Participants:
Series Code: IC
Program Code: IC180120A
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00:01 The following program discusses sensitive issues
00:03 related to sexuality. 00:05 Parents are cautioned 00:06 this presentation may be too candid 00:08 for younger audiences. 00:29 Welcome to Intimate Clarity. 00:30 I'm Jason Bradley, 00:32 and I'm here with Jennifer Jill Schwirzer, 00:34 and she is a licensed professional counselor. 00:37 And today, we're going to be discussing 00:38 a very sensitive topic 00:40 but it's a conversation we need to have. 00:42 Jen, what is transgenderism and how is it developed? 00:47 Good question. 00:49 And I'm really, really feeling sensitive 00:52 about answering it 00:53 because I know that there are people out there 00:55 that are struggling with transgenderism, 00:57 and I know that there are people 00:59 that love people 01:00 that are struggling with transgenderism, 01:02 and I know there are a wide variety of views 01:04 on this issue, 01:06 and I'm going to try to explain it 01:08 in the most tactful and loving and yet, 01:12 biblically grounded way that I can 01:14 and scientifically rounded way that I can. 01:16 So transgenderism is essentially 01:19 when an individual identifies themselves 01:22 as the opposite sex. 01:24 So I as a woman would be transgender 01:26 if I thought I was a man 01:27 or if I intensely wanted to be a man 01:30 and then also identified as a man. 01:32 Okay. 01:33 Or you would be transgender 01:34 if you identified yourself as a woman. 01:37 So let me give a little history about the diagnosis. 01:40 The previous revision of the diagnostic manual 01:44 of the American Psychiatric Association 01:47 called it gender identity disorder. 01:51 Now the transgender people didn't really like that 01:55 because they felt that 01:57 it pathologized their condition. 02:00 The diagnosis of homosexuality 02:03 had been taken out of the diagnostic manual in 1973. 02:08 And the transgender people said, 02:09 "Well, we don't want to be in there either, 02:11 we don't want our condition to be pathologized." 02:14 They say, "We're just one more variant 02:18 on a rainbow of choices" 02:20 and homosexuals will say the same thing. 02:23 See, that's interesting to me because like before 02:27 it was identified as a disorder, 02:29 now it's being taught to kids in school. 02:32 That's right. 02:33 It's being totally normalized, and I would even say 02:36 a little glorified in some cases 02:38 as something very interesting. 02:39 So now recently the diagnostic manual 02:43 was revised in 2015. 02:45 And now it's called gender dysphoria. 02:49 See, the problem with taking it 02:50 completely out of the diagnostic manual 02:53 is that then transgender people 02:55 would not be able to get insurance coverage, 02:57 and their condition in their thinking 03:00 requires them to have hormone, medication, 03:04 and also to sometimes have surgery to transition 03:07 and they need insurance coverage 03:08 to be able do that. 03:10 So in order to get insurance coverage, 03:11 you need a diagnosis. 03:13 So they left it in the diagnostic manual, 03:15 but it is now called gender dysphoria. 03:18 So the thing that is pathological 03:20 is not the fact that I'm a woman, 03:21 I want to be a man or you're a man, 03:22 you want to be a woman, 03:24 it's the distress that you feel that accompanies that, 03:28 that leads to the diagnosis, 03:29 so that enabled them to stay in the manual, 03:32 get their insurance coverage and still not be pathologized 03:35 in their thinking. 03:36 So it's weird though that 03:39 every other type of misperception 03:42 of one's physical self 03:44 is still considered pathological. 03:46 So some examples of that would be anorexia, 03:49 and I've been through anorexia. 03:50 And I know when you are anorexic, 03:53 you think you're fat, 03:54 even though you're very, very thin, 03:56 even though you're underweight, you think you're overweight. 04:00 That's pathological. I've been through that. 04:03 It's a cognitive distortion, and it's a disorder 04:07 to think that way. 04:08 Another example is body dysmorphia. 04:12 Body dysmorphia is when a person 04:14 feels extremely self-conscious about the way they look, 04:17 but who it typically afflicts is very attractive people 04:20 that think they're atrociously ugly 04:21 or often it can afflict those people. 04:23 That's considered pathological 04:25 because your perception of yourself 04:27 is very far away from the physical reality. 04:30 Is that kind of along the lines 04:31 of that body shaming kind of thing? 04:33 Yeah. Okay. 04:34 It kind of comes along with that. 04:35 There is another condition that has never made it 04:37 into the diagnostic manual but it may someday, 04:40 and it's called body identity integrity disorder. 04:45 And what it is, is individuals who identify themselves 04:49 as not having for instance a limb, 04:52 maybe they see themselves as being without a leg, 04:56 and it will actually drive that person 04:58 to seek an amputation. 05:01 Now I think... 05:02 Yeah, I know. 05:03 Wait a minute, wait a minute, wait a minute. 05:05 It's a rare thing, but it's a real thing. 05:06 So somebody who will think that they don't have an extremity, 05:10 whether it's an arm or leg or whatever... 05:12 Right. 05:14 And it'll drive them to want to get it amputated 05:17 their functioning leg? 05:19 To get their identity, 05:21 their self-perception to line up 05:22 with the physical reality of who they are. 05:24 Wow. 05:26 And I think possibly the reason 05:27 it's never made it into the diagnostic manuals 05:29 because the implications are very clear. 05:32 They're taking off perfectly healthy appendages 05:36 in the same way people who transition are taking off 05:40 perfectly healthy organs. 05:43 And so I think that there's a little bit 05:45 too much crossover there possibly. 05:47 Yes. 05:49 But let's get some rest from this distressing stuff 05:51 and let's look at the Bible 05:52 and what it says about human nature. 05:55 1 Thessalonians 5:23 says, 05:58 "May your spirit, soul, and body 06:00 be preserved complete." 06:02 So you see this wholism, 06:03 it's what I called biblical wholism. 06:05 Okay. 06:07 The soul does not exist separate from the body. 06:12 That idea came into Christianity 06:15 through what we call the great compromise 06:17 about three centuries after Christ. 06:20 When the church wanted to include more people 06:24 from paganism and so it lowered the standards 06:26 in various areas doctrinally and lifestyle standards 06:30 to get more people to join the church, 06:31 it's not something we're totally foreign to. 06:34 And one of the things that came in, 06:35 one of the heresies that came in is this creek idea 06:39 that the body and the mind were separate or dichotomized. 06:43 It's called Greek dualism, 06:45 so the thinking was that the body is evil, 06:47 the soul has the spark of the divine, 06:49 and the soul will continue to live 06:51 throughout eternity apart from the body. 06:55 Once that got imported into Christianity, 06:57 then we started to develop a false doctrine, 07:00 such as the idea that people go immediately 07:02 to heaven or hell upon death 07:05 or the idea that there's an ever burning hell. 07:07 If the soul is eternal, it's got to live for eternity, 07:11 and so it has to go somewhere 07:13 and if it's not in heaven with God, 07:15 it's got to go somewhere and so this idea 07:17 of ever burning hell developed over time. 07:20 That's all the result of seeing the soul is something 07:23 that can live apart from the body, 07:26 that's all the result of a loss 07:28 of the biblical concept of wholism. 07:31 So you can see where this idea of transgenderism 07:34 would be a fruit of that, 07:35 my soul is something totally different from my body. 07:39 But biblical teaching says to anchor our identity 07:42 in who we are physically, who we are in reality. 07:47 So I mean there are lots of equivalents of this, 07:50 I'm sure being a young person, you can identify, 07:53 you wish you were, 07:54 you know, a famous basketball player, 07:56 or a rock star, or something. 08:01 You know, it's interesting 08:02 because when you're actually walking in, 08:04 your purpose like, you're so happy 08:06 and content in that because it's your purpose 08:09 is what God has given you to do. 08:12 So I'm happy being me because God is blessed. 08:15 So the million dollar question is, 08:17 has there been any science that has shown 08:20 that there is such a thing as a woman's brain 08:22 in a man's body or vice versa. 08:24 And in fact they have found that 08:26 there are some differences 08:27 in a brain of a transgender person, 08:29 but this is a quotation from a study 08:32 that was published in the journal, 08:35 The New Atlantis and it says, 08:37 "In short, the current studies on associations 08:40 between brain structure 08:42 and transgender identity are small, 08:45 methodologically limited, inconclusive, 08:49 and sometimes contradictory." 08:51 So they're not real strong 08:52 this idea of differences in brain structure. 08:55 But then it goes on to say, 08:57 "Even if they were more methodologically reliable, 09:00 they would be insufficient to demonstrate 09:02 that brain structure is a cause, 09:05 rather than an effect, 09:08 of the gender-identity behavior, " 09:09 because what happens 09:11 when people behave a certain way... 09:12 If I as a woman start behaving like a man, 09:15 it would change my brain. 09:16 So it's impossible to know whether those changes 09:19 which were not measured 09:20 before I started to transition is there 09:22 is just not enough research on it. 09:24 Happened, what came first, the chicken or the egg, 09:26 you know, the fact that I thought 09:28 I was transgender, 09:29 was that my brain different, led me to change 09:30 or the behaviors that I engaged 09:32 in actually changed my brain. 09:34 So we really don't know yet, we have not identified 09:36 female brain in male body or vice versa. 09:38 Okay. 09:40 So I want to say this though, it's very important 09:41 that I say that I am not denying the problem, 09:47 and I'm not belittling people that struggle with this, 09:49 I've been through it. 09:50 Not transgenderism, 09:52 but I've been through cognitive distortion 09:53 where I thought it was something that I wasn't. 09:56 And I would say, I still honestly struggle 09:58 with body dysmorphia. 10:00 I'm very self-conscious about the way that I look, 10:03 and sometimes I do dysfunctional things 10:05 to cope with that. 10:06 So I'm not putting myself 10:08 on a different plane than people, 10:10 I think people with transgenderism are, 10:12 they have a bigger struggle going on than I do. 10:16 I feel for them, I'm not denying the problem, 10:19 it happens, it happens in children, 10:22 it happens in teens, it happens in adults, 10:25 they believe that they are the other sex. 10:28 That's a very uncomfortable and distressing experience. 10:31 I'm not denying the problem, 10:32 what I'm denying is the solution 10:34 because I think 10:36 what's being put across to people 10:37 is just transition physically as if shazam, 10:41 you take these hormones, you get the surgery, 10:43 you're going to be the opposite sex, 10:45 but you're not 10:46 because you never change your DNA. 10:48 Yeah, and then you're introducing the issue, 10:50 it's almost like you're denying your very existence. 10:53 You know, you're denying who you actually are. 10:57 You know, so it's like you're denying 10:58 your very existence and so it's a confusion, 11:01 a very confusing thing. 11:03 It is. It is. 11:04 And working with people 11:06 that have this kind of confusion 11:09 is a delicate process. 11:10 You know, you can see how certain things could lead 11:13 into transgender tendencies. 11:16 For instance, if maybe the boy as a child 11:20 was a little more a feminine 11:21 than your average rough and tumble boy, 11:24 and he was part of a family system 11:25 that over stereotyped male behavior 11:28 and he was told, "Oh, you know, 11:30 you're acting like a girl, you're just... 11:32 That's the thing that girls do," 11:33 you know, because he liked colors, 11:34 and he liked art, and he liked flowers, 11:36 you know, and he was told that that wasn't right for him. 11:38 You can see 11:39 where he would start to identify himself 11:42 as a girl locked in a boy's body. 11:44 And in fact, I've known people that have been through that. 11:47 Yeah, so there are certain things 11:48 that can lead up to it. 11:50 If the individual's parent 11:52 wanted a child of the other sex, 11:56 what's going to happen internally 11:58 to that child? 11:59 He's going to start to wish potentially anyway 12:01 that he was the other sex. 12:03 I've heard about that happening. 12:04 I've heard about parents putting dress on the boy 12:08 or boy clothes on the girl 12:10 because they wanted another child. 12:12 You know, they're introducing that confusion to the kid. 12:16 There are a lot of developmental factors 12:19 that can lead people down this avenue 12:22 and I think there could be even biological tendencies 12:25 that would set them up for it, 12:26 although we haven't been able to identify them clearly yet. 12:29 But there are definitely a confluence of factors 12:32 that come together to create the struggles 12:35 that people individually suffer through 12:37 and I don't want to minimize those struggles, 12:39 and I don't want to be little anybody, 12:41 no matter what they choose... 12:42 You know, if you've chosen to transition, 12:44 if you're choosing to transition, 12:45 God still loves you. 12:47 He will love you no matter 12:48 what you do for the rest of your life 12:50 because that's just how God is. 12:52 But I don't know 12:53 that transitioning is a solution to the problem. 12:56 I believe that this rush toward transitioning 12:59 is giving people an easy out of a problem 13:03 that is better addressed in counseling, 13:06 it's better addressed in doing the hard work 13:08 of sorting out our motives. 13:10 And of course, the Holy Spirit 13:12 and the presence of Jesus in your life 13:14 and that security you get from knowing 13:16 that you're accepted no matter 13:18 what can really help catalyze that process 13:21 and make it easier to face who we are 13:23 and also to have hope in who we can become in Him. 13:26 Amen. Yeah, yeah. 13:27 I mean, again, it goes back to the fact that 13:31 people can gain the victory by through Christ, 13:34 you know, people can gain that victory 13:36 so there's just so much on this subject. 13:38 So much here, yeah. 13:40 And we're going to have a couple of other programs 13:42 that address different facets of it 13:44 because it is too big of a topic 13:46 to cover in 15 minutes. 13:47 Yes, yes. 13:48 But it's a conversation we need to have. 13:51 Absolutely, I mean, it's a sensitive topic 13:53 but it's definitely one that we need to have. 13:56 And I'm so glad that we are here 13:59 having this conversation 14:00 or we had this conversation because we've got to go 14:03 but if people, if you want more resources, 14:08 then go to IntimateClarity.tv. 14:10 See you next time. 14:11 God bless. |
Revised 2018-10-29