“Hospitality” triumphing truth isn’t hospitality at all, argued theologian John Piper in a recent episode of his popular podcast, “Ask Pastor John.”
The Minneapolis-based preacher and author, after being asked whether Christians should engage in so-called “pronoun hospitality” with transgender-identified individuals, said the practice flies in the face of biblical teaching and even suggested doing so is spiritually harmful to the recipient of it.
The concept of “pronoun hospitality” is when people use the “preferred pronouns” of transgender-identified individuals, regardless of their views of LGBT ideology.
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An unnamed elder wrote in to the “Ask Pastor John” podcast to get the famed Christian writer’s perspective on the matter. The elder noted to Piper there are “times when, for the sake of evangelism, one may decide to call a person by their chosen gender if such an act removes a possible barrier in sharing the Gospel,” adding, “The ask for our church is for a person to have the freedom, in the moment, to do this, limited to evangelism contexts, limited to conversations with those who are not believers. If someone claims to be a follower of Christ, such ‘pronoun hospitality’ would not apply.”
A seasoned minister himself, Piper, who led Bethlehem Baptist Church in Minneapolis for more than three decades, said he staunchly opposes the reasoning presented by the elder.
While he conceded the call for Christians to be “hospitable,” Piper said believers “ought not to be affirming of pronouns that designate a destructive choice and a false view of reality,” further stating, “It is possible to be hospitable and honest.”
Piper also noted it’s very possible to engage with an individual — even one who identifies as transgender — without having to use a pronoun other than “you.”
“It may be possible to engage a person directly without touching the issue of pronouns,” he said. “Now, of course, that doesn’t work when dealing with proper names. Is ‘Andy’ now ‘Angie?’ You may not even know that ‘Angie’ was once ‘Andy.’ So, stepping into the conversation, you may not have any choice unless you simply avoid the name, which is possible.”
Using someone’s “preferred pronouns,” he asserted, perverts the meaning of biblical hospitality by sacrificing truth, because affirming one’s transgender identity “involves living a lie” that “regularly leads to destructive and irreversible surgeries and treatments.”
The 78-year-old Piper, who serves as chancellor of Bethlehem College and Seminary in Minneapolis, went on to explain he disapproves of culture’s synonymous use of the words “sex” and “gender,” explaining the latter has been co-opted by “radical feminists” to stretch the truth.
“I think using the word ‘gender’ where the right word is ‘sex’ is like using the word ‘marriage’ for a relationship between two men or two women,” he said. “It’s not marriage; it is so-called ‘marriage.’”
Later in his response to the elder’s inquiry, Piper referenced the Nashville Statement, an oft-referenced declaration first published in 2017 by the Council on Biblical Manhood and Womanhood.
“The Nashville Statement is right to say, ‘Self-conception as male or female should be defined by God’s holy purposes in creation and redemption as revealed in Scripture,’” he said. “But calling a man a woman or a woman a man defies that holy purpose of God; it defies God.”
