A Biblical Response to Transgender Theory

Nov 18, 2025

Rob Smith, an ordained Anglican minister and theology lecturer, offers a deep dive into transgender theory and its cultural rise. He discusses the philosophical influences of thinkers like Judith Butler and Michel Foucault, breaking down arguments around gender as a construct. Smith emphasizes that sex is binary, contrasting it with varying expressions of masculinity and femininity. He highlights the need for pastoral care in responding to children experiencing gender distress and raises concerns about rigid gender stereotypes within church culture.

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INSIGHT

Gender As Construct Enables Reassignment

If gender is presented as constructed, activists can argue it should be reassigned at will.
That claim underpins much modern transgender theory and its social influence.

ANECDOTE

What Sparked Rob Smith's Research

Rob Smith began focused research after Time's 2014 'Transgender Tipping Point' and found few evangelical resources.
Family experiences then merged intellectual research with pastoral care in his work.

INSIGHT

Why The Transgender Tipping Point Happened

Multiple factors converged to create the 2013–14 tipping point: celebrities, DSM changes, LGBT movement momentum, and social media.
These forces amplified visibility and normalized transgender identities quickly.

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If gender is constructed, it can be deconstructed. Think about it: if we built it, we can tear it down. Now you know why some activists have been so determined to convince us that gender is something we assign, rather than something we receive. If we assign it, then we can reassign it as we wish. We don’t receive our bodies. We can remake our bodies.

No doubt you’ve observed the rise of transgender theory in Western culture. It’s the denial that the sexed body reveals and determines the gendered self. That’s the helpful summary we find in the excellent new book The Body God Gives: A Biblical Response to Transgender Theory, written by Robert Smith.

Smith is an ordained Anglican minister and lecturer in theology, ethics, and music ministry at Sydney Missionary and Bible College in Australia. He’s written two previous books on gender and identity. This new book by Lexham (now Baker) gives you a little bit of everything. He breaks down the arguments of gender theorists. He guides readers on a who’s who of philosophers who built the intellectual foundations of the secular West: Descartes, Rousseau, Kant, Marx, Wittgenstein, Freud, Sartre, Derrida, Foucault.

And he concludes with biblical argumentation to show us nobody is born in the wrong body. He writes, “God’s desire for my gender is revealed by the design of my body.” I appreciate the way he harmonizes the biblical story from Genesis to Revelation: “Our present task is to work with the grain of creation toward the goal of new creation.”

Rob joins me on Gospelbound to talk transgender theory, how it spread, why it’s peaked, and where evangelicals need to go next.

In This Episode

02:00 – Introducing Rob Smith & The Body God Gives

04:30 – The Transgender Tipping Point

06:21 – Butler, Foucault, and Gender Theory

11:21 – Queer Theory vs. Trans Theory

16:50 – Signs of Peak Transgender Influence

21:47 – Sex, Gender, and Stereotypes

29:00 – Church Culture and Gender Expectations

30:24 – Children, Puberty, and Medical Debate

33:30 – Technology, Identity, and Disembodiment

39:38 – Genesis 1–2 and Embodied Identity

46:37 – Marriage, Singleness, and Biblical Continuity

51:16 – Pastoring Those with Gender Dysphoria

56:00 – Violence, Fear, and Identity Conflicts

01:00:00 – Expressive Individualism and the Modern Self

Resources Mentioned

The Body God Gives: A Biblical Response to Transgender Theory by Rob Smith
Why Are Black Women Increasingly Identifying as Bisexual? by Joe Carter

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