This Is How to Answer the Question About Gender Pronouns

On his latest “Ask Me Anything” podcast, Pastor J.D. Greear answered the question of whether or not Christians should use a trans person’s preferred gender pronouns. In his response, Greear said he follows several principles that lead him to conclude, “Personally…if a transgender person came into our church, came into my life, I think my disposition would be to refer to them by their preferred pronoun.” Read More

You may also want to listen to Greear's podcast, "When talking with a transgender person, which pronoun should you use?"

There are undeniable biological differences between men and women but the extent to which these differences are recognized is determined by our language and our culture. Some languages unlike English are not only genderless but also gender-neutral. See the Wikipedia article, "Gender neutrality in genderless languages". This knowledge may be helpful in deciding what gender pronoun we should use in particular circumstances.

Often the struggle over what gender pronoun we should use come down to the weight that we have learned to give to the conventions of a language. In Japanese, for example, the use of the second person pronoun "anata" has certain connotations. Due to these connotations it is common to hear someone refer to a person by name when speaking to that person rather than use "anata." For instance, one might say "Mary-san's handbag" rather than "your handbag." It would be considered rude and excessively familiar to use "anata." .