According to a post on a LGBT site, this is a pregnant man, Thomas Beatie.

Beatie, who was born a woman, chose to undergo medical procedures aimed at changing her gender to male.  Her reproductive organs were not modified when she chose to become he.

I’m almost at a loss for words with this one.  I guess I can make the obvious statement that I don’t think this is “right”, not just from a moral or theological perspective, but even from a secular social and cultural perspective.  

I mean, heck, I struggle to refer to Beatie as a he, simply because he’s a she, and I’m of the (non-religious) opinion that gender isn’t something that can be “reassigned.”  

On the other hand, I do feel badly that these folks feel they are being discriminated against, particularly in regards to medical care.  If indeed this isn’t a hoax, and there is a baby involved, I sincerely hope that appropriate medical care is found.

We’re going to be seeing a lot more of these types of currently-atypical cases in the years to come, and if the only thing we do is condemn people, we’re stupid.  At the same time, one must recognize that this sort of thing is so severely out of the revealed will of God for marriages and family units, that it must be commented on.

So how is the church to respond?  In what ways can we as Christians both love God and love others, in this case?

I’ve been using the English Standard Version of the Bible as my standard translation for about four years now. I preach from it, teach from it, do personal study with it, and generally use it for everything. It’s a great translation.

One of the first things I noticed about the early ESV product line in 2004 was the lack of a solid study bible, containing notes and commentary. Over the years, there has been the Reformation Study Bible, as well as a Literary Study Bible, however both of these have a specific audience in mind. I was looking for more of a general purpose study Bible. The ESV site said they had one in mind for long-term planning, but no details were available.

Over time, my personal desire for a Study Bible has lessened, primarily because I’ve found my other tools and scholarly texts to be more useful as study aids than any one condensed study bible could be. However, I do actively teach verse-by-verse studies through the Bible in my church, and more often than not, the folks I teach don’t have the resources or desire to purchase dozens of commentaries and systematic theology volumes.

That brings me to the point of this post. Crossway is about to announce information regarding the release of the ESV Study Bible. This is quite exciting. I’m looking forward to seeing what they come up with, and have signed up for email news bulletins as info becomes available.

Justin Taylor has confirmed that Wayne Grudem is also the General Editor of the Study Bible. This makes me even more excited. I’ve found Grudem’s Systematic Theology to be immensely helpful, and am sure this study bible will be great for my people.

I’ve registered for the Pastor’s Conference to be held on Tuesday, April 22nd at Davis College. Are any of you planning to attend? I’d love to meet up with old friends, or make some new ones.

I’m especially interested in seeing and interacting with the college’s new president, Dr. Dino Pedrone, who was scheduled as the “guest speaker” before his presidency was announced.

While we were at the tobyMac concert, I was involved in two conversations I thought were amusing.

In the first conversation, I found out that I’m a celebrity. I had shaved my head a day or two before, and was wearing a ball cap. My goatee is two or three inches long, and apparently, some event staff people thought I was Bart Millard of MercyMe. I had to explain to them, in all seriousness, that I am not the guy who sings “I Can Only Imagine.” They told me they could have gotten me backstage if I wanted to. Nice, eh? Maybe I should have said I wanted to go backstage anyway…

In the second conversation, I was invited to apply to be a student at Davis College, again. I was with two of my high school students, looking at the merchandise tables. One of the tables had literature from Davis, so I picked up a view book, and started looking for pictures of people I know. I saw Will Hall, Naaman Pallo, and a few others from my Davis days. The guy standing at the table asked, “Are you interested in going to Bible College?” “Absolutely not.” I replied. “Oh…Never mind.” I jokingly told him that I graduated from the school twice already, and didn’t think I wanted to do it again. He continued the conversation, asking if I enjoyed the school. I told him that I enjoyed it some days, and loathed it others; that I loved and hated my time there, and that I think that’s okay. He just stared at me, like I had eight heads.

Oh well. I thought they were amusing, anyway.

Last weekend, I and the other youth leaders at North Country Fellowship, had the pleasure of taking a group of teens to Elmira, NY in order to check out the Boomin’ Beyond Measure tour, with tobyMac, Jeremy Camp, and Matthew West. Due to a severe winter storm that hit most of New York, it took us five-and-a-half hours to get to First Arena (it usually would take three), and after the concert, it took us another forty-five minutes to get to the homes we planned to stay at overnight. The church we intended to worship with had canceled their services for the next day, so I led an impromptu service in the living room of the house we had gathered at, and after a big lunch, we headed back to Carthage, with clear skies and dry roads almost the whole way.

I have to admit, tobyMac isn’t my kind of music. I’ve never before enjoyed his artistic style (though I don’t dislike hip-hop), or his attitude in his performances. I didn’t like dcTalk much either, so I guess it’s a carryover from that. Regardless, the live show was pretty good; especially the last song (no, not just because it was over), the old dcTalk hit “Jesus Freak”. Having listened to dcTalk when that album was new (and before I was a Christian), that was a lot of fun. Jeremy Camp’s set was my favorite of the three artists, and this is despite the fact that he was ill with some sort of respiratory infection, and coughed up a lung in between each song. Matthew West was decent as well. He served as a nice mellow introduction to the two headliners.

The best part of the concert, for me, was watching the youth from my church eat it all up. For many of them, it was their first concert, and I believe that most of them consider tobyMac their favorite artist. It was a great night for them, and one I doubt they will quickly forget.

I think it was a great time of community building and friendship. I took Calvin’s advice, and outlawed all digital gadgets during the trip, so the teens wouldn’t be texting their friends and spaced-out in their own little musical world. Good advice; it worked like a charm.