross-dressing, drag queens etc.) The EMC is always willing and open to look at every factor that a person claims or experiences. We are aware of the nature-nurture debates concerning the origins of transgender identity. But we also believe that there are some unalterable realities that define who we are as human persons, regardless of our individual claims to identity. There are also unchanging standards as to how we express our sexuality.

We affirm that God created human beings in his image as male and female (Gen. 1:26-27). Likewise, we recognize the goodness of the human body (Gen. 1:31; John 1:14) and the call to glorify God with our bodies (1 Cor. 6:12-20). Creation in the image of God is a real and essential construct that is decided by our Maker. As a God of order and design, God opposes the confusion of man as woman and woman as man (1 Cor. 11:14-15). While situations involving such confusion can be heartbreaking and complex, men and women should be helped to live in accordance with their biological sex. Nevertheless, we ought to minister compassionately to those who are sincerely confused and disturbed by their internal sense of gender identity (Gal. 3:1; 2 Tim. 2:24-26). We recognize that the effects of the Fall extend to the corruption of our whole nature, which may include how we think of our own gender and sexuality. Moreover, some persons, in rare instances, may possess an objective medical condition in which their anatomical development may be ambiguous or does not match their genetic chromosomal sex, this is sometimes referred to as intersexuality. Such persons are also made in the image of God and should live out their biological sex, insofar as it can be known. (NB. This last paragraph is a highly redacted statement drawn from statements by Ratio Christi and by the PCA).

More specific theological outline of EMC foundational commitments in relation to transgenderism:

(1) We believe that the Triune God has revealed through creation and revelation His intended purpose for every human being, including their sexuality. The eternal holy love between the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit is the context for every human person’s existence. Our ultimate joy and meaning are found only as we receive the love of God and respond with all of our heart, spirit, soul, and body to the offer of Himself to us.

(2) At creation, two sexes and two genders were formed in the image of their Creator. That dichotomy of sex was deemed as very good by our Maker. Every person is thus of unbelievable worth to God. As male and female, these persons were, out of their distinct diversity, were to bear in their bodies the potential of union with the possibility of procreating another person. Sex is then a covenantal and holy symbol of the loving fruitful union of one man and one woman. Male and female mutual life-long commitment is an analogy of God’s unchanging faithfulness to us and us to Him. Sex is not the definer of human happiness or fulfillment. Every human being is glorious. Every person and their bodies bear the worth of the Incarnate Son by the amazing gift of grace.

An Aside: From my limited research and experience with transgenderism, it is interesting that the constant refrain has to do with abuse and the resultant guilt (often misplaced) and shame which often accompanies the claims. Not ‘feeling’ at home in one’s body is often associated with forms of self-hatred, self-despising of body and actions that have found their origin in abuse from the opposite sex. The intense desire, longing for wholeness, is a foundation for all responses to the transgendered. The EMC must be committed to being one of the few places where the dysphoric can find a place where their longings can be articulated to and heard from the heart of patient and perfect love.

(3) The fall from God’s original purpose, which is often called original sin, has left its devastating mark on every person who has ever lived. None of us is untouched by the brokenness and rebellion that separates us from God without hope. All of us are disordered in some way sexually. Each of us has sexual sin in intention and action that requires atonement. Without repentance, no one has hope of receiving redemption from all sin, including sexual sin. By grace alone, our Creator and Redeemer and Sanctifier has offered each of us a way back into the fullness of Holy love.

One of the implications of the fall is the lack of congruence in some with their birth sex and their psychological experience, known as gender identity.
Very recently, the assumed categories of essential maleness/masculinity and femaleness/femininity have been called into question. Are the categories we define as male or female culturally produced? Are there stereotypes that we impose upon a person because of their body? What can be said if a person longs for a congruence between their body and their inner psyche that does not align with accepted norms? Is gender merely an assortment of social pressures and constructs? Some would like to deconstruct both categories of sex and gender. The EMC stands resolutely against such dehumanizing and unbiblical understandings.
What the Christian tradition says in response to this dysphoria is that neither sex nor gender are arbitrary. These are parts of what it means to Image the very life of God. While we are willing to critique mere cultural aspects imposed upon persons, there is no place for a fundamental denial of the original plan of God for each person, male and female.

(4) The Incarnate life of the Son of God from conception to His present enthronement at the right hand of God the Father for eternity is the statement about all human life and sexuality. Every aspect of our body, flesh and nature has been assumed by Jesus Christ of Nazareth so that all our sinfulness might be purged and remade. He ever lives to intercede for us in every circumstance of sexual fallenness. He is able to keep us in perfect alignment with His perfect purposes for our entire beings. He died in order to sanctify us entirely. The consistent view of the EMC is that none of us will know bodily perfection until the eschaton. All of us must give all of the areas of disordered desires and unholy loves to the One who is able to keep us sexually pure while living and will complete us at glorification. He will bring every created symbol into His eternal life, which is reality.

(5) In the area of sex, there are no strong people. All of us are weak and need the wisdom provided by the Word of God and the indwelling of the Holy Spirit to guide us in the most powerful area of human reality, our sexuality.

(6) The sin of exclusion of any person for any reason is a serious matter for those who follow Jesus as their Lord and Master. The only biblical reasons for exclusion revolve around consistent high-handed (incorrigible) sin of any kind. There have been recent claims to biological and decision-based sexual differences, which oppose the clearly stated delineations of Scripture. While the EMC is always welcoming to any person, and while we will serve anyone in Christ’s name, we submissively and unreservedly align ourselves in holy love with the revealed truth of Scripture concerning human sexuality. No person can consistently sin and be welcome to maintain membership or take leadership in any form in the Church. All of us are equally accountable before God for how we bring our deepest needs in the area of sex to the One who made us and knows us. He alone knows our every need and fulfills those according to His holy nature.

Mark Yarhouse (Understanding Gender Dysphoria, IVP 2015) has been helpful in outlining a balanced view of the traditional Christian perspective on transgenderism. The traditional viewpoint can become condescending and even exclusionary. The EMC will never shift on the category of created sex differences, but that must always be accompanied by a deep understanding of the damage sin has produced in every person, and we will never refuse to offer rich mutual and accountable fellowship in holy love based upon true truth. We do not define people by their gender identity first. We will always see each person as unique and marvelous in the sight of God. All of us are recipients of the grace of God. But we are also created and judged by the Only Holy One who has ordered our sexuality.

The EMC is open to every form of constructive resolution to transgenderism. Some forms are reversible (allowing different forms of dress, hair styles), but the EMC resolutely stands against all severely damaging hormone therapy, and surgeries that are irreversible, and life-altering in a serious manner. Our unwavering commitment is to conversion by faith in Christ alone. Conversion is not a “therapy”. It is a biblical term that points to the only means by which anyone can be saved.

(7) Sanctification is the only means whereby our sexual orientation, our internal desires, our passions, and our actions can be fully yielded to God. The EMC has believed with Christians over two millennia that our sexual fallenness can be transformed by the power and presence of the Spirit of Jesus. When He is given access to every aspect of what we understand and what we do not, He is able to restore, heal, reorient, and give sustenance moment by moment for any place where our sin or brokenness. The resolution of gender dysphoria may take many different approaches. The EMC will do all that it can to support anyone in their search for wholeness. The danger for any believer is when the fight against all sin is lost.

(8) The Church has always been aware that some passions and desires are not immediately dealt with at conversion or in a subsequent sanctification experience. Many Christians have deep concern about sexual issues in their experience that are not ended in a moment of total trust. While lust is as serious as actual sexual sin, there is a place where we must realize that the depth of some infirmities (same-sex attraction, transgender dysphoria, etc.) entails a level of gracious intimacy with Jesus, our Incarnate Lord. He alone knows our brokenness, which He took into Himself in order to redeem and deliver. While we can know that we are not in rebellion or sinfulness, our inner beings can still suffer from either the damage we have done or damage that has come to us from outside of us. No matter how deep the brokenness, Jesus goes deeper. He frees in His own way with each of us on His own time. Our trust in Him is that He has broken the power of sin and is bringing freedom. Until we see Him face to face, all of us are accountable to obey the clear teachings of Scripture. Sexual activity is only allowed between a biological male and a biological female in married covenantal love.

(9) “We deny that adopting homosexual or transgender self-conception is consistent with God’s holy purposes in creation and redemption” (Article VII of the Nashville Statement). Moving away from what our bodies tell us about our sexuality and gender denies the purpose of our bodies as a theological symbol. We want to be sure that gender dysphoria is not deemed automatically sinful, just as heterosexual desire is not immediately sinful. Infirmities are not the same as actual sin. The biblical ethic of Scripture entails that all of us are accountable to God for the use of our bodies sexually. And all of our internal sexual reality is brought into the full light of the Holy Spirit and healthy Christian accountability. It is there that we can find, in God’s time and by His grace, healing and wholeness.

One of the most important questions that believers experiencing same-sex attraction or transgenderism have asked in recent years is: Where am I to find community, companionship, and belonging in this journey of discipleship? All too often, Christians have been very clear on the “no” of same-sex sexual relationships and expression of transgenderism, without then offering a plausible pathway to deep and meaningful community for which we were made (Genesis 2:18, Galatians 6:2, Hebrews 10:24-25). Believers who experience same-sex attraction or gender dysphoria often struggle with a deep-seated and crushing loneliness—a fear of never belonging to another human being. Churches must be committed to being communities of welcome for all sinners, which is all of us. We will gladly and consistently dive into the lives of anyone who desires to belong fully to Christ. Most of the people we serve are full of conflicts within and without. We believe that each person is worthy of the fight for their full restoration in Christ.

For those repentant believers who know the struggle of all sexual attractions or identities outside of biblical norms, our churches may welcome them not merely as broken people to be ministered to, but also as active and important participants and contributors in our communities. Like all yet-to-be glorified Christians, those who struggle with same-sex attraction are commanded to walk with the Lord in faith and repentance. Insofar as such persons display the requisite Christian maturity, we do not consider this sin struggle automatically to disqualify someone for leadership in the church (1 Corinthians 6:9-11, 1 Timothy 3:1-7, Titus 1:6-9; 2 Peter 1:3-11). Our churches should seek to cultivate rich, Biblical friendships among people of the same sex. Regardless of whether a person struggles with same-sex attraction or any gender dysphoria, strong friendships are important components of a healthy Christian community. Far too often, we act as though, if a person is married, they no longer need the same type of deep friendships. All of us are accountable before God for the sexual holiness He insists upon and graciously provides for every believer.

Some Commitments for Holy Sexuality and Christian Living:

We believe that faith in God’s regenerating and sustaining power forms the basis for a hopeful response to the sexual brokenness of this age.
Human sexuality is not a “problem.” God created sexuality, and we must understand it in terms of the greatness and the beauty of our createdness. Being created as sexual human beings is a gift.
God’s original creation design for humanity is manifested as two distinct, complementary, and egalitarian sexes: male and female.
Human sexuality is to be expressed physically only within a covenant relationship between a man and a woman, which reflects the covenant relationship between God and His people.
Any act of sexual intimacy between persons apart from marriage of a husband and wife is sin because it is outside of God’s plan for human sexuality. We are not to add to or alter God’s perfect plan for human sexuality, including the normalization of homosexuality or any other sexual activity or claim to gender expression among humans as an alternative sexuality (Romans 1:24-27, Hebrews 13:4, Colossians 3:5).
To have desires, temptations, or orientations that are not biblically whole is not necessarily sin. Every person experiences these in some form. Fighting against sin is not the equivalent of sin. Every person, even while struggling, can live in dependence upon and intimate union with God, obeying His Word and pleasing Him, and experiencing fullness of life as a celibate or married person. (Hebrews 2:14-4:16).
Sexual intercourse is not essential for human flourishing. People who are celibate or single can experience complete joy and fulfillment in life as much as those who experience sex within marriage. This instinctive longing for love is the way we learn to experience mutual love with God Himself above all else, which is the reason God created us. We believe that faith in God’s regenerating and sustaining power forms the basis for a hopeful response to the sexual brokenness of this age.
Sexual sin is not found in outward acts alone. To continually dwell upon and entertain sinful passions and desires should not be accepted as normal human experience. Every aspect of our sexuality is redeemed by His complete sacrifice (Colossians 3:3-7). When Jesus said, “This is my body given for you,” he claimed that his atoning salvation was made possible everywhere the curse of sexual sin was found – including the body, mind, and soul (Luke 22:19, Galatians 3:10, 1 Corinthians 6:9-20).

All need to be saved, all can be saved, all can know that they are saved, and all can be saved completely (Romans 6:23, I Timothy 1:15, Hebrews 10:22, 7:25). Where cultural mores contradict biblical views of humanity, sexuality, and sexual behavior, The EMC will always believe and proclaim that each person must be born again (John 3:16, I Peter 1:23). Jesus offers His abundant Life for us and in us. Because of the personal sacrifice of Jesus, sin and death were conquered (2 Timothy 1:9-10). By this new and living Way, the transformative and restorative grace of the Triune God is offered to every person as sexual beings (Hebrews 9:12, 10:19-22).

On the issue of sexual temptation for every person:

Scripture speaks of temptation in different ways. There are some temptations God gives us in the form of morally neutral trials, and other temptations God never gives us because they arise from within as morally illicit desires (James 1:2, 13-14). When temptations come from without, the temptation itself is not sin, unless we enter into the temptation with our will desirous for that object rather than the holy will of God. But when the temptation arises from within, it is our own act and is rightly called sin. Nevertheless, there is an important degree of moral difference between temptation to sin and giving in to sin, even when the temptation itself is an expression of indwelling sin. While our goal is the weakening and lessening of internal temptations to sin, Christians should feel their greatest responsibility not for the fact that such temptations occur but for thoroughly and immediately fleeing and resisting the temptations when they arise. We can avoid “entering into” temptation by refusing to internally ponder and entertain the proposal and desire to actual sin. Without some distinction between (1) the illicit temptations that arise in us due to original sin and (2) the willful giving over to actual sin, Christians will be too discouraged to “make every effort” at growth in godliness and will feel like failures in their necessary efforts to be holy as God is holy (2 Peter 1:5-7; 1 Peter 1:14-16). God is pleased with our sincere obedience.

In conclusion, we affirm that holy love is the foundation of everything the EMC believes, proclaims, and offers.

Where sin abounds, grace abounds all the more (Romans 5:20). Although the effects of sin are universal and holistic, the efficacy of grace is also universal and holistic. In Christ, through the Holy Spirit, we are renewed in the image of God. The old is gone, and the new comes. Although the forming of our lives as a new creation may be a gradual process, God’s healing is effective in dealing with the brokenness of humanity in every area of sexuality. The mockery of ‘conversion’ theories, so-called, is a mockery of the salvation offered to every human being and a miracle that can be attested to by millions of believers in Christ Jesus.
The human body is the temple of the Holy Spirit (I Corinthians 6:19). We affirm the need for our sexuality to be conformed to God’s will. Our bodies are not our own but have been bought with a price. Therefore, we are called to glorify God in our bodies through a life of yielded obedience.
The people of God are marked by holy love (Mark 12:29-31). We affirm that, above all the virtues, the people of God are to clothe themselves with love. The people of God have always welcomed broken people into our gathering. Such Christian hospitality is neither an excusing of individual disobedience nor a refusal to participate redemptively in discerning the roots of brokenness. Restoring humans to the likeness of Jesus requires confession, forgiveness, formative practices, sanctification, and godly counsel—but most of all, it includes the welcome of love which invites the broken person into the circle of grace known as the church. If we fail to honestly confront sin and brokenness, we have not loved. If we fail to love, we cannot participate in God’s healing of brokenness.

The EMC is a global evangelical denomination that ministers to all people where we find them.

The faithful outworking of these statements of biblical truth regarding the major areas of our sexual lives in this era is crucial for truth and light to continue to be offered to all who need Christ and His transforming grace. We recognize that the individual experiences of persons in discerning their sexual lives and applying Biblical truth will be extremely challenging. We lovingly recognized that people and cultures are complex and must be navigated with prayer, care, humility, courage, and discernment.