Emerging Gender Identities

Mark Yarhouse

Description

"This inviting text provides a useful framework for Christians to use in approaching what can be difficult conversations around gender identity."--Publishers WeeklyThis book offers a measured Christian response to the diverse gender identities that are being embraced by an increasing number of adolescents. Mark Yarhouse and Julia Sadusky offer an honest, scientifically informed, compassionate, and nuanced treatment for all readers who care about or work with gender-diverse youth: pastors, church leaders, parents, family members, youth workers, and counselors.Yarhouse and Sadusky help readers distinguish between current mental health concerns, such as gender dysphoria, and the emerging gender identities that some young people turn to for a sense of identity and community. Based on the authors' significant clinical and ministry experience, this book casts a vision for practically engaging and ministering to teens navigating diverse gender-identity concerns. It also equips readers to critically engage gender theory based on a Christian view of sex and gender.

Sujets

• Gender studies

Informations

• Publié par: Baker Publishing Group
• Date de parution: 18 août 2020
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781493423811
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 1 Mo

Extrait

Cover
Endorsements
“We are faced with a dizzying ongoing evolution in cultural understanding of and recommended responses to a kaleidoscope of emerging gender identities. This book offers richly informed and thoughtful Christian analysis of these phenomena, along with compassionate and challenging recommendations for ministry. Yarhouse and Sadusky have the breadth of knowledge and experience to challenge readers to move toward more theologically grounded and pragmatically effective engagement.”
— Stanton L. Jones , Wheaton College (emeritus); coauthor of the God’s Design for Sex family sex-education book series
“Yarhouse and Sadusky are unafraid of exploring the overlap of Christianity, psychology, and cultures, and equally unafraid of reaching out in peace. I admire such a version of Christianity. I have read every page of this book. I disagree with the authors’ concept of suffering, but that is a minor point. I found myself nodding my head in agreement over and over. I greatly appreciated their breakdown of the theological positions (ultraconservative, orthodox, and liberal) and how these positions affect gestures toward those that carry gender-related questions. I endorse this book for ministers, parents, and gender-exploring youth.”
— Caryn LeMur , a male-to-female transsexual and a follower of the words and life of Jesus
“Julia and Mark have written a much-needed book about a beautiful and complex topic. Every page oozes with grace and wisdom. Mark and Julia not only have the academic credentials to speak into transgender-related issues, but they have also spent countless hours listening to and loving the very people they’re writing about.”
— Preston Sprinkle , author of Embodied: Transgender Identities, the Church, and What the Bible Has to Say
“I am not overstating things when I say that this book is a page-turner. Yarhouse and Sadusky anticipate readers’ questions. They carefully explore the historical and theological implications of the questions. But they never forget that they are writing about people with real pain who are seeking to understand a reality in light of their desire to love Jesus and retain their faith. Not everyone is going to like this book. But Yarhouse and Sadusky’s challenge is for men and women of faith who work with children, young adults, and others who are experiencing gender identity issues to seriously grapple with the complexities so that they—as parents, pastors, health-care practitioners, and educators—will be known as people who will tackle difficult problems in such a way that the people of God will feel beloved.”
— Shirley V. Hoogstra , president, Council for Christian Colleges & Universities
“Yarhouse and Sadusky unpack one of today’s pressing issues: transgender and emerging gender identities. As Christian psychologists, they integrate Christian insight with accurate scientific knowledge, offering well-informed and up-to-date understandings of a rapidly changing dimension of society. Current political and cultural discourse offers little room for critical engagement, and Yarhouse and Sadusky courageously offer wisdom and advice. They challenge Christians to move beyond getting theology right, even asserting that correct theological knowledge doesn’t always translate into knowing how to minister to persons with nonnormative gender identities. With many examples, they encourage Christians to accompany others, not simply instruct or admonish them from a distance. They invite the reader to renew their encounter with a merciful God, as part of developing ministry that incarnates God’s love. I came away with my faith strengthened, more certain that I can entrust my loved ones to Christ and that I can continue to question, learn, and wonder about transgender and gender expansiveness.”
— Jenell Paris , Messiah College
“The many tensions and agendas that surround gender theories make it very hard to discern the truth through the forest of ideologies. And yet there are human beings in that forest, with an infinite dignity and a need for love and understanding. Drs. Yarhouse and Sadusky have worked hard to seek out the truth and to develop a compassionate approach to understanding and ministering in this very sensitive space. They provide a wealth of trustworthy information for us through their excellence in psychology based on their professional integrity, years of study, and substantial clinical experience. At the same time, they deliver this truth to us through hearts that have been shaped by the compassion of Jesus Christ, which they have internalized through their deep Christian faith.”
— Fr. Boniface Hicks , OSB, Institute for Ministry Formation, Saint Vincent Seminary
Half Title Page
Title Page
Copyright Page
© 2020 by Mark A. Yarhouse and Julia Sadusky
Published by Brazos Press
a division of Baker Publishing Group
PO Box 6287, Grand Rapids, MI 49516-6287
www.brazospress.com
Ebook edition created 2020
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means—for example, electronic, photocopy, recording—without the prior written permission of the publisher. The only exception is brief quotations in printed reviews.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is on file at the Library of Congress, Washington, DC.
ISBN 978-1-4934-2381-1
Unless otherwise noted, Scripture quotations are from THE HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®, NIV® Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.
Some names and details have been changed to protect the privacy of the individuals involved.
Contents
Cover i
Endorsements ii
Half Title Page iv
Title Page v
Copyright Page vi
List of Sidebars ix
Preface xi
Part 1 Making Important Distinctions 1
1. Transgender Experiences and Emerging Gender Identities 3
2. How Language and Categories Shape Gender Identities 21
3. Controversies in Care 45
Part 2 Seeing the Person 73
4. Foundations for Relationship 75
5. Locating Your Area of Engagement 109
6. Locating the Person: A Relational-Narrative Approach 141
7. Engaging Youth: Looking beneath the Surface 169
8. Ministry Structures for Youth 187
9. Recovering a Hermeneutic of Christian Hope 205
Notes 213
Bibliography 227
Index 237
Back Cover 239
List of Sidebars
Key Terms and Emerging Gender Identities 8
Competing Explanatory Frameworks for Atypical Gender Presentations 28
For Parents: Thinking about the Options 60
For Parents: Considering More Invasive Procedures 70
For Parents: Accompaniment in Families 95
Translating a Foreign Language 118
For Parents: Reflecting on Messages 148
For Parents: Fostering Communication 149
For Parents: Taking a Long-Term View 153
Become a Better Trail Guide 154
For Parents: A Measured Response 162
Recognizing the Timing of Engagement 165
Addressing Names and Pronouns 177
Preface
As we sit down to write this preface, a noteworthy news story has come across our feed. Merriam-Webster has selected the pronoun they as the word of the year for 2019, after an unprecedented amount of online searches on their website to understand its meaning. In the context of emerging gender identities, they is a pronoun sometimes preferred by those who identify as gender nonbinary. Perhaps this speaks to the relevance of this book.
One of the greatest challenges in writing a book on emerging gender identities is that society and the field we work in (i.e., psychology) and the specialty we have in lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ+) studies is rapidly changing and expanding to reflect ever-increasingly diverse experiences of gender and sexuality. As you read this book, you may find that several more words and pronouns and approaches to care are being discussed than were being discussed at the time we finished our contribution. Work in the area of gender identity seems to be fast-forwarding at a rapid pace. It feels somewhat like trying to follow the plot of a favorite series by watching it at four times or ten times the normal speed. You just want to slow it all down so you can understand what is happening to your beloved characters.
Well, that is similar to what it is like as we engage in an effort to better understand and engage with gender identity, transgender experiences, and diverse gender identities. Theology and scriptural exegesis matter a great deal to us, but the focus of this book will be the ways our theological and scriptural understanding inform a range of approaches to living with, caring for, and ministering to those who struggle with these questions. For those of you who have been hoping for a book that presents a foundational psychological understanding as well as practical reflections, we hope this can help you feel more equipped to wrestle with the complexities you are facing. We are not trying to provide detailed and specific instructions for every step you take in supporting young people today; we feel such an approach would be reduced to pat answers and oversimplifications. Rather, we hope that you can come away with a more robust appreciation for how to position yourself alongside our young people as they navigate gender identity.
Some readers may feel, as we have at times, that it might be too little and too late for Christians to enter into this conversation. As clinicians, we sometimes say that providing clinical services is like trying to repair the engine of an airplane while it’s at thirty thousand feet: there just does not seem to be time to land the plane and take the much-needed time to look over the engine in the maintenance hangar. But we enter in anyway, and we hope that you can take away meaningful information to help you “catch up” as best you can, so that your efforts to understand can bear fruit with the real people you love who will explore or have been exploring gender identity questions.
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