John Piper has spoken out against “gender pronoun hospitality,” calling it a “false view of reality.” Piper addressed the issue when he received a question about it on his “Ask Pastor John” podcast. The question came from an anonymous elder who had recently received training from a parachurch organization serving a nearby college campus ministry that encouraged “gender pronoun hospitality,” or referring to someone who identifies with a different gender by their preferred pronoun. The purpose of such hospitality, according to the elder, was “that there are times when, for the sake of evangelism, one may decide to call a person by their chosen gender if such an act removes a possible barrier in sharing the gospel.” However, the elder felt that the Nashville Statement, which affirms only two genders and marriage between one man and one woman, left no “wiggle room” for such “gender pronoun hospitality.”

Piper responded to the elder’s dilemma by citing five instances when pronoun use must be biblically considered: alternative addresses, misleading slogans, compromised word, evangelism that is forthright, and whether gender pronouns constitute a “serious issue.” According to Piper, in addressing someone directly, generally “you” will be used without any need to use such pronouns as he, she, they, or the many others that have been offered. Regarding names, while noting it could still be harder to avoid saying a person’s chosen name that matches their gender identity, it was still possible. He also referred to “gender pronoun hospitality” as a “misleading slogan.” “We ought to be hospitable, but we ought not to be affirming pronouns that designate a destructive choice and a false view of reality. It is possible to be hospitable and honest,” he said.

Piper further pressed that the idea of “gender” itself was a compromise on the biblical reality of the male and female sex as God had intended. He noted that the word “gender” came from radical feminists who wanted to free women from the “bondage” of the female sex. “Sex is bondage; gender is freedom — so it was thought. I think using the word ‘gender’ where the right word is ‘sex’ is like using the word ‘marriage’ for a relationship between two men or two women. It’s not marriage. It is so-called ‘marriage.’” Piper also took issue with the idea of gender pronoun hospitality as a form of evangelism. “How much of the gospel’s implications and purifying power should be shared up front in evangelism? Peter stated the gospel like this in 1 Peter 2:24: ‘[Christ] bore our sins in his body on the tree, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness.’ So, Peter attaches the substitutionary death of Jesus with the sin-conquering effect of that death in one sentence.” He called for an evangelism that asked those struggling with gender identity to be shown the “better way” of Jesus.

Finally, Piper declared the issue of gender confusion to be a “serious issue” that “defies God” and “involves living a lie.” He warned that acquiescence to gender pronouns could lead to further distortions of marriage, including “human-animal marriage.” “Therefore,” warned Piper, “the greatest possible care should be taken before one gives any impression of approving or even being mildly agreeable toward so-called transgenderism.”