One of the three authors of a new book, The Gender Revolution, Presbyterian Minister Kamal Weerakoon, was asked at the book launch why write a book on transgender, a difficult, complicated subject. Kamal Weerakoon replied that for all three of them, it was compassion for young people: He’s used to “Watching them grow and watching them build, construct, discover an identity in Christ and in their families and so on. It’s such a tragedy that now they’re being told, taught, that it is cool to be queer, to be in a way that is not connected with their biological reality of themselves, connected with the family that loved them and brought them up. And so that for me certainly is what has motivated me.”
Co-author Rob Smith, a theology lecturer at Sydney Missionary and Bible College with a newly minted doctorate in ‘Identity and Embodiment,’ added “we are aware of the mess and the confusion and the need for clarity, the need for clear biblical teaching, but also clear pastoral guidance. That’s really what we’ve [been] motivated to provide.”
The third author, sexologist Patricia Weerakoon, formerly the Director of the Graduate Program in Sexual Health, Faculty of Health Sciences, University of Sydney, was asked by interviewer David Ould from St Johns Cathedral Parramatta to explain the metaphor of the tree – a central image of the book. “So we use the tree because the root system of the biology, the development in the womb as well as the word of God, supports our sexuality and our bodies and our gender.”
In The Gender Revolution, the roots and trunk of the tree are biological sex. “The biological sex of an individual as male or female is established in the womb, and goes through a process of maturation from childhood through puberty to becoming an adult man or woman.”
“The branches of the tree are connected to and grow from the roots and trunk, but they don’t all look the same or grow in the same way. Their growth and development are influenced by the sun, rain and wind. Similarly, scientific research tells us that two of the other three categories …those of gendered behaviour (how I express myself) and sexual orientation (whom I am erotically attracted to) – are related to and influenced by the objective reality of biological sex, but are also heavily influenced by environmental factors like the way we’re brought up, what experiences we have with friends, and even social media. Nature plays a part, but nurture is also important.”
The Gender Revolution draws a distinction between gendered behaviour and sexual orientation which can be studied empirically by the social sciences, which examine community expectations and gender stereotypes, and sexual arousal. “But gender identity – who I feel I am – is completely subjective. There is no empirical evidence to support the claim of a male brain in a female body or vice versa. We cannot reliably observe it from the outside; the person must tell us.”
The book goes on to say, “Christians recognise that all people – whatever their biology, gender behaviour, sexual orientation or gender identity – are created in the image of God and deserve to live full lives, free from discrimination, harassment and violence. We can and should remain committed to God’s good pattern for sex and gender while simultaneously showing care and compassion as we seek to support those whose lives do not fit neatly into that pattern.”
Patricia Weerakoon, in summarising the image of the tree at the launch, said, “Now, what transgender ideology does is just chop the trunk off so that biology is actually now bigotry and turns the tree over, kind of chops up the branches, makes it all mush, and the tree can’t survive. So now a little girl who likes just doing boy things is called a boy, and a little boy who like, kind of likes to do girlish things or wear pink or play with dolls is told ‘so you are a girl.'”
“We’ve changed what is normal biology, and even when it comes to sexual attraction … what the same sex-attracted people are being told: ‘Lgb, lesbian, gay, bisexual, you must be attracted to gender.’ So let me give you an example here. A lesbian is attracted to a biological woman sexually. She is now told you must be sexually attracted to a male, a biological male who says he’s a woman. Even if he has his full package and says he’s a lesbian, you must be attracted, otherwise, you are transphobic. You are [a] bigot and you have to be canceled.”
Keynote speaker John McClean, the Vice Principal of Christ College, the Presbyterian Theological College in Sydney, recalled Kamal Weerakoon’s contribution to a paper for the Presbyterian Gospel Society and Culture group. “we had a little bit of cultural analysis that came from Kamal, just thinking about the sort of wider cultural streams that all joined together at the point of transgender.
“The emphasis on autonomy, the idea that everyone’s life is DIY, you do it the way you want to, you are absolutely in charge of yourself. And most of our culture buys into that:the celebration of diversity. Our cultural acceptance is that we live in a fractured and diverse reality. And that is simply to be celebrated. Alongside that, there is acceptance and again, probably celebration, of liquidity, that there are no settled definitions of what it means to be human or what it means to be male or female. Everything is malleable, including yourself and hedonism. Our commitment to pleasure and comfort as the highest value are all of those themes, which, you know, everyone in our society to some extent buys into or is influenced by, come together at the point of discussions about transgender… All those deep cultural commitments meet at the point of the issues that this book is talking about.”
McClean says, “But of course, they’re not just out there. It’s not just what you see on Four Corners. It’s in our own experience with the young people that we pastor at church, often within our own families as well. And so it is an issue that we need help with. It’s great to have this book.”
“The book sets out a biblical theology of nature because anyone familiar with the Bible and modern culture will recognise there are lots of questions about gender and gender expression and gender transition, which the Bible doesn’t address directly. But that doesn’t mean we are left without any help or orientation from scripture. What the Bible does give us is a very clear and robust theology of the body and sex, and gender. God has made us as embodied creatures. We are to relate to God, one another, and ourselves as embodied beings. And so that means we need to understand ourselves from our bodies and our biology.
“To quote the book, I just say the book cause I’m not sure exactly who wrote which part of it, ‘God’s word connects our identity with the demonstrable, examinable, biological realities of our body. And God created humanity as males and female.’
“So our authors remind us that we are wonderfully created in God’s image, that we’ve pervasively fallen, that we mercifully redeemed, but will be gloriously transformed. And [they] help us to see how that biblical view gives us a different perspective to the culture around us, on human life and human identity, on what our problems are and what our hope is. And the book does point us to Jesus as our saviour. It’s not just a matter of somehow winning a cultural war or winning a political battle, but that each of us and all of us need Jesus as our saviour.”
The Gender Revolution: A biblical, biological and compassionate response, by Patricia Weerakoon, Rob Smith and Kamal Weerakoon. Matthias Media 2023, available from The Wandering Bookseller $19.99