Christian Answers on LGBTQ Questions (pt. 2)

“My homosexual friend invited me to their wedding. What do I do?” “How do I befriend homosexuals without getting into arguments?” “Should I watch entertainment with homosexual behaviour?” Dozens of questions fill our minds when it comes to how the church behaves around the LGBTQ community. Without a doubt, showing genuine love is the most important, but there are definitely some practical questions that stump us. This is our second week in airing a 2-part Q&A series called “Human Sexuality.” At a recent event we held (Sexual Identity) we had a live panel that gave Christian answers on LGBTQ questions from the audience. The panel consisted of a popular Bible teacher, a Christian apologist, and a pastor. The answers are biblical and genuine and will be sure to help you in your mind.

Episode Links

Want to watch the entire event? Check it out here!

Dr. John Neufeld is the Bible Teacher at Back to the Bible Canada.

Also, Steve Kim (the Christian Apologist) works at Apologetics Canada.

Read It

*Below is an edited transcription of the audio conversation.

Introduction

A Friend or Family Member With Sex-Change

Next question: I have a daughter who has gone through a sex change. How do I relate to her when she says, “I will know that you love me if you call me by ‘he,’ ‘him’ or ‘son’? Should I? It feels wrong. What would that mean if I do? That I accept it?

That’s a tough one. Sometimes these scenarios go through my mind because I have two children. I have a three-year-old daughter and an eleven-month-old, this beast of a son who at seven months was 25 pounds. I was like, “I can’t carry you around for much longer! You need to start walking soon!”

But what if my daughter goes through that and she says, “Call me ‘he’ and call me some other name like ‘Michael.’” What do I do? Call it a compromise, but I would use the pronoun or the name that she wants to be called by. If I don’t do it, you know, if this relationship is going to break, then I will use that pronoun in the interest of maintaining this relationship. Because, if there is no relationship, how am I going to share Jesus with her, right?

There is this phrase in Asia when it comes to martial arts and sword fighting and things like that. This phrase goes: you give the flesh and take the bone. So if somebody is trying to stab you, you give the flesh (let that person stab you in a non-critical way), but you take the bone of that person (you strike them in a critical manner). That’s sort of where I fall on this. Yes, I will use that name. I will use the pronouns and the names in the interest of maintaining the relationship.

Some people would say that’s condoning it. So if you say you are going to do that to maintain that relationship, where does it end? Where does the barrier end in regards to that?

I guess it depends. It’s a case-by-case sort of thing. But at some point I will probably draw the line. But in terms of using the name and the pronouns, I would still stick with that.

It depends, at some point if I am actually asked to really, seriously participate in what she’s doing, then I probably will have to say no. And if she thinks because of that that I don’t love her, it is- the ownness isn’t on me, right? It is how she feels about it and I can’t change that.

Just really quick. I think I will do anything and everything to help a person come to Christ short of sin. The moment that it leads to sin. So if I’m encouraging that person in their sin, then of course not! And that may seem a bit radical, but just about anything short of sin. Like,