Experts at UCLA estimate that 0.6% of American adults currently identify as transgender.
Like other writers covering religion, politics and culture, The Religion Guy has accumulated a bulging file on recent transgender conflicts, which go far beyond grade-school curriculums or women’s shelters, locker rooms and athletics. The major question facing practitioners, legislators and moral theologians is how the age-old “do no harm” principle applies to the greatly increasing numbers of teens under 18, especially girls, seeking transition via puberty blockers, hormone treatments and surgery.
A planned Memo analyzing those developments has been supplanted by a new book, “Gender Identity and Faith: Clinical Postures, Tools and Case Studies for Client-Centered Care” (InterVarsity Press) by Mark A. Yarhouse and Julia A. Sadusky, who are evangelicals and licensed clinical psychologists. Their work turns journalistic attention from the socio-political debates to the situations of transgender individuals, especially those raised in traditional forms of religious faith.
A blurb from Laura Edwards-Leeper, who chairs the child and adolescent committee of the World Professional Association for Transgender Health, considers this book “essential” for mental health providers. But The Guy thinks it’s equally pertinent for individual clients, parents, pastors and churches (and journalists!) seeking understanding.
Even The Christian Century thinks that though the book “will at times disappoint” fellow religious progressives, it may “prove an important harm-reduction tool and entry point for conservatives who are struggling to join the conversation.”
The bottom line: Considering the timeliness and difficulty of the topic, The Guy sees it as a Book of the Year prospect in religion, and a compelling topic for journalism.
Yarhouse, with numerous peer-reviewed academic articles to his credit, directs the Sexual and Gender Identity Institute at Wheaton College in Illinois, which studies these matters “from a Christian worldview.” It began life under a different name at another evangelical campus, Regent University in Virginia. Sadusky, a fellow with the institute, is in private practice at Littleton, Colorado.
Understandably, their counseling practices draw many clients from conservative Christian families and churches who are working through their own individual transgender experiences. The Guy’s prior GetReligion survey of church teachings pro and con suggests the tensions involved. The book presents many names-changed case studies that depict the wide variety of treatment issues.
In this “incredibly polarized” situation, the authors urge fellow professionals to deal respectfully with clients’ religious backgrounds or current beliefs, which unfortunately is not always true. But their approach to therapy will catch by surprise conservative Christian culture warriors and equally psychologists and journalists who disdain evangelical religion as necessarily harmful.
That’s because Yarhouse and Sadusky practice counseling that’s “balanced, client-centered, and without a fixed outcome” as clients seek “congruence between their gender identity and faith” with openness to the “many options” available. That means that on the one hand they “do not focus on changing gender identity” or “presentation.”
On the other hand, they want to protect individual clients’ own preferences about life choices from opposite pressures imposed by the culture, the media, counselors, peer groups or aggressive LGBTQ+ advocates. Thus they shun all approaches that suppose “only one outcome should be pursued.” For instance, some can “find peace and fulfillment” without transgender identification or “transitioning socially or hormonally or surgically.”
As a secondary benefit, the book will help reporters and editors as they cope with the complex and shifting language regarding transgenderism.
Contacts: Book publicist Karin DeHaven (kdehaven@ivpress.com or 800–843-4587 ext 4096). Yarhouse (mark.yarhouse@wheaton.edu). Wheaton Institute (sgi@wheaton.edu). Sadusky (drsadusky@gmail.com or 720–961–3733); she is also an advisor with the Center for Faith, Sexuality & Gender (www.centerforfaith.com), which believes “biological sex is an essential part of human identity.” Their book is co-sponsored by the Christian Association for Psychological Studies (https://caps.net/ and 630–639–9478), a group of 1,200 mental health professionals.
Separately, but of interest to reporters seeking sources, note the online National Directory of Conservative Therapists and Mental Health Professionals ( and contact@conservativetherapists.com). It lists providers who share or respect clients’ conservative cultural or LGBTQ beliefs.
FIRST IMAGE: Uncredited photo with “Biblical Counseling Vs. Christian Counseling: What’s The Difference?” feature at BrentMJoseph.com.