Baptist News Global
Sections
  • News
  • Analysis
  • Opinion
  • Curated
  • Storytelling
    • Faith & Justice >
      • Charleston: Metanoia with Bill Stanfield
      • Charlotte: QC Family Tree with Greg and Helms Jarrell
      • Little Rock: Judge Wendell Griffen
      • North Carolina: Conetoe
    • Welcoming the Stranger >
      • Lost Boys of Sudan: St. John’s Baptist Charlotte
      • Awakening to Immigrant Justice: Myers Park Baptist Church
      • Hospitality on the corner: Gaston Christian Center
    • Signature Ministries >
      • Jake Hall: Gospel Gothic, Music and Radio
    • Singing Our Faith >
      • Hymns for a Lifetime: Ken Wilson and Knollwood Baptist Church
      • Norfolk Street Choir
    • Resilient Rural America >
      • Alabama: Perry County
      • Texas: Hidalgo County
      • Arkansas Delta
      • Southeast Kentucky
  • More
    • Contact
    • About
    • Donate
    • Planned Giving
    • Letters to the Editor
    • Advertising
    • Ministry Jobs and More
    • Transitions
    • Subscribe
    • Submissions and Permissions
Support independent, faith-based journalism. Donate
Search Search this site

The fallacy in opposing ‘bathroom bills’

OpinionRuss Dean  |  February 17, 2016

Franklin Graham is wrong again — and, once again, giving a bad name to my religion and my church.

We could hope that if a Christian minister with a worldwide voice (often mistaken for “the” Christian voice), was going to err, he would at least stand with Jesus and err on the side of protecting the outcast and the innocent, the last and “least of these” in our society.

But Graham recently said on Facebook that a proposed non-discrimination ordinance in Charlotte, N.C., “literally opens the doors — the bathroom doors — to predators and sexually perverted people.”

Graham’s stereotyping belies his fundamental ignorance on the subject. So much for “Judge not ….”

While even the terms of this debate are complicated, and the findings of medical research and social science are always contested by anti-gay organizations, there is agreement among neutral observers that no necessary correlation exists between predatory behavior and sexual orientation or gender expression. In the many cities across the country that have passed non-discrimination policies, there are no reported cases of Mr. Graham’s fear being realized.

The fact that white, heterosexual males are statistically proven the most prevalent molesters of children does not indict all of us who meet those criteria.

Thank God not everyone judges as unfairly as Mr. Graham.

Graham’s characterization is, more disturbingly, a shameful breach of the Christian ethic of love for neighbor. “Who is my neighbor?” Jesus was asked, and he equated our “neighbor” with our most hated enemy, who does not look like us and who shares neither our religious or cultural worldview. Beyond teaching this in parables, Jesus lived his ethic, dining regularly with all the known “outcasts” of his day: prostitutes, lepers (untouchables), “sinners,” Gentiles, foreigners.

How many of the people thoughtlessly and hurtfully derided by Mr. Graham does he actually know? How much of their pain has he embraced by sitting with them to hear their stories — the intimate struggles with self-identity that are heartbreakingly difficult to listen to, and the experiences of rejection, humiliation and violence too many have faced? Some of that violence is perpetrated by the wicked, and some is the result of misguided passion, good hearts that have just been fueled by talk of our “righteousness” and their “perversion”?

The biblical witness, from start to finish, speaks for those who are the outsiders, the vulnerable, the weak, the marginalized and the hated, and Jesus demonstrates the inclusion of God’s love in first person. Mr. Graham sides with the ill-informed, the haters, the purveyors of conventional wisdom and common ignorance.

All Christian churches suffer when someone with such a visible “Christian” presence acts so Christ-less.

The non-discrimination ordinance in Charlotte is not, despite many loud voices misconstruing the issue, a “bathroom” issue. The ordinance would provide protections for the last classes of our citizens who can still be legally denied a taxi cab ride or a hotel room just because someone else disapproves of the way they look. We outlawed that principle years ago. Or so I thought. It is, however, still legal in Charlotte to deny basic, public services to someone just because you simply disapprove of them.

For hundreds of years we used misreadings of the Bible to discriminate against people whose skin color and gender made them “less than” — “the Bible said so.” Well, it still says all those things. Thank God we have learned to read differently.

Narrow judgmentalism often comes down to “proof texting” scripture, so I would like to know what texts Mr. Graham cites to justify his contempt of the transgender person. Jesus is as silent about this issue as he is about homosexuality. There is not a single word about gender identity or gender expression from Genesis to Revelation.

Also misconstrued by the detractors of this ordinance is the idea of religious liberty. This is not a breach of religious freedom — unless you are willing to reconsider legal discriminations against African Americans and women. There are still people in this country whose religious views teach the superiority of the white race. Blessedly, we do not allow them an exemption to discriminate against people of color on the grounds of their religious bigotry.

As to the so-called “bathroom issue”…

The ordinance recommends no changes to building codes concerning bathrooms, in either new or existing facilities. The provision says, simply, that transgender persons will be allowed to use the restroom of choice. So, let’s think clearly about this.

It is against the law today for a man to dress as a woman for the purpose of molesting a child. If the ordinance passes, that will still be against the law. Molesting children will always be an egregious crime — no matter how you are dressed. So, unless we fall into Mr. Graham’s dangerous trap of stereotyping all transgender persons as pedophiles, which is morally repugnant, we have to admit that the issue is not a concern for children’s welfare.

We are all concerned about children’s welfare, but any reasonable reading of the evidence shows that our children would not be in increased danger if the ordinance passes.

The issue, then, is simply the treatment of the homosexual or transgender person. The issue for people of faith is Mr. Graham’s contempt and condemnation of the transgender person — based on such unchristian stereotyping. While this area of human sexuality is new to many of us, we cannot ignore these human beings. And Christians cannot treat them as a class of “predators” and “perverts.” The Williams Institute at the UCLA School of Law estimates .3 percent of the U.S. population is transgender — that’s 700,000 of God’s children, in this country alone!

I must confess that I am as challenged by this as most people — Charlotte is certainly not the quiet, small South Carolina town in which I was raised. Today’s best medical and scientific evidence, however, now makes it clear that the diversity of these expressions of humanity have always been with us. And this culture we have inherited — a culture freed for expression by our amazing democratic experiment — is not going away.

Faced with the reality of homosexuality and the transgender experience, we must ask: where do we actually want the people targeted by this discrimination to use the restroom?

As the father of two, now teenaged, sons, I am certain I would prefer transgender women to use the privacy of a stall in the women’s room (and how is anyone’s biological gender actually known in that room?), rather than to have had to explain to two young boys why there was a woman in their restroom. She is no danger to my sons, nor is she or the transgender male a danger to our daughters. However, forcing this woman to use a men’s room may very well endanger her own safety — and if we have any degree of Christian compassion, we have to care about that.

It is not a simple world. It never has been — and we’re not going back to any supposed “good old days.”

Christians in this complex world have a basic choice. We can condemn those who are different from us, castigate those we don’t understand; we can label them and heap humiliation and shame on them; we can stereotype and blame and judge and, clinging to narrow, literalistic readings of our ancient scripture, we can proclaim ourselves, alone, righteous.

Or we can side with Jesus, who welcomed the outcasts — and died as one, too.

Our children are no more in danger today than they have always been — but the Christian church is. We must speak a more compassionate voice, or no ordinance will be able to save us from our own hypocritical demise.


OPINION: Views expressed in Baptist News Global columns and commentaries are solely those of the authors.
Tags:Religious Libertybathroom billsFranklin GrahamLGBTnon-discrimination ordinanceRuss Deantransgender
Russ Dean
More by
Russ Dean
  • Get BNG headlines in your inbox

  • Featured

    • The strange saga of the Riley Foundation lawsuit now forces SBC to figure out who has the right to remove a seminary trustee

      News

    • Black History Month: Remembering, waiting, watching

      Opinion

    • LGBTQ inclusion and clergy sexual abuse treated equally in SBC expulsions

      News

    • About disfellowshipping churches based on the ‘clear’ teaching of Scripture

      Opinion


    Curated

    • Texas church helps mosque damaged after snowstorm

      Texas church helps mosque damaged after snowstorm

      February 26, 2021
    • Vaccinated for virus, Jimmy Carter and wife back in church

      Vaccinated for virus, Jimmy Carter and wife back in church

      February 26, 2021
    • Black Church Group Offers Its Best Shot at Closing Vaccine Gap

      Black Church Group Offers Its Best Shot at Closing Vaccine Gap

      February 26, 2021
    • Man who played Duke Chapel bells for 50 years dies

      Man who played Duke Chapel bells for 50 years dies

      February 26, 2021
    Read Next:

    Free Lenten daily devotionals offered

    NewsBNG staff

    More Articles

    • All
    • News
    • Opinion
    • Curated
    • Matter-of-fact statements about Scripture aren’t always the gospel truth

      OpinionJordan Conley

    • Some Methodist churches finding greater mission results with simplified governance

      NewsCynthia Astle

    • Black History Month: Remembering, waiting, watching

      OpinionWendell Griffen

    • Diverse religious coalition urges Congress to finalize the Equal Rights Amendment

      NewsJeff Brumley

    • Canada labels Uyghur repression ‘genocide,’ but that’s not as exemplary as you might think

      OpinionRay Mwareya

    • She’s Gen-Z, became leery of the church but practices faith with fitness

      NewsJeff Brumley

    • About disfellowshipping churches based on the ‘clear’ teaching of Scripture

      OpinionDalen Jackson

    • What the SBC should learn from the Ravi Zacharias tragedy

      OpinionChrista Brown

    • LGBTQ inclusion and clergy sexual abuse treated equally in SBC expulsions

      NewsMark Wingfield

    • The Black church and the salvation of the world

      OpinionPaul Robeson Ford

    • The two Georges, the world and American leadership

      AnalysisErich Bridges

    • As people walk away from the church in droves, Russ Dean hopes to tell the old story in a new way

      NewsJeff Brumley

    • The strange saga of the Riley Foundation lawsuit now forces SBC to figure out who has the right to remove a seminary trustee

      NewsMark Wingfield

    • St. Benedict and a two-fold path for the church In America

      OpinionH. Stephen Shoemaker

    • What if we cared about Black History Month as much as Lent?

      OpinionRick Pidcock

    • In-person worship dropped in January as more churches were directly affected by COVID

      NewsJeff Brumley

    • Prophecy is obedient imagination

      OpinionAlan Bean

    • Caldwell succeeds Anderson as chair of BNG board

      NewsBNG staff

    • Ministry jobs and more

      NewsBarbara Francis

    • Final vote sounds the death knell for capital punishment in Virginia

      NewsJeff Brumley

    • Reeves to lead Fellowship Southwest

      NewsMark Wingfield

    • Three years later, Leah Sharibu is still held captive, reportedly for refusing to renounce her faith

      NewsAnthony Akaeze

    • How much wealth does America need before we’ll address homelessness?

      OpinionMichael Chancellor

    • Wake Forest Divinity gets $5 million grant to help combat HIV/AIDS

      NewsMark Wingfield

    • Why we need to talk about abortion

      OpinionRuss Dean

    • Some Methodist churches finding greater mission results with simplified governance

      NewsCynthia Astle

    • Diverse religious coalition urges Congress to finalize the Equal Rights Amendment

      NewsJeff Brumley

    • She’s Gen-Z, became leery of the church but practices faith with fitness

      NewsJeff Brumley

    • LGBTQ inclusion and clergy sexual abuse treated equally in SBC expulsions

      NewsMark Wingfield

    • As people walk away from the church in droves, Russ Dean hopes to tell the old story in a new way

      NewsJeff Brumley

    • The strange saga of the Riley Foundation lawsuit now forces SBC to figure out who has the right to remove a seminary trustee

      NewsMark Wingfield

    • In-person worship dropped in January as more churches were directly affected by COVID

      NewsJeff Brumley

    • Caldwell succeeds Anderson as chair of BNG board

      NewsBNG staff

    • Ministry jobs and more

      NewsBarbara Francis

    • Final vote sounds the death knell for capital punishment in Virginia

      NewsJeff Brumley

    • Reeves to lead Fellowship Southwest

      NewsMark Wingfield

    • Three years later, Leah Sharibu is still held captive, reportedly for refusing to renounce her faith

      NewsAnthony Akaeze

    • Wake Forest Divinity gets $5 million grant to help combat HIV/AIDS

      NewsMark Wingfield

    • Making the case for why Black History Month is necessary

      NewsJeff Brumley

    • Baylor regents ‘accept’ racial history report, will release findings by end of March

      NewsMark Wingfield

    • Pay attention to what’s happening in Myanmar, Baptist pastors plead

      NewsJeff Brumley

    • Transitions for the week of 2-19-21

      NewsBarbara Francis

    • With Invictus Howard Goodall tells Christ’s Passion mainly through texts written by women

      NewsMark Wingfield

    • On religious liberty views and other issues, there’s still a wide gap between evangelicals and the rest of America

      NewsJeff Brumley

    • Kyle Tubbs to lead CBF Oklahoma

      NewsBNG staff

    • Church leadership series offers help finding resilience required to navigate change

      NewsJeff Brumley

    • Ministry jobs and more

      NewsBarbara Francis

    • At Baptist college in Virginia, a disagreement over athletes kneeling during National Anthem

      NewsJeff Brumley

    • In Kenya, Sodzo International keeps children off the streets   

      NewsAnthony Akaeze

    • How do you say hello to a new congregation when you can’t meet them in person?

      NewsCynthia Astle

    • Matter-of-fact statements about Scripture aren’t always the gospel truth

      OpinionJordan Conley

    • Black History Month: Remembering, waiting, watching

      OpinionWendell Griffen

    • Canada labels Uyghur repression ‘genocide,’ but that’s not as exemplary as you might think

      OpinionRay Mwareya

    • About disfellowshipping churches based on the ‘clear’ teaching of Scripture

      OpinionDalen Jackson

    • What the SBC should learn from the Ravi Zacharias tragedy

      OpinionChrista Brown

    • The Black church and the salvation of the world

      OpinionPaul Robeson Ford

    • St. Benedict and a two-fold path for the church In America

      OpinionH. Stephen Shoemaker

    • What if we cared about Black History Month as much as Lent?

      OpinionRick Pidcock

    • Prophecy is obedient imagination

      OpinionAlan Bean

    • How much wealth does America need before we’ll address homelessness?

      OpinionMichael Chancellor

    • Why we need to talk about abortion

      OpinionRuss Dean

    • How travel and food break through barriers that divide us

      OpinionPhawnda Moore

    • Is the church only for ‘good Christians’?

      OpinionTerry Austin

    • Raging at God after my 67-year-old father died of COVID

      OpinionCarol McEntyre

    • Why I wrote about hope in disarray

      OpinionGrace Ji-Sun Kim

    • ‘For fear of the Jews’: Confronting Christian anti-Semitism

      OpinionGreg Garrett, Senior Columnist

    • What do we do now? The blessing and curse of COVID to the church

      OpinionKeli Rugenstein

    • Loving my neighbor by being an ‘active bystander’

      OpinionBecky Ankeny

    • A lesson from Texas: Winterization of power stations and the Golden Rule

      OpinionJonathan Davis

    • ‘Hour of decision’? Evangelicalism in a post-church, post-Trump era

      OpinionBill Leonard, Senior Columnist

    • During Lent, I’m learning to walk with a limp

      OpinionChris Conley

    • This year, I need Lent

      OpinionKate Hanch

    • Religious communities can offer more to the coronavirus vaccination effort

      OpinionMichael Woolf

    • What Patrick Mahomes taught us

      OpinionRobert P. Sellers

    • Whatever happened to the white conservative American Christian Republican soul?

      OpinionDavid Gushee, Senior Columnist

    • Texas church helps mosque damaged after snowstorm

      Curated

      Exclude from home pageBNG staff

    • Vaccinated for virus, Jimmy Carter and wife back in church

      Curated

      Exclude from home pageBNG staff

    • Black Church Group Offers Its Best Shot at Closing Vaccine Gap

      Curated

      Exclude from home pageBNG staff

    • Man who played Duke Chapel bells for 50 years dies

      Curated

      Exclude from home pageBNG staff

    • Ravi Zacharias’s Denomination Revokes Ordination

      Curated

      Exclude from home pageBNG staff

    • Disinformation Fuels A White Evangelical Movement. It Led 1 Virginia Pastor To Quit

      Curated

      Exclude from home pageBNG staff

    • Southern Baptists divided over politics, race, LGBTQ policy

      Curated

      Exclude from home pageBNG staff

    • Rush Limbaugh, who shaped conservative Christian politics on the radio, has died

      Curated

      Exclude from home pageBNG staff

    • Dallas faith groups help shelter homeless Texans during deep freeze

      Curated

      Exclude from home pageBNG staff

    • SBU Trustees Reverse Some Tenure/Promotion Denials

      Curated

      Exclude from home pageBNG staff

    • U.S. Supreme Court sides with Alabama death row inmate, declines to lift stay of execution over state’s refusal to allow clergy in chamber

      Curated

      Exclude from home pageBNG staff

    • Survey: Black Americans attend church and pray more often

      Curated

      Exclude from home pageBNG staff

    • How Christian Bookstores Survived 2020

      Curated

      Exclude from home pageBNG staff

    • Celebrating Ash Wednesday in a pandemic? There’s an app for that

      Curated

      Exclude from home pageBNG staff

    • From ‘Lent-in-a-box’ to ‘ash n dash’

      Curated

      Exclude from home pageBNG staff

    • No execution: Courts side with inmate wanting pastor present

      Curated

      Exclude from home pageBNG staff

    • New Arkansas Law Exempts Churches from Pandemic Restrictions

      Curated

      Exclude from home pageBNG staff

    • Survey: More than a quarter of white evangelicals believe core QAnon conspiracy theory

      Curated

      Exclude from home pageBNG staff

    • Evangelical Colleges Consider the Future of Online Education After COVID-19

      Curated

      Exclude from home pageBNG staff

    • Law firm details sexual misconduct by global ministry leader

      Curated

      Exclude from home pageBNG staff

    • Nation’s first human-composting funeral home is now open in the state of Washington

      Curated

      Exclude from home pageBNG staff

    • Texas gambling opponents ready for battle

      Curated

      Exclude from home pageBNG staff

    • Leonardo’s ‘Last Supper’ reopens to public with short wait

      Curated

      Exclude from home pageBNG staff

    • Faith and the COVID-19 vaccine: ‘I’m a member of a community with duties’

      Curated

      Exclude from home pageBNG staff

    • Safety Net Programs Have Reduced U.S. Poverty, Disparities Remain

      Curated

      Exclude from home pageBNG staff

    Conversations that Matter.

    © 2021 Baptist News Global. All rights reserved.

    Want to share a story? We hope you will! Read our republishing, terms of use and privacy policies here.

    • Facebook
    • Twitter
    • Instagram
    • LinkedIn
    • RSS