I am accustomed to being misrepresented. And I have learned to live with the fact that I will be misquoted. It’s par for the course given the fact that I am committed to promoting traditional Christian values in an increasingly secular, ‘don’t do God’ culture. As someone said: “If you stick your head above the parapet, you have to be prepared to be shot at! I can accept that.”

My struggle comes when people seem to misunderstand me. That’s far more challenging because I am in the communication business and clarity should be my first objective. All of which brings me back to the homosexual/transgender debate. I receive a constant flow of thanks for what I write. Only last week for example I had an email from a leading academic at Arizona State University! (The Observer clearly has a world wide audience). I also had an email from someone who has completely failed to understand what I am saying. So here goes. I’ll try to shed a little light on my position.

To begin with, I have to admit that I am a little weary of having to talk about sexual ethics so often. I would much prefer to be focusing on the heart of the Christian message which was summed up very nicely by no less an authority than Jesus Himself. “For this is how God loved the world. He gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish, but have eternal life.”

But it’s a contentious issue and one that is clearly exercising lots of people at the moment, with Justin Greening, Minister for Women and Equalities, outlining plans that adults should be able to change their gender legally without getting a formal medical diagnosis. Thankfully, she’s planning a consultation on the Gender Recognition Bill which is due to be published in the autumn, which will allow us to tell her just how problematic ‘self-identifying’ could prove.

We live in a world that is shaped by what one Professor of Psychiatry has labelled ‘radical individualism’ i.e. we believe we have the right to define who we are. This sounds good, but sadly it has led to the absurd scenario in which a transgender father of seven children in Toronto reportedly left his wife and family to start a new life as a six year old girl and a 20-year-old Norwegian woman claimed to have been born in the wrong species. As far as she is concerned, she is a cat trapped in the wrong body.

In addition to this, we run the risk of what one Sunday newspaper has said could become a ‘firestorm of legal cases over access to woman only hospital wards, prisons, lavatories, changing rooms and competitive sports.’

As for the ethics of the issues facing us today, I will simply reiterate that I am committed to promoting traditional Christian values, and for the simple reason that I believe they show us how we can make the most of the life we have been given both now and in eternity.

Sexual relationships then, for all sorts of good reasons should be confined to a life-long relationship between a man and a woman. Anything else is sinful (in Biblical terms they miss the mark and flout God’s guidelines). But sin and sex are not synonymous. If you read the apostle Paul’s comments, it is obvious that he was as critical of greed and envy as he was of homosexual behaviour.

As a Christian and as a Pastor, I am committed to what I believe is ‘wisdom from above.’ But this means that I am called to respect and lovingly support people, whatever their behaviour, however great our differences in the hope that they will discover the love and reality of the God I represent. That does not mean I accept everything they say or agree with everything they do. It simply means that we can create a context within which we can lovingly disagree.

I am heartbroken when I hear people say: “The church hates people like me.” I hope and pray it will never be said of me or any church I am identified with because that would misrepresent all Jesus stands for.

Rob James is a Baptist Pastor broadcaster and writer who currently operates as a church and media consultant for the Evangelical Alliance Wales. He is available for preaching and teaching throughout Wales and can be contacted at [email protected]