In their "Pastors' View on Gender" survey, Lifeway Research shows that the majority of American Protestant pastors believe that it's morally wrong to change one's biological birth gender either by public identification or physical surgery.
The research methodology was a mixed mode survey from the collected 1,007 samples (502 by phone, 505 online). Pastors who agreed to participate in the survey were contacted between Sept. 2 - Oct. 1, 2020.
They were asked as to whether they believe that it's "morally wrong" for a person to identify with a gender different from what they had at birth - an identification that doesn't necessarily mean taking hormone pills or undergoing sex change surgery.
Scott McConnell, executive director of Lifeway Research, said about 72% of U.S. Protestant pastors are more likely to say that it's morally wrong for an individual to identify with a gender different from the biological sex they were born." This was in comparison to the 44% of non-clergy believers who identify as Protestants.
"While most Americans accept the biblical narrative of God designing male and female, pastors take changing that design much more seriously," observed McConnell.
According to the survey, Pentecostal (90%) and Baptist (89%) pastors are more likely to agree that it's a sin to identify self with another gender than their counterparts in the Restoration movement (69%), the Lutherans (60%), the Presbyterian/Reformed (45%) and the Methodists (43%)."
As for gender change by taking in hormone pills or undergoing surgery, pastors from "Pentecostals (96%) and Baptists (94%) denominations are more likely to view such attempts as immoral followed by Restorationist movement pastors (75%), Lutherans (69%), Presbyterian/Reformed pastors (49%) and Methodists (48%)."
"Whether it is a physical sex-change or public identification, a large majority of pastors see a person's biological sex as something a human should not change," comments McConnell.
Basing in their 2015 research, Lifeway found that 27% of Americans personally knew someone who identifies as transgender.
When these pastors were asked the same question, almost half responded that they do.
"Pastors who are of other ethnicities (57%) are more likely than African American pastors (36%) to say they personally know someone who identifies as transgender. White pastors are in between at 48%," says the survey.
The denominational breakdown is as follows: Methodists (63%) Restorationist movement pastors (47%), Lutherans (47%), Pentecostals (40%) and Baptists (39%).
"Despite close to half of pastors saying they personally know someone who identifies as transgender, most still view identifying as a different gender as immoral," McConnell said.
On the morality issue, American culture is increasingly becoming more progressive in their views, but "when pastors articulate Christian teaching, it often sounds very different from the cultural narrative because it rejects a basis for morality centered on the individual," noted McConnell.
On equity concerns, there's no debate on lawmakers establishing protections on transgender people seeking employment, housing, and insurance. Making laws to penalize those who opposed the idea of transgenders using the ladies' bathroom, however, is another issue. And in the eyes of most evangelical pastors, legalizing such intrusion to private spaces is a moral issue.
"It waits to be seen if Congress will seek to force pastors and their churches to implement changes contradictory to their religious convictions," McConnell commented, as per Christian Headlines.
