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 …
I have a confession to make about myself, and I suppose it is appropriate to disclose it on this website. From the time when I was very young, as young as one can be and have desires like this I guess, I have had certain desires that I was ashamed of. I got the impression early on that these …
The same year enGendered was published (2015), Rosaria Champagne Butterfield released Openness Unhindered: Further Thoughts of an Unlikely Convert on Sexual Identity and Union with Christ. I want AffirmingGender readers to know of this work. This sequel to her first Christian book opens with further reflections on her conversion. As she goes on, Dr. Butterfield gives us a refreshing …
A college freshman friend of mine recently found herself in a sad plight, now sadly typical. Young women, transitioning from high school to college, often crave close relationship. If you are such a young woman, to find a girlfriend, with whom you really connect, feels like a gift from heaven. Because it is. A close same-gendered friend is so much …
I was talking last time about how couples today often make the decision to marry based on a feeling of being soul mates. I thought similarly too, in my time, when I decided to marry my wife: that this is what will make our marriage last. But we are getting things exactly backwards. The story goes that a pastor once …
I officiated a wonderful wedding last week. There was talk, as there always is, of whether these two would be right for each other. I told the guests why I was there and why I was confident to pronounce them “husband and wife.” Many people today feel like two people should get married if they are soul mates. I …
It is fun to see the ways Jesus loved women, emphasizing their equality, all the while upholding the asymmetry between the genders. It makes me want to honor women likewise, as He did. Read Matthew12:46-50 closely: While he was still speaking to the people, behold, his mother and his brothers stood outside, asking to speak to him. But he …
