Presbyterian Church considers denouncing child sex changes

In June, the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church in America (PCA), a large denomination of the protestant faith in America, will convene and consider adopting an overture that would petition the federal government and states to "renounce the sin" of allowing minors to undergo medicalized sex changes. 

According to Fox News, the stated clerk of the PCA, Dr. Bryan Chapell, said, "I would say there is a lot of concern in our churches about children particularly being urged to have hormonal and physical changes while they are yet minors that will become life-altering decisions for the rest of their lives."

Chapell said, "And as this overture says, a ‘wait-and-see’ approach with counseling is certainly a wiser approach rather than a medical intervention that is irreversible for a minor."

The Covenant School in Nashville, where on Monday three children and three adults were massacred by 28-year-old Audrey Hale, is part of the PCA denomination.

The overture, or "Overture 23," originated out of the Evangel Presbytery, a collection of four Presbyterian churches, based out of Alabama and is titled a "Petition Government to End Sex-change Procedures for Minors."

"We who love our nation, in the name of God who alone is sovereign in his good and perfect design of men and women, call upon you to renounce the sin of all medical and surgical sex change procedures in minors by the American healthcare system because they result in irreversible harm," the overture states.

According to the overture, "Medical and social interventions related to so-called sex change procedures are a rejection of God’s design that will prevent his blessing, grace, and joy to be experienced."

The overture's message maintains that God created the sexually dimorphic categories of male and female, the immorality of cross-dressing, and that children should not be scandalized. The overture is rooted in "the Bible and the 17th-century Westminster Standards that form the basis of Presbyterianism," according to Fox.

According to the overture, "medical and surgical interventions are a rejection of science" and an uptick in gender dysphoria in girls over the last eight years by 900 percent is "driven by social contagion from contemporary social, educational, and cultural influences."

Chapell said, "I think all churches are dealing with these issues, as we well know, because of the cultural push at this time to congratulate people who question their sexual identity." 

"All young people are certainly being subjected to that cultural push, but it in our view does not cohere with either science or Scripture," he said. "Whether one is male or female is based upon one's organs and chromosomes and hormone profiles and not simply psychological confusion that many adolescents will experience."