Transgender people, especially in the church, have a history of being an object of culture war fights, so humanizing personal struggle is important. This is especially true for Understanding Gender Dysphoria’s audience of evangelical seminarians. We should encourage anything such as this that improves pastoral care for sexual minorities within the evangelical church, especially for those of our friends who are not affirming.
Yet I don’t imagine Yarhouse will make many people happy in Understanding Gender Dysphoria — the LGBTQ activist, the secular counselor, and the evangelical pastor will all be uncomfortable at one time or another. He is at a tricky intersection between faith and psychiatry, but one where he needs to be to help conservative Christians attempt to negotiate difficult issues of identity.
I’m excited that the evangelical world is paying attention to these issues, but there is much more that needs to be done to determine what humane pastoral care looks like for people with gender dysphoria.
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