On December 18, 2019, The Gospel Coalition published a helpful book review written by Josh Blount, a Sovereign Grace pastor, at Living Faith Church in Franklin, WV. 

It’s an axiom for carpenters, mechanics, and lovers of the tool section at Home Depot: you need the right tool for the right job. I once spent an hour trying every saw in my possession to trim one inch off of a door jamb to accommodate new hardwood flooring. None worked. Then I realized there’s a tool for that. One trip to Home Depot later, I had finished the job in less than five minutes. The right tool for the right job.

Books are like that, too. Having the right book on the right topic will save time and create clarity. If you’re in ministry, having the right book is an added bonus: not only will it sharpen your own thinking appropriately, but you’re then positioned to give the right resource to the right questioner. And amid the current gender revolution, Sharon James’s Gender Ideology: What Do Christians Need to Know? is a welcome addition to the toolbox. The book has a specific task—summarizing at a popular level the ideological underpinnings to the LGBT revolution, and it accomplishes that goal admirably.

Respectful Dialogue

Appropriately, Gender Ideology both begins and also ends with a call for respectful treatment of those who disagree with us or struggle with this topic. Christians must love and respect those confused about their gender, because they’re God’s image-bearers. James—who works for the Christian Institute in the United Kingdom—models such respect by beginning her book with a testimony of someone who had a gender “transition” and later came to Christ, and by sprinkling such firsthand narratives throughout. The effect is to humanize James’s discussion and to remind us that this topic isn’t abstract, but deeply personal.

In both the beginning and also end of the book, James makes one of the most helpful distinctions I’ve seen on this topic: between gender ideology and the victims of that ideology. Gender ideology must be opposed, because of the damage it will do to real people; those who struggle with gender confusion must be loved, because they are real people. Framing the discussion in this way gives a place for both compassion and also courage: compassion toward strugglers, especially those who’ve been told from a young age that gender is fluid and identity is completely self-made; and courage to oppose this destructive vision of a gender-fluid human nature.

The bulk of James’s book demonstrates why gender ideology is so harmful, yet so pervasive in the West. She gives a brief history of the global sexual revolution (chapter 1), gives the reader a survey of frequently asked questions (“Can we really change sex?”, chapter 2), defines gender theory (chapter 3) and traces its historical origins (chapter 4), then lays out a brief biblical vision for male and female by design (chapter 5). The book then closes with the alarming way gender ideology is being aimed at increasingly young children (chapter 6) and a 10-fold call for respect (chapter 7) that, appropriately, ends with “Respect our Creator God.”

Alternative Theology

So where does this book fit in your toolbox? Gender Ideology is the book to reach for when you need to explain why gender ideology is, in effect, an alternative theology. While it’s not a work of academic intellectual history (it does have adequate footnotes throughout and a helpful bibliography), I don’t know any other book that summarizes the intellectual and cultural backstory to gender theory for a popular audience.

If you’re in youth ministry, you’ll want to read this book. If you’re a parent, this book will help you grow in discernment about our culture’s influence on your kids, and, depending on your educational context, will help you ask key questions about your child’s curriculum. As a pastor, read this book not only for yourself but also to pass on when a church member wants help understanding how to think about the “T” in LGBT.

James’s book isn’t the first book I’d turn to for someone struggling with gender confusion, or for a first introduction to biblical sexuality and gender. Her chapter on “Male and Female—by Design” is too short to suit that purpose, and a book focused on ideology can’t speak directly to a struggler with wise and compassionate counsel. For those purposes, books like Vaughan Roberts’s Transgender or Andrew Walker’s God and the Transgender Debate are the tools of choice. But for its purpose, Gender Ideology fits a needed niche in your toolbox.

In 1989, a kids’ book entitled Heather Has Two Mommies provoked a national controversy in the US about children’s literature, gender messaging, and public libraries. As the saying goes, that was then, and this is now – and a brave new now, at that. Search Amazon for “LGBT Kids Books,” and you’ll find a host of titles, including some in the “Baby to 2” category. Children’s books with a gender message are here to stay. And that means Christian parents need to be prepared. How would you lead a conversation with your kindergartner about a classmate with two mommies?

Until now, we didn’t have many children’s books to help us with that conversation. There are a few good books that try to prepare us as parents, like David Martin’s Rewriting Gender? You, Your Family, Transgenderism, and the Gospel or Gender: A Conversation Guide for Parents and Pastors by Brian Seagraves and Hunter Leavine. Jani Ortlund’s A Child’s First Book About Marriage: God’s Way is Always Best addresses the topic, but is probably too long for children under the age of 9 or 10. But with secular messaging aimed at ever-younger audiences, how should Christian parents prepare? Enter Marty Machowski’s God Made Boys and Girls.

Aimed at three-to-five-year-olds, this book’s colorful illustrations and basic storyline will help parents lay biblical foundations for conversations about gender. The story starts with a girl, Maya, playing football with the boys at recess. Does that mean Maya is going to become a boy? “No, girls can’t turn into boys,” says Mr. Ramirez, the kids’ teacher. The rest of the book is a conversation between Mr. Ramirez and his students about what it means to say, “God made boys and girls.” That format allows the book to cover key truths in simple, memorable fashion. Children will learn that gender is God’s good gift to us through creation and that each of us has a “secret code” chosen by God that determines whether we are boys or girls. “Boy is in your blood,” Mr. Ramirez says, “and if you are a girl, girl is in your blood.” By the end of the conversation, the story has covered not only secret codes (and what kid doesn’t like secret codes?) but also Genesis 1-2, the diversity of gifts and talents that boys and girls can have (girls like football and boys can be artists), the love of God displayed in the gospel, and the need for us to respond to others who are confused about gender in a way that reveals that same gospel love. That’s a lot to accomplish in under 30 pages! God Made Boys and Girls ends with a full-page spread for parents titled, “Truths about Gender to Share with Children,” with paragraph summaries of key points to help parents think biblically about gender issues.

For Christian parents who live in the shadow of the contemporary gender revolution, God Made Boys and Girls is a gift. Take it and read it yourself, to give you ideas about how to make biblical truth bite-sized and age-appropriate. Read it aloud with your kids to proactively prepare them for the kinds of questions they will face when kids in the neighborhood have two mommies, or when a classmate who last year was a “he” is now a “they.” Use the “Truths about Gender” section to help you think about key values you should instill in your children to prepare for these kinds of questions. And, in whatever conversations this brave new now leads you to have with your kids, remember the gospel that shines light into darkness and brings clarity to confusion. On that subject, I’ll let Marty have the last word, from the last paragraph of God Made Boys and Girls: “So let’s be sure to have compassion on people who are confused about gender and extend Christian love to them as we share the good news of the kingdom.”

Amen!

---

Josh, his wife, Anna, and their three children are proud to call Franklin, West Virginia, their home. Josh serves as a pastor at Living Faith Church, and he is a PhD student in historical and theological studies at Westminster Theological Seminary in Philadelphia.