Faith and Trans Athletes: A Conversation with Preston Sprinkle

The headline caught my attention. So did the four images of athletes identifying as transgender. The title read: “Left Vows To Topple Patriarchy By Allowing Biological Males To Dominate Women's Sports.”

It was a satire piece from a satire site. But the people in the images were real people.

I was—and still am—disturbed. Not by the uncomfortableness I feel whenever the topic of transgender athletes playing sports comes up, but the comfortableness we, broadly speaking, seem to have with satire at their expense. 

That’s one part of it.

The other part is the claim that “this is the end of women’s sports as we know it.” 

I’ve grown tired of the cultural norm of catastrophizing. I’m bored by analysts who make a living off arguing whether this player or that team is the greatest one we’ve ever seen in the history of the universe—or the worst. Polarized thinking provokes something in me that wants to push back and get a better perspective. I don’t want hot takes. I want the truth.

The conversation about transgender athletes’ involvement in sports has long intrigued me. I've become increasingly convicted that whatever opinion I hold cannot be divorced from the biblical understanding that the very people at the center of this conversation are made in the image of God. 

But I can also see with my eyes and feel in my heart that something just seems...off. Should trans athletes be allowed to play sports? Specifically biological males athletes competing with female athletes? I want to say no. At the same time, I want badly to do this in a way that would model how Jesus would handle it.

I want to lead with compassion, knowing this more than an issue. It’s about people. But I also want to think deeply about what it looks like for Christians to step into this conversation at the intersection of faith, trans, and sports.

I want my personal opinion to be biblically informed—and expressed compassionately. That’s probably a better way to say it. 

What follows is a 25-minute conversation with Preston Sprinkle, author of the new (phenomenal) book Embodied: Transgender Identities, The Church, and What the Bible Has to Say. I’ve read a number of Preston’s books, have used his curriculum with student leaders in the past, listened to him speak, and love the wisdom he brings to this conversation. It’s wisdom birthed from years of studying and being relationally connected to people who identify as trans. 

As a disclaimer: this conversation is not an attempt at a solution to the debate of transgender athletes’ involvement in sports (though Preston does give his unsolicited opinion, an opinion that I agree with). It’s a conversation aimed at helping Christians respond to this—and them—in a way that honors God and the people he made in his image.

Brian: In President Biden's recent executive order, he mentions that “children should be able to learn without worrying about whether they will be denied access to the restroom, the locker room, or school sports.” The response to this has been all over the map, but it seems like the outcry of the masses is that this is the end of women's sports. In your book, you talk about the need to lead with compassion and critical thinking. Maybe we could start there. What are the first steps Christ followers can take to think well about this issue and what might we be missing in this conversation?

Preston: Great question. And I'll try to be concise. I think, when it comes to this question, I think probably the biggest problem is that Christians often have a political starting point. It's like they take their primary cues from their favorite news outlets, embroiled by certain social media interaction, maybe some inflammatory news headlines from right or left leaning outlets that are just trying to stir the pot. And so they'll post pictures of a six foot four bearded man tackling some girl playing women's soccer in Australia. I think the last one I saw was this large, massive dude, just hammering women and I think very few humans would look at that and not be like, ‘I don't know if this is okay, you know.’ 

And there are some real concerns here—legitimate concerns. Anytime you see a biological male physically dominating a female, there's a legitimate reason for concern. But this news headline can't be our starting point. We need to start with Jesus. We need to start with the gospel. We need to start with how Jesus treated marginalized people. We need to start with understanding the complexity of the trans conversation. We need to understand that maybe .05%, I don't know the actual percentage, but a tiny percentage of people who wrestle with gender dysphoria are six foot four bearded men pushing their way into women's sports. Like, this is a very, very small percentage. And it doesn't mean that the small percentage isn't significant  and it doesn't mean that it’s not important. It doesn't mean we shouldn't focus on that. We should wrestle with that question, but it should be within the larger concern for people who identify as trans who are wrestling gender identity. It should be with people who are wrestling with their psychological condition called gender dysphoria, who might have attempted suicide three times. The people who might have experienced profound shame and dehumanization from the church. Real people, real lives. And that's what you don’t get out of political news outlets, that trans people are real humans with real stories. And yeah, some real pain that they've gone through. 

And then the sports question is specifically about male to female trans identified people, people who are biologically male, identify as female. Yeah, well, that has become a much smaller percentage of people who identify as trans. The largest percentage of trans identified people are biologically female teenagers. And that's across the board. In every western country, there's been a massive increase in teenage females identifying as trans, most of whom have been shown to have multiple other co-occurring mental health issues that they're wrestling with, which should cause a Christian to say, man, I'm gonna walk with this person, to help them, and wrestle with what they're wrestling with, because they're wrestling with a lot of stuff.

Brian: What are we as Christ followers missing in this conversation as it pertains to sports?

Preston: I would say the main thing is just that this is a very, very small percentage of actual trans people. And we shouldn't assume that the overwhelming majority of trans people are muscular men trying to push their way into women's sports. I would say that, I don't know if this is where you want to go right now. But I will say though, that I do think athletics should be based on biological sex. Not gender identity. I think that there's just basic scientific reasons for that. 

And for a trans athlete that sees sports as their life, and they really do want to play in the sport that matches their gender identity. Like, I think we should wrestle with that person and we should listen. Let's just leave aside the Bible for a second. I think it would be very unscientific and socially unhelpful to divide sports based on gender identity and not biological sex. 

I do think biological sex matters for sports. Again, this is just a basic scientific observation. Testosterone does something to your body. So when a person has much higher levels of testosterone, or they have gone through puberty with higher levels of testosterone, even if they have taken medication to reduce the levels of testosterone, there are still lasting effects on having gone through puberty and having high levels of testosterone. And that’s just, again, these are just scientific realities that we should help people to learn to accept. Now, how we go about doing that is not ranting and raving on Facebook. That just doesn't work. That's not helpful at all. 

And I would say if you're not actually walking with trans people on a relational level, then you probably don't have the credibility to be ranting and raving on Facebook about the latest news headline.

Brian: Yeah, that's so good. So when we see an athlete who is biologically male, but competing as a female, is it okay for us, just internally as Christ followers, to admit that it feels a little off, or it doesn't seem fair, but at the same time holding in tension the desire to lead with compassion? 

Preston: Yeah. I think we can hold both in tension. I think anytime humans are going against the Creator’s design, for whatever reason, whenever there's something in society that clashes with the way our good Creator has wired his creation, then, yeah, we should. We should say, Ah, there's something off here. And I long for the day when creation will be put back together and follow the creator's design in the most perfect way and there'll be a new heavens and new earth, like I longed for that, and I'm excited. 

And I am seeing right now a brokenness in creation, whether it's the kind on a human level and maybe a societal level. So yeah, yeah, absolutely. 

And again, you don't have to be a Christian to be like, I’m not on board, you know, with a biological male who is playing in female sports. There's just some incongruence there that doesn't seem to flow with the grain of creation, in theological terms, yet, at the same time to respond with thoughtfulness and kindness. And Christians should also be like, ok, this isn't just a biological male who just won the woman’s wrestling tournament. I could see where that would spark a bit of outrage, especially if it was my daughter who just got handled right? 

But who is that person? What's their name? What's their story? What's their family life like? What have they gone through? People who identify as trans have a much higher percentage of past trauma. Have they experienced trauma? What's it like to experience trauma or an oppressive family upbringing? Maybe they’ve gone through this. I'm not saying this is for sure. But maybe there has been a really horrific experience of abuse that has been part of the past? How did you recover from that? They are not a news headline. They are a human being created in God's image. They have a story. Again, that doesn't mean therefore we just reframe athletics. I think that would not be the route to go. But let's speak the truth with embodied kindness and love.

Brian: You had mentioned in your book, and I forget who the quote was attributed to, but it stated “If you've met one trans person, you've met....one trans person.” That's just a beautiful way to think about this. This is not just a topic. We're dealing with people and each one has a different backstory that we need to be cognizant of. So in light of that, you had mentioned the need to be relationally connected. What does it look like for us as Christ followers to engage in this conversation in a way that one honors God, but at the same time honors trans athletes?

Preston: I'll keep coming back to this because I think this is a big problem in the church today. Let's stay off Fox News for a second. Let's stay off CNN. Yep, let's just maybe take a fast for lent. You know, secular news outlets are designed to provoke. This is not debated. This is the science of marketing. You have dying news outlets that need clicks to get advertisement money. So how you do that is to focus on things that will outrage people. 

When you start with secular news outlets grabbing you through outrage, they are stealing your affections away from the gospel and the way of Jesus, and I think recognizing that is 75% of how to best go about this conversation. And then the trans conversation as a whole is, it can be very complex and complicated. The book that I wrote, Embodied, was the most challenging book I've ever written, including my PhD dissertation, which took me three years to write, working about 50-60 hours a week. This book was harder because there's so much complexity. So I mean, if you haven't done a lot of actual research, and you have really strong opinions, then I'm going to push back and say, let's set aside your strong opinions or just not give them up or whatever. But let's encourage people to do a lot more study and a lot more listening. And make sure that the strength of their opinion is based on actual facts and evidence and research and lots of listening to lots of people. Because man, that threw me for a loop because I would read the headlines and I would click on my news outlets and everything. And then I sat down and got to know actual trans people. And I was like, there's a major disconnect here between the actual lives of people and the click baity things that news outlets are trying to do.

Huge thanks to Preston for taking the time to have this conversation. If you want to learn more about transgender identities and what the Bible has to say about it, I highly recommed his book, Embodied. He also hosts a podcast called Theology in the Raw that’s worth checking out. You can follow him on Twitter at @PrestonSprinkle.

*This interaction was the initial spark behind my recent blog post: What Christians Can Learn From Athletes Who Give Boring Interviews.