Bruce Jenner and the Transagenda: #callmecaitlyn

Josh Buice

In the 1980s, I remember receiving my first transformer toy.  I was overjoyed.  It was a red sports car that transformed into a robot with a few moves.  I was intrigued by the way something that was a car could transform into something completely different.  In our present day, the world of transformers has become a reality with the transgender explosion.  The intrigue I felt regarding the transformer toys has been replaced with sadness and confusion over this entire issue of homosexuality and transgender agenda.

While the transgender movement has been around for years, the recent decision of Bruce Jenner to appear on the front cover of Vanity Fair in order to make his “Caitlyn” announcement has increased attention and the agenda of the transsexual culture.  The post-sexual tsunami is sweeping across our culture.  From the “free sex” culture of the 1960s,  the sinful heart has nourished the seeds of depravity, and today they’re blooming.  There are several things we must consider as we watch this whole drama play itself out on the stage of life in American culture.

The Bruce Jenner to Caitlyn Jenner Announcement Is Politically Charged

It was no accident that the public announcement of Bruce Jenner occurred in the summer of 2015 as opposed to the summer of 2014.  It’s no accident at all that he appeared in the spotlight through public media interviews a couple of weeks prior to appearing in a dress on the cover of a controversial and popular magazine – Vanity Fair.  It’s no accident that all of this is happening now.

Right now, while we are having this complicated cultural conversation, the highest court in America is deliberating over same-sex marriage.  The eyes of the Supreme Court justices have all seen pictures of Bruce Jenner in a dress on the cover of Vanity Fair by now.  They are not sequestered from the public.  The intended message has now been delivered and it wasn’t a private or secret e-mail that reached the justices.  It was open, legal, and very much a politically charged message that has now been received by everyone in America – including the Supreme Court justices.

On the very same day of the unveiling of Bruce Jenner’s cover picture, OSHA sent out a message to corporations about the need to provide transgender accessible restroom facilities.  The 4-page statement from OSHA titled, “A Guide to Restroom Access for Transgender Workers” stated the following:

In many workplaces, separate restroom and other facilities are provided for men and women. In some cases, questions can arise in the workplace about which facilities certain employees should use. According to the Williams Institute at the University of California-Los Angeles, an estimated 700,000 adults in the United States are transgender—meaning their internal gender identity is different from the sex they were assigned at birth (e.g., the sex listed on their birth certificate). 

Can one man really cause our nation to shift that quickly?  The entire culture in America is moving and changing at such a rapid pace it’s difficult to keep up.  What we must not forget is that this was all well planned and politically driven.  In many ways, Bruce Jenner is being used to further a homosexual agenda in American culture, and like his days on the track as a world-class Track and Field athlete – he is successful.

Transgender Transformation Is a Cheap Imitation

When I travel down to South America to work on the mission field with our church plant, I often pass through one major city before heading high into the Andes mountains.  While passing through the major city of Guayaquil, Ecuador, I often see products for sale in the open markets that appear to be authentic. A closer examination proves the items to be cheap imitations.  It may have a Nike swoosh, but a closer look reveals that it’s not the real thing.

When it comes to the transgender movement, it doesn’t matter how good the plastic surgeon is or the quality of the chemicals used in the transformation process, the man Bruce who transformed into Caitlyn is a cheap imitation of the real thing.  I mean this as no open disrespect toward Bruce Jenner, but he is no woman.  He will never be a woman.  He was born as a man and will die as a man, no matter what he does to his body until that day arrives.  Bruce can ask people to call him Caitlyn and he can write his name as Ms. Jenner, but in the end, he will always be Mr. Bruce Jenner.

God created Bruce and intended him to be a man.  No matter what real challenges Bruce faced in life, the attempt to transform into a woman is impossible.  There is nothing that Bruce can do about certain male elements in his body, and no matter what surgeons do with knives and chemicals, he will remain a man.  Until we all come to the blunt realization that our technology and tools are no match for the creative genius of God, we will continue to imitate God and try to manufacture what only He can produce – male and female.

God Loves and Saves Homosexuals

While this politically supercharged agenda races through the streets of America, we as individual Christians and churches as a whole must learn how to biblically respond.  The church of Jesus Christ cannot plead ignorance on these issues.  Every church in America will be affected by what takes place with the transgender movement and the pending ruling of the Supreme Court.  We must be prepared to respond and how we respond matters.

Bumper sticker slogans and Facebook status updates that read, “God created Adam and Eve not Adam and Steve” didn’t work years ago and they still don’t work today.  Jon Bloom, in his article titled, “How Should We Respond to Caitlyn Jenner?” writes:

But pray for Jenner, that God will send to him one or two who will speak the truth of the gospel with Christ-like love and that he will have ears to hear. Jenner’s hope is that “as soon as the Vanity Fair cover comes out, I’m free.” But we know he will not be free. After some period of euphoric relief, he will find that he is still a “wretched man” who needs to be delivered from his body of death (Romans 7:24).

It would be wise to speak slowly on these important issues.  I purposely waited a couple of days to write on this subject because I  know my own emotional limitations.  We must be careful in how we respond.  Too often we as Christians are good at winning an argument by employing orthodox theology, but we fail to love our neighbor in the process.  Being winsome and speaking the truth doesn’t require us to be arrogant and mean-spirited.  At the end of the day, Bruce Jenner is not unlike me.  He is a sinner who was created in the image of God.  He has real sinful struggles – just like me.

It should break our hearts to read the suicide statistics of the homosexual community.  The statistics are double the rate of the non-homosexual population, but the staggering statistic is among the population of the transgender community.  The numbers don’t lie.  They reveal a massive problem.  Suicide attempt rates are reported to be at the staggering level of 41% for the transgender community which is nearly 10 times higher than the rate of the heterosexual population of America (statistics taken from The Williams Institute).  These statistics matter to God, and they should matter to the church of Jesus Christ.

One of the great deficiencies of the evangelical church is that we fail to remember that God loves and saves homosexuals.  We know the references to God’s wrath from Genesis 19, but we fail to reference the letters to the New Testament churches where we see the rest of the story.  Paul wrote the following to the church at Corinth:

1 Corinthians 6:9-11 – Or do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor men who practice homosexuality, [10] nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God. [11] And such were some of you. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.

God had saved people out of the homosexual movement in the city of Corinth.  We see similar language in other New Testament letters.  Apparently people in the church at Colossae struggled with sexual sin because Paul warned them in Colossians 3:5.  We see similar words to the church in Thessalonica as Paul references sexual immorality in 1 Thessalonians 4:3-8.  We can learn much from these letters.  First we learn that Paul didn’t avoid the subject.  Out of love he spoke the truth and warned these churches.  Secondly, we can learn that God loves and saves homosexuals.  Paul said to the church at Corinth, “And such were some of you.”

As this drama plays out in the courts and on the streets, the church must respond.  To shout “turn or burn” is not the message of love or the message of hope.  We must love our neighbor.  To remain silent is to withhold love from our neighbor.  How the church responds in prayer and in our preaching matters to the culture, but most importantly, it matters to God.

Today, we need to introduce a transgender culture to the church.  The church of Jesus Christ is made up of people who have been transformed by Jesus.  Notice the way Paul referenced the former homosexuals in his letter to Corinth (1 Cor. 6:9-11).  He referenced them in the past tense.  We all have a past and our past reveals our former love for sin.  The truth of the gospel is that Jesus Christ saves and He saves people from the confused web of pornography, the dark hole of drunkenness, the deceitful world of thievery, and the sinful lifestyle choices of homosexuality.  The depraved culture has a transagenda but the question is – does the church?  What is our agenda to reach the homosexual population with the gospel of Jesus Christ?

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Author Bruce Jenner and the Transagenda: #callmecaitlyn

Josh Buice

Pastor Pray's Mill Baptist Church

Josh Buice is the founder and president of G3 Ministries and serves as the pastor of Pray's Mill Baptist Church on the westside of Atlanta. He is married to Kari and they have four children, Karis, John Mark, Kalli, and Judson. Additionally, he serves as Assistant Professor of Preaching at Grace Bible Theological Seminary. He enjoys theology, preaching, church history, and has a firm commitment to the local church. He also enjoys many sports and the outdoors, including long distance running and high country hunting. He has been writing on Delivered by Grace since he was in seminary and it has expanded with a large readership through the years.