By Rosaria Butterfield, Why I no longer use Transgender Pronouns—and Why You shouldn’t, either
My use of transgendered pronouns was not a mistake; it was sin.
Public sin requires public repentance, not course correction.
I have publicly sinned on the issue of transgender pronouns, which I have carelessly used in books and articles.
I have publicly sinned by advocating for the use of transgender pronouns in interviews and public Q&As.
Why did I do this? I have a bunch of lame and backside-covering excuses. Here are a few. It was a carry-over from my gay activist days. I wanted to meet everyone where they were and do nothing to provoke insult.
When the Supreme Court decided in favor of gay marriage, the danger of my position started to come into focus. The codification of gay marriage and LGBTQ+ civil rights launched a collision course between LGBTQ+ and the Christian faith.
….
Is LGBTQ+ a normal option in the ever-expanding menu of sexual orientation and gender identity, needing a little Jesus to aid human flourishing? Or does LGBTQ+ come from Satan as a reflection of the world, the flesh, and the devil? Is it part of God’s creational design or rebellion against the creation ordinance? It’s one or the other because the Christian faith is inherently binary, not non-binary.
….
How is using transgender pronouns sinful, you might ask?
- Using transgendered pronouns is a sin against the ninth commandment and encourages people to sin against the tenth commandment.
- Using transgendered pronouns is a sin against the creation ordinance.
- Using transgendered pronouns is a sin against image-bearing.
- Using transgendered pronouns discourages a believer’s progressive sanctification and falsifies the gospel.
- Using transgendered pronouns cheapens redemption, and it tramples on the blood of Christ.
- Using transgendered pronouns fails to love my neighbor as myself.
- Using transgendered pronouns fails to offer genuine Christian hospitality and instead yields the definition of hospitality to liberal communitarianism, identity politics, and “human flourishing.”
- Using transgendered pronouns isn’t a sin because the times have changed, and therefore, using transgendered pronouns isn’t sinful today but a morally acceptable option in 2012. Sin is sin. The Bible defines this as sin. Sin does not lose its evil because of our good intentions or the personal sensibilities of others. Changing cultural forces can bring sin into fresh light (as the Supreme Court’s Obergefell decision did for me). But a renewed focus is no excuse for sin and no dodge for repentance, not for a real Christian.
I repent.
Bruce Gerencser, 66, lives in rural Northwest Ohio with his wife of 45 years. He and his wife have six grown children and thirteen grandchildren. Bruce pastored Evangelical churches for twenty-five years in Ohio, Texas, and Michigan. Bruce left the ministry in 2005, and in 2008 he left Christianity. Bruce is now a humanist and an atheist.
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None of what she says makes sense.
Aw shucks, Bruce. Why don’t these bonker-donks just beat themselves with bats?
Why get all miserable with words to use or not use and God says this and that and Oh so bad so bad…. Just buy an aluminum bat for Kricekee-sake and hard-whack yourself all over!
Or, just live your life and leave others alone. Surely a person can set aside their religious based bigotry and just be polite to others.
Christians demand respect but refuse to respect anyone who does not fit into their particular narrow Christian world view. This person can’t even respect beliefs of other Christian groups. So, if one group is disrespectful to anyone they deem to be the “enemy”, which is literally anyone who doesn’t think and believe like them, and find people in return do not give them respect, then who is the real problem here?
If one truly thinks “sin is sin” then perhaps they should focus on their own life and sin issues. I am sure there is enough there to spend a lifetime. It’s all about those pesky planks.
Personally, I give the same respect to anyone who does not respect pronouns or anyone who uses wrong names. They all become they, and I choose a name that my personal values deem to be true.
That may be the stupidest thing I’ve ever read …
Sage, I love your comment. Unfortunately this type of arrogant Christian just can’t be polite to others. Her god commands her to be a jerk.
unsurprisingly, the poor dear doesn’t have comments open on her nonsense. No surprise why.
Rosaria: ” I wanted to meet everyone where they were and do nothing to provoke insult.”
Zoe: But now that I’m a Christian literalist and former “sinner” – to hell with boundaries. I can insult until Christ returns.
Damn, this person really hates themselves, and in turn is projecting that hate outward.
Sage, I am with you on treating people who don’t respect pronouns and names. I call them “they” and assign whatever name I feel they should be called so that they get a taste of what they’re doing to others.
I agree. This is a person who become an absolutest and thinks everyone has to agree with her/them.
As a trans woman, I have known people who started, and aborted, gender transitions, or who de-transitioned. I have also known people who were involved in same-sex relationships, and may have even identified as lesbians, gay men or bisexuals, but later got involved in heterosexual marriages or partnerships.
Some, including one woman I count as a dear friend, see their “explorations” as part of figuring out who they are and are loving, accepting people. But I also know others who are embittered over having invested large parts of themselves–and, in some cases, losing relationships with friends and family members–over something that ultimately didn’t work for them. Some become even more homophobic and transphobic than I was before my journey to self-acceptance or simply have to convince themselves that “there’s no such thing” as a trans person because their own attempted transitions were unsuccessful.
The only way Rosaria Butterfield is different is that she stirs her faith (or what she claims as such) into that vile brew of hate for herself and others. I guess it’s easier to give up on being who you are–or simply stamping out all evidence that you might have even harbored thoughts that you might be different from what you now believe yourself to be–if you believe “it’s what God wants.”
She hates herself (just like Michael Voris of Church Militant) and makes a big to do about the use of preferred pronouns. I am going to respect someone’s decision to make about their pronouns, whether she thinks it’s sinful or not. More to the point, I am really getting tired of the “Christian” nationalists and other wingnut bullies to use the lives of other humans and their lives for scaremongering and disrespect. We’ve seen this before, and it ends badly.