Church assembly to debate urging US government to 'renounce the sin' of transgender procedures for minors

A major Presbyterian denomination in the U.S. will consider a formal petition urging states and the federal government to "renounce the sin" of permitting transgender procedures for minors.

The General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church in America (PCA) will consider the text of the overture submitted by the Alabama-based Evangel Presbytery when it convenes in June.

The PCA has made headlines this week as the denomination of the church affiliated with The Covenant School in Nashville, where three adults and three children were killed at the hands of 28-year-old Audrey Hale, who identified as transgender. The overture was drafted before the massacre.

"I would say there is a lot of concern in our churches about children particularly being urged to have hormonal and physical changes while they are yet minors that will become life-altering decisions for the rest of their lives," Dr. Bryan Chapell, the stated clerk of the PCA, told Fox News Digital in an interview last week.

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"And as this overture says, a ‘wait-and-see’ approach with counseling is certainly a wiser approach rather than a medical intervention that is irreversible for a minor," Chapell added.

Citing both the Bible and the 17th-century Westminster Standards that form the basis of Presbyterianism, the overture argues that God created human beings male and female, that cross-dressing is immoral and that Jesus Christ strongly warned against scandalizing children.

"Medical and social interventions related to so-called sex change procedures are a rejection of God’s design that will prevent his blessing, grace, and joy to be experienced," the overture states.

The overture also cited multiple scientific studies that suggest such "medical and surgical interventions are a rejection of science," and that the epidemic 900% increase in gender dysphoria among girls during the past eight years is primarily "driven by social contagion from contemporary social, educational, and cultural influences."

"We who love our nation, in the name of God who alone is sovereign in his good and perfect design of men and women, call upon you to renounce the sin of all medical and surgical sex change procedures in minors by the American healthcare system because they result in irreversible harm."

Going on to claim that some members of the medical community are "aggressively pursuing" medical interventions on minors who express gender confusion, it notes that no other medical procedure requires only a minor's self-diagnosis of their feelings and beliefs.

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The overture also mentions studies that indicate a psychological trauma-based origin of gender dysphoria in many minors and lists some of the medical complications that arise from such procedures, such as sterility, cardiovascular disease, diminished bone density and other irreversible changes.

The overture concludes by citing the Westminster Confession's admonition for churches to petition civil authorities "in cases extraordinary." 

"We who love our nation, in the name of God who alone is sovereign in his good and perfect design of men and women, call upon you to renounce the sin of all medical and surgical sex change procedures in minors by the American healthcare system because they result in irreversible harm," the petition to government leaders states in part.

"I think all churches are dealing with these issues, as we well know, because of the cultural push at this time to congratulate people who question their sexual identity," Chapell said. "All young people are certainly being subjected to that cultural push, but it in our view does not cohere with either science or Scripture."

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"Whether one is male or female is based upon one's organs and chromosomes and hormone profiles and not simply psychological confusion that many adolescents will experience," Chapell said, adding that the push for transgender procedures on minors "seems to be driven by a political agenda and not by science, medicine or Scripture."

"We certainly think that churches that take a biblical view of sexuality are at risk of future prosecution by a culturally driven agenda that is not either scientifically or scripturally supported, but rather driven by the politics of the moment," he also said.

The overture comes as Rachel Levine, assistant secretary for health for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, promised that transgender procedures for minors will soon be normalized and that they have the "highest support" of the Biden administration.

"We certainly think that churches that take a biblical view of sexuality are at risk of future prosecution by a culturally driven agenda … driven by the politics of the moment."

— PCA Stated Clerk Bryan Chapell

Established in 1973, the PCA formed when 260 congregations primarily from Mississippi, Alabama and South Carolina broke off from the mainline Presbyterian church in the U.S. in response to what they saw as encroaching theological liberalism. The PCA has since grown to include more than 375,000 members and over 1,540 churches, according to its website.

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In contrast to the conservative PCA, the more liberal Presbyterian mainline church has a different tack on transgender issues. The stated clerk of the liberal Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) last Thursday issued a statement urging Democratic Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear to veto a bill that would ban transgender procedures for minors in that state.