Skip to main content

Christians, Transgenders, and the Target Boycott

It’s all over Facebook and the news: transgenders in our bathrooms. I’ve seen countless rants from Christians and parents threatening to boycott businesses like Target, stating that their kids are no longer safe using public restrooms.


I have a newsflash for everyone: your kids were never safe using public restrooms.


Please take note, that I am not associating transgender individuals with pedophiles. I may not understand or relate to their personal struggle, but I fully accept that it is one that is real to them. My personal feelings, opinions, and morals aside: that is their reality. The issue with businesses declaring access for transgenders to use the gender bathroom that they identify with isn’t the issue. The flood gate that has been opened with this whole policy proposal is that individuals with ulterior motives are now given a free pass to victimize under the guise of transgender freedom. Yes, it is true that sexual predators don’t always necessary just victimize those of the opposite gender or just children. But now instead of the threat being limited to men who victimize little boys or women who victimize little girls (because yes, this is also a thing), now men can enter women’s bathrooms and find rape victims and no one bats an eye because they might simply identity as a woman so they’re within their rights to enter the women’s bathroom.


But again I bring to your attention: public restrooms have not suddenly become unsafe; they always have been. This hasn’t suddenly made public restrooms unsafe; it’s simply opened the door to more victimization. So, what should we do? As women, parents, husbands, Christians? Should we boycott businesses? Should we segregate transgenders from our gender specific restrooms? Should we stop using public restrooms altogether?


Perhaps this is an opportunity to open up a conversation that most of us as Christians and parents are afraid to have. Perhaps we should take advantage of this to talk with our children and women in our lives and others who may be targeted as victims about how to keep themselves safe. Let’s be realistic, a good majority of those who are victimized by sexual predators it isn’t in a public restroom; it’s more often in our own neighborhoods and too often in our own homes. I would assume that this policy is not going to stop with Target. I assume that this will likely become commonplace anywhere public restrooms are available to customers, so it’s unrealistic to think we can avoid the potential problem by boycotting a few stores. Perhaps this is also an opportunity to talk to our children, our churches, our families about respecting the “other”. Would Jesus avoid the transgender individual? I feel as though these would be the individuals He would seek out, much like the tax collectors and adulterers He sought out in the New Testament. They were the social outcasts, the moral outcasts, the hated, the misunderstood. But to Jesus, they were exactly who He came to seek and save. The lost. The broken. The hurting. The searching.


I have to wonder as well; would Jesus boycott? Perhaps I’ve missed it, but I can’t find any place in Scripture where Jesus- perfect, sinless Jesus- boycotted anyone or anything.

So where does that leave us? Where does that leave you? I can’t answer that for you. But I hope I got the wheels turning.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Come Just As You Are

Growing up in church I’ve always heard the phrase, “Come just as you are” thrown around but I’ve never really thought about what this means. As I was worshipping in service Sunday morning, the meaning hit me. God is holy, yes, so we should never enter His presence in a flippant manner, but with reverence and humility. However, God is also merciful and longs to meet us where we are, in our sinfulness, our brokenness, and even in our doubt. The power of coming into the presence of a holy, merciful God in the right spirit and bringing all our baggage is an encounter with this God who has the ability and desire to change us from who we were to who He wants us to be: a whole, joyful, righteous individual full of the life God intends for us and free from everything that keeps us in oppression and bondage. It in worship and in the presence of God Almighty that transformation is possible. During the MOVE conference as Asbury Theological Seminary this past week, this reality became more evident...
Post a Comment
Read more

Seasons

It wasn’t your typical staff meeting. There was some discussion on what was going on with the residents we ministered to, but the focus of this meeting was edifying the staff. Our director started off discussing how there are various seasons in our life. There are some seasons where God must cut things out of our lives and when there has to be death; these seasons are often painful and confusing. We’ve all walked through these seasons when God seemed to be weeding out everything in our lives. In these times, it is often difficult to see the purpose. It can often feel lonely and like God is abandoning or punishing us. But then follows seasons of growth and life; times when He lovingly replaces the things he cut away with newness, hope, and joy. Most often, we see these seasons manifest through our relationships. It’s common as we grow up and move on in our lives to naturally grow apart from childhood friends and maybe even family. But there are more painful moments when people in ou...
Post a Comment
Read more

God doesn't need defending

I love one on one conversations. It's very fueling and inspiring for me. I find, very often, that it is during such interactions with others that God speaks to me. Today I had one of those encounters during a conversation with a good friend from church. We were discussing the issue of grace and sin and whether or not someone can still be identified with his or her sin after coming to Christ. For example, can someone who is a recovering alcoholic or who has same-sex attraction sincerely be a follower of Jesus Christ? Well, I posited the explanation that Scripturally, someone cannot accept Christ as their Redeemer and continue in a life of sin. Paul is emphatic about this throughout Romans 6 (for instance, verses 1-2  Well then, shall we go on sinning so that grace may abound? Absolutely not! We died to sin, how can we continue to live in?). It is a mockery of Christ's sacrifice to free us from the bondage of sin to continue in it. Galatians 5: 1 declares that "it is for fre...
Post a Comment
Read more