Better Transgender Conversations Open Access

Abstract

This research was conducted in two churches in the Anglican Diocese of Canada (ADoC) which

upholds the church’s historic understanding of human sexuality and identity. It explored whether

training ordinary congregants about transgender and LGBTQ+ issues will help them to speak

more graciously and constructively with colleagues, friends and family to enhance the church’s

ministry and witness. Better conversations are necessary because of the toxic and combative

nature of much social discourse about transgender issues, and because false information and bad

practice can lead to significant harm for children and teens, and those who struggle with identity

issues.

The training course was made up of two workshops with three sessions in each workshop (i.e. six

one-hour sessions in total). Two sessions covered the biblical basis for constructive engagement.

Two covered how and why the culture has changed so that norms and values that were once

widely accepted have changed so radically in recent years. One session dealt with the dynamics

of interactions using the Transactional Analysis model, and one session covered the scientific

knowledge regarding transgender issues as best currently understood.

Participants were interviewed before and after the training. They were asked to grade

themselves on a ten-point scale, 1 being poor and 10 being excellent, on the question “how well

do you think a conversation would go with a member of each of the following groups: another

Christian, a non-Christian fried or colleague, and a member of the LGBTQ+ community?” Their

answers demonstrated a post course improvement for all three scenarios. It was most significant

for a conversation with someone from the LGBTQ+ community. Their confidence in a positive

interaction with a member of the LGBTQ+ community more than doubled from an average of

3.6 before to 7.9 afterwards. They were also asked to rate how much they felt the course had

helped them navigate the current adversarial social milieu. Their average confidence level was

7.4. This suggests that training is a useful way to assist congregants to engage on these issues.

Table of Contents

About this Dissertation

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• Permission granted by the author to include this thesis or dissertation in this repository. All rights reserved by the author. Please contact the author for information regarding the reproduction and use of this thesis or dissertation.

School	Candler School of Theology
Department	Ministry
Degree	DMin
Submission	Dissertation
Language	English
Research Field	Theology Gender Studies Education, Religious
Keyword	Biblical teaching on identity Better Transgender Conversations LGBTQ+ helping trans teens created male and female
Committee Chair / Thesis Advisor	Anthony Bridgman, PhD, Emory University
Committee Members	Roger Nam, PhD, Emory University

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