A LIBRARIAN’S ORIENTATION
What this book explores
Southern Baptist ethicist Andrew T. Walker presents a conservative evangelical account of transgender identity grounded in binary sexual creation, the authority of Scripture, and a distinction between compassion for people and affirmation of transition. He addresses terminology, dysphoria, pronouns, family and church response, medical transition, law, and public policy while arguing that Christian faithfulness requires receiving sex as given rather than self-defined.
EDITORIAL NOTE
Why it’s in the Library
This title is included because travelers need accurate access to an influential nonaffirming evangelical position, not because the Library treats that position as neutral or settled. It helps readers understand the theological premises shaping many churches and families and allows those claims to be compared with affirming theology, clinical guidance, and trans testimony. Its presence supports informed exploration; it does not certify the book as safe pastoral counsel or elevate institutional debate above transgender people’s lives.
Good starting place if…
You need to understand a prominent conservative evangelical argument about transgender identity, especially the reasoning influencing nonaffirming churches and families.
Know before you begin…
The book’s core conclusions reject gender transition and are experienced by many transgender people as invalidating or harmful. Its pastoral tone does not resolve disputes over its biblical interpretation, treatment of evidence, clinical claims, pronoun guidance, or policy implications. It should not be used to diagnose, confront, out, discipline, or control a transgender person. Pair it with current professional standards, affirming Christian scholarship, and trans authors; immediate safety and competent individualized care take priority.