Top 10 by Pieter, Article, Trans Pieter Valk Top 10 by Pieter, Article, Trans Pieter Valk

Compassionate and Biblically Faithful Care for Trans People (in The Living Church)

Church potluck table conversations increasingly include the latest cable news story about trans athletes or drag story times. Christians find it difficult to avoid political arguments about trans topics. The U.S. Supreme Court heard a trans case in 2025, deliberating whether states can prohibit minors from medical transition.

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LGBT Topics, Article, Trans Pieter Valk LGBT Topics, Article, Trans Pieter Valk

Trans advocates contradict each other.

When the U.S. Supreme Court upheld Tennessee’s ban on puberty blockers, cross-sex hormones, and surgery for minors (United States v. Skrmetti, 18 June 2025),¹ the decision was widely reported as a clash between conservative lawmakers and transgender advocates. Less attention fell on the division it exposed within pro-transition rhetoric. Within a single afternoon, two sharply different protest statements arrived in my inbox. One lamented that the court had “erased trans kids,” because some children are girls trapped in boys’ bodies and therefore need swift medical intervention. A second statement expressed concern that the ruling reinforced what it called “colonial fictions,” suggesting that rigid notions of male and female can be limiting and deserve re-examination.

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LGBT Topics, Article Pieter Valk LGBT Topics, Article Pieter Valk

From Pray-the-Gay-Away to Pansexual Pragmatism

Over the past decade the number of people who identify as LGBT+ has doubled, particularly among those who identify as pansexual and are opening to choosing a life partner based on something other than greatest physical attraction. Yet over the same time span, the son of conversion therapy creator Joseph Nicolosi Sr. has created and popularized a new conversion therapy call "reintegrative therapy" for gay people trying to get straight married. What do we do with these seemingly parallel but also contradictory trends?

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Sexual Stewardship for All, Article Pieter Valk Sexual Stewardship for All, Article Pieter Valk

“Chasing After Earnest Confession” in Anglican Compass

Ever woken up with a moral hangover? Here's how I chased after earnest confession while on a cold morning run. In my latest article in Anglican Compass, I recount a time years ago when I recited the common confession after a moral failure and wrestled with whether I meant the memorized words: "I woke up with a moral hangover..."

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Article, LGBT Topics Pieter Valk Article, LGBT Topics Pieter Valk

Yes, Rosaria, Christians do have LGBT+ neighbors...

In a recent article on Clear Truth Media, Rosaria Butterfield argues that none of us have LGBT+/queer neighbors because LGBT+ people do not exist. She goes on to explain that God did not intend for anyone to be queer (no one is ontologically a sexual or gender minority); therefore a Christian who concedes to their neighbor being an LGBT+ person is complicit in a lie that will lead them further away from Jesus. So, what did Rosaria Butterfield get right (and wrong) in her recent article about sexual orientation and ontology?

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Coming Out as Celibate (to my Gay Hairstylist)

Nervous about sharing your beliefs on sex ethics outside of church?! I was, and then a TikTok notification made it unavoidable. This is how I faced my fears. 😬

“A year ago when I downloaded Tiktok, I enabled a feature that allows you to see who's viewed your Tiktok profile (and vice versa)…”

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“When Heavyweights Change their Minds” in Firebrand Magazine

A blurb recently appeared on the Yale University Press website for a new book by Dr. Richard Hays and his son (out Sept 2024) in which it seems he'll reveal his change to a revisionist sexual ethic. Like me, many Christians over the past few decades have read Hays's 1996 "Moral Vision of the New Testament" and referred back to his earlier work to justify our commitment to historic sexual ethics. When theological heavyweights like Hays change their minds, it's disorienting for many. For me, it led to a now all-too-familiar cycle of fear, disappointment, betrayal, and hop

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Is giving up romance a sacrifice?

Some Christians are theologically convinced that gay romance/sex are sins, but deep down they still feel like people need romance to be happy. Deep down, it doesn’t feel fair that celibacy often seems like the only option God offers to gay people. Some earnestly wonder whether God is asking gay people to sacrifice more than other Christians and whether that’s good.

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