The trouble with the words used by the clerics is that, at a superficial level, they sound nice. Of course we want safety and non-judgementalism but on examination, not only are the words in this letter meaningless and contrary to the teaching of Christ; they cause harm. While attempting to create a ‘safe space’ for some, they are making the world distinctly more harmful for others. In promoting transgender ideology, they are harming women, children and indeed, men.

There was a time when Church leaders wrote letters that proclaimed and affirmed the Christian faith, challenged false gospels and glorified Christ. Think of Paul’s letters in the Bible or the wonderful letters of John Newton or JRR Tolkien. They are edifying, exhorting and encouraging.
This week a letter was sent from some professed Christian leaders in the UK which is directly the opposite. The Rev Canon Steve Chalke, Rt Hon Dr Rowan Williams, former Archbishop of Canterbury; Very Rev Rogers Govender, Dean of Manchester Cathedral; Professor Susannah Cornwall, Professor of Constructive Theologies, University of Essex; Rev Paul Bailey, Pentecostal Minister; Very Revd. Dr David Ison, Dean of St Paul’s Cathedral; and several other suitably entitled church leaders.
In their letter to the Prime Minister, they lament that the government’s ban on conversion therapy excludes trans people, and it is worth examining both the background and detail of this letter.
The government itself has got into a bit of trouble over this issue. Firstly, it was announced that it was going to backtrack on the ban on so-called conversion therapy and instead use the existing laws to deal with any wrong practices.But within 24 hours of this U-turn, the government did another one and said it was going ahead with the ban – except for trans people. This U-turn was largely the result of pressure from Tory MPs who haven’t really thought the issue through and didn’t want to be seen as the ‘nasty’ Tories again. Of course, the political and media elites could hardly contain their outrage – cue Twitter ‘outrage’ and lots of stories and reports – and so the U-turn was itself U-turned.
But the latest U-turn was not enough for these Christian leaders; they want the government to go much further. And what their letter reveals is that they are a million miles away from the New Testament letters and the teaching of Jesus. In my view, there are three basic errors which remove them from Christ’s teaching.
1. They do not understand what “conversion” is. Or indeed what a Christian is. The letter argues that “conversion to Christianity is the event or process by which a person responds joyfully to the glorious embrace of the eternally loving and ever merciful God”.They go on to say, “To be trans is to enter a sacred journey of becoming whole, precious, honoured and loved, by yourself, by others and by God.”
This is a classic example of people using spiritual language which sounds good, in order to undermine and change what Jesus actually said. Jesus did not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance (Luke 5:32). He urges us to “produce fruit in keeping with repentance” (Matthew 3:8). He tells his church, “Those whom I love I rebuke and discipline” (Revelation 3:19).
There are hundreds of similar verses throughout the Bible which show clearly that the Good News is not ‘God accepts you are you are and wants to affirm you’, but rather that because God loves you, He wants to change what you are, heal you, forgive you, and give you a new heart.
This is radical conversion. The conversion described by the letter’s signatories is little more than a meaningless meme – with no substance, no love, no reality and no forgiveness. It is in a different spiritual universe from what Paul wrote to the Colossian church: “Put to death, therefore, whatever belongs to your earthly nature: sexual immorality, impurity, lust, evil desires and greed, which is idolatry” Colossians 3:5.
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“If the object of education is the improvement of men, then any system of education that is without values is a contradiction in terms. A system that seeks bad values is bad. A system that denies the existence of values denies the possibility of education. Relativism, scientism, skepticism, and anti-intellectualism, the four horsemen of the philosophical apocalypse, have produced that chaos in education which will end in the disintegration of the West.”

Robert Maynard Hutchins (1899-1977) was the dean of Yale Law School, the president of the University of Chicago, and one of the more influential philosophers of education in the 20th century.
In a stirring passage from a series of lectures he gave in 1951, Hutchins identified four intellectual trends that had been absolutely disastrous for modern education. He called these trends “the four horsemen of the philosophical apocalypse”:
“If the object of education is the improvement of men, then any system of education that is without values is a contradiction in terms. A system that seeks bad values is bad. A system that denies the existence of values denies the possibility of education. Relativism, scientism, skepticism, and anti-intellectualism, the four horsemen of the philosophical apocalypse, have produced that chaos in education which will end in the disintegration of the West.”
Here are brief descriptions of each of “the four horsemen” and their impact on education:
1) Relativism:
The idea that notions of true and false, right and wrong, are purely subjective. Generally speaking, you can see its impact on education today through the exaltation of “tolerance” as the highest virtue, in addition to the changing of the purpose of education from helping students to pursue truth to the pragmatic goal of making them “college- and career-ready.”
2) Scientism
3) Skepticism
4) Anti-Intellectualism
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We overwork. This respectable sin looks like diligence and hard work, but underneath it’s an unspoken belief that we’re the saviors of those entrusted to us. When we rely on ourselves and our methods, our care morphs into self-reliance. We leave behind the Holy Spirit and the deep rest available to us through union with Christ. Ministry burnout is real and a God-ordained opportunity to remember that God alone is infinite.

When our family served as missionaries overseas, the sins of our host cultures were easy to diagnose. Street corners in southeast Asia were filled with temples, shrines, and sacrificial offerings, revealing the worship of false gods. In some places in Europe, brothels and illicit drugs weren’t hidden from view but grievously peddled in broad daylight. It took little effort to see the darkness around us.
When we moved back to the U.S., the sins there were obvious too. We set out to plant a church in a nation that celebrates greed, drunkenness, and sexual immorality, just to name a few sins.
These blatant sins are big reasons why those in gospel ministry answer the call. We see the darkness and set out to be a city on a hill (Matt. 5:14–16). But while we easily diagnose the sins of others, we too often gloss over the evil within us. We see the specks in others’ eyes but not the log in our own (7:3–5). As Jerry Bridges explains in Respectable Sins, “We can readily identify sin in the immoral or unethical conduct of people in society at large. But we often fail to see . . . the ‘acceptable sins of the saints.’ In effect, we, like society at large, live in denial of our sin.”
Bridges rightly points to what’s common among all Christians. But what if we applied this truth specifically to those in ministry both at home and abroad? If we’re honest, church leaders must admit we’re prone to certain “respectable sins” in ministry. We grow so accustomed to these sins that we often think they’re normal and acceptable.
1. We Worry
Ministry is costly and risky. Church leaders are often short on needed funds. Fear surrounding finances often leads us to serve from a scarcity mentality. We hoard our resources. Plagued with anxiety, we shrink back from generosity. Our worries parade as wise stewardship. But in reality, we behave as if our anxiety here will somehow protect our bottom line.
Jesus’s words are for church leaders too. Don’t be anxious about your life. Your heavenly Father knows what you need. Have faith. Seek first the kingdom. He’ll give you what you need (Matt. 6:25–34).
2. We’re Territorial
This respectable sin is also rooted in a scarcity mentality. We often serve in places with dry soil. It’s tempting, then, to become territorial when seeds sprout and roots grow. Fruitful ministries are validating, and we want to prove our worth. So it’s easy to work for our ministry’s flourishing at the expense of other churches or to become closefisted when our disciples want to serve elsewhere and not within our domain.
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