Boys Training to be Girls?

Genesis 1:27

            “So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them..“

Do men and women differ from each other because God gave them different natures or because their environment caused them to be men or women? In short, is it our nature (our genes) or our nurture (our environment) that determines whether we become men or women?

Perhaps a pair of Canadian twin boys can answer the question. When they were a few months old, their parents decided to have them circumcised. After the doctor made a tragic error with one of the boys, the distraught parents did not know what to do. Not long after that, they saw a program on television about the effects of nature and nurture. During the course of the program, a doctor claimed that a surgically altered boy who was raised as a girl would grow into a woman. The parents contacted him. He assured the parents that he could help them raise their son as a healthy, happy girl. However, as the years went by, their new “daughter” grew to behave more like a boy than a girl. Finally, as a young adult he reclaimed his identity as a male. Today he is married and the step father of three children. His experience has led him to call the idea that it is the way children are raised that determines whether they become men or women, “Plainly ignorant.” The doctor who encouraged his parents to raise him as a girl has since been removed from his gender studies clinic.

We are made male or female by God, Who gives each of us the unique characteristics we need for our unique roles as parents. No amount of denial of this truth can change the truth of what God creates.     Author: Paul A. Bartz

             Prayer: Thank You,Father, for making me what I am. In Jesus’ Name. Amen.

Ref: The Toronto Star, 2/6/00, p. D13, “From boy to girl to boy.”