Big news yesterday:
BREAKING: Boy Scouts of America will allow transgender children who identify as boys to enroll in scouting programs.
— The Associated Press (@AP) January 31, 2017
Here is how Southern Baptist theologian and church leader Russell Moore responded:
This is crazy, IMO. https://t.co/8ddusaaxjD
— Russell Moore (@drmoore) January 31, 2017
I think highly of Russell Moore: he’s a very smart and articulate fellow. But that flippant response left me very disappointed. I believe Moore wouldn’t call it crazy if he spent time with some families of transgender children, if he heard from the parents about their own confusion, fear and pain over their child’s gender dysphoria and their fear and pain every time their child is excluded, alienated, and stared at. Imagine how grateful those parents are to know that the Boy Scouts have now become a place of inclusion and embrace.
Accepting transgender children into the Boy Scouts isn’t a matter of social engineering or deconstructing gender. It isn’t an attack on the “traditional family” or “traditional gender roles.” It isn’t an affront to God’s created design. It is simply an attempt to extend hospitality to vulnerable children who experience distress because their self-perception does not match their sex.
But the deeper issue is this: whether you agree with the Boy Scouts decision or not, it is a reasonable good faith attempt to meet the challenge of a very difficult issue. And it certainly isn’t “crazy”.
