A thoughtful pastor recently asked me, where is this gender teaching of yours in the Westminster Confession of Faith? As a Presbyterian minister, isn’t that your doctrinal standard? So shouldn’t you be deriving your doctrine with reference to it? It is a good question. It might be re-phrased: Where is gender in the confessional standards of the Christian Church? …
The waterfall of information pouring forth from the mapping of the human genome continues to supply wondrous insight into our selves. One of these watershed discoveries came when the British researcher, Peter Goodfellow, identified the SRY gene as the male on-off switch (Nature 348 (1990): 448–50). When we say that a person’s sex, male or female, is in the …
I have had some great times Affirming Gender so far this summer, and can give some good reports. Encountering the select assembly from Millersville Bible Church in June was so very encouraging because I met a group of people who wanted to actually do something to help those with sexuality difficulties. Lancaster County—always full of surprises. Their enthusiasm testified …
What does Gender mean for the activities in a Christian church? Should men only be doing certain things? Are there ministries that only women should do or are there offices inappropriate for women to fill? Every church needs to decide questions like these as part of its constitution and work. The Bible gives some direction about it, but also …
Gender can be complex. It is easy to get lost in considerations of femininity and masculinity. Seven principles from the Bible make this difficult topic easier to understand.
The newly released, and surely best, DC comics movie is cleaning up at the box office. For good reason. The story is compelling and moving, the actors talented and handsome, and the fighting very cool. It is too bad that in all the ways WW can inspire young women, she is not able to teach them what will make their relationships intimate.
Dear Subscriber, I want to thank you for welcoming me into your email-box during these past months. I consider it an honor to have your attention for my posts and I take your subscription to mean that you are thinking with me about the important issue of gender. This makes me happy. For the past five months, I have …
My wife, Marika, is the most extraordinary person I think I have ever met. Today as I awoke, I wondered how it was that, of all the people in the world, I got to be married to her. There are obvious benefits to marriage, of course, sharing life and pleasures with one another. But I have found some in …
Ever notice how God delights in turning someone’s weakness into a strength? So God takes a man who cannot speak well, who was “slow of speech and of tongue” (Exodus 4:10), to speak some of the most important words ever spoken. These were captured in something called the Pentateuch. This God appointed the man, Moses, to a position requiring many …
A reader writes: My understanding has been that same sex attraction that is not acted upon is not sin. Is a Christian who struggles with same sex attraction, yet in living for the Lord, doesn’t act on these desires, sinning? Is being tempted, yet resisting temptation, still evil? I thought it would be correct to tell a friend wrestling with …
