Jesus said there were two great commandments -- to love the Lord and love our neighbor.
And in regard to other people, we are commanded to love them, to forgive them, and to treat them the way we would want to be treated.
And so, to the Rev. Phil Phaneuf, who announced over the pulpit on Sunday that he is transitioning from male to female, I say: I love you, I don't judge you, and I wish the best for you. I will keep you in my prayers, as I hope I am in your prayers, and I hope that we both can grow closer each day to the Lord and Savior who died to redeem us all.
But to everyone else, whom I also love, I say: He's wrong, don't follow him, that is not the gospel of Jesus Christ.
Perhaps you've read about it, or seen the video on his Facebook page. But Sunday, at the North Chili United Methodist Church in suburban Rochester, New York, Phil Phaneuf declared his new identity. He said he wasn't becoming a woman, he was just stopping pretending to be a man.
That is his right, and I support his right to make that choice and that declaration. He, of course, may speak for himself, and he, of course, may speak for his congregation and denomination, but he does not speak for what has been understood for the last 2,000 years to be Christianity.
And silence out of courtesy to his interests is contrary to the interests of others. And while humankind has a God-given freedom of conscience and choice, and we are blessed to live in a country with absolute freedom of religion and religious belief, and any organization can declare any religious tenets it chooses, absolute truth nonetheless exists.
And the absolute truth, as born witness to by the overwhelming majority of Christians, is that gender is innate and eternal. It's in our DNA, it's in our anatomy, and it's in our theology.
God made Adam and Eve -- male and female, created he them. We are are the family of man, and from the dawn of time the natural world and Christian theology have declared that gender is essential, unambiguous and unchanging.
And while any person or any body of believers -- like the United Methodist Church -- can declare differently, they cannot claim the support of the Bible or of traditional Christianity.
I don't point that out as a condemnation, but as a warning. Not to those who embrace transgenderism, but to those who might be deceived by the embrace and normalization of transgenderism.
The way of the pastor is not the way of the Lord.
God, of course, loves transgender people, as he loves everyone. And it is not our business to condemn or ostracize transgender people, as it is not our business to condemn or ostracize anyone. And each one of us -- myself particularly -- has sins and spiritual obstacles of our own to overcome and repent of, many of which -- my own particularly -- are probably far more spiritually egregious than anything the pastor may be going through.
But transgenderism is a confusion, planted in the human mind by our adversary, the devil, to trip us up and draw us into paths of sorrow and distance from God. Much in our society of late has promoted transgenderism, leading many astray and causing much unhappiness, particularly among the young and impressionable. The recent dramatic increase of transgenderism is the result of social acculturation and passive recruitment.
We see it in our schools and, now, in our churches.
And since the pastor rose to speak in the name of the Lord, I do the same.
Because loving the Lord sometimes means declaring his truth, even if no one wants to hear it. And the truth, in my unworthy declaration, is that men are men and women are women, and that God, who loves the sinner while condemning the sin, does not teach or condone transgenderism.
Transgenderism is contrary to the teaching of biblical Christianity, as it it contrary to the canonical teaching of all the monotheistic religions.
God and his followers love transgender people, as they love everyone. But God calls transgender people, like he calls us all, to repent and lead the lives he has taught us to lead.
So, love the pastor, be his friend and pray for him, but do not follow him.
Lest he be a blind leader of the blind.