After attending Andy Stanley’s Unconditional Conference in October 2023, I realized his church (North Point) promoted pro-gay and pro-trans theology. I, among many others, called out their unbiblical teaching. Many prayed they would repent.

It appears Stanley’s church has doubled down on accepting transgender ideology. A leaked video from North Point surfaced about a month ago showing Britt Kitchen, their middle school ministries director, explaining how they minister to a child who identifies as transgender.

If this video was of a non-Christian explaining how to treat a child who identifies as transgender, it would be troubling. The fact that this is from a professing Christian who ministers to children at a megachurch (with a weekly attendance of around 40,000) is deeply disturbing. In fact, Kitchen’s advice is unbiblical, unscientific, and violates sound medical advice. His counsel is indistinguishable from how secular doctors and therapists (steeped in transgender ideology) would treat a child who experiences gender dysphoria (defined as the emotional distress caused by a mismatch of their gender identity and biology). Based on this video, there are at least three problems with North Point’s approach.

First, North Point legitimizes the concept of gender identity. The church aligns with transgender ideology advocates who believe the unproven idea that a person can have a gender identity (a psychological sense of who they are) that is incongruent with their body. Now, I’m not denying that a person can have a self-perception that is different from their biology. The difference with North Point’s position is that they believe gender identity is a person’s true self, and that the body is the problem. That’s why they are willing to support changing a child’s body to make it align with the child’s perceived sense of self.

Second, North Point affirms a dangerous approach to treating gender dysphoria. Whether intentional or not, they are following the guidelines of the World Professional Association for Transgender Health (WPATH). The organization’s name is a misnomer, though. WPATH does not advocate for transgender health, but for transgender ideology.

Their most recent standards of care (Version 8, published in 2022) advocate for a three-stage transition plan for children with gender dysphoria. The first stage is social transition, where a child chooses a different name along with different pronouns. They’ll also dress and cut their hair to approximate the look of the opposite sex. The second stage is hormonal transition. This entails cross-sex hormones where a girl is given testosterone or a boy is given estrogen. If the child is pre-pubescent, they are given puberty blockers, drugs that will “pause” puberty (e.g. Lupron). These are the same drugs given to chemically castrate sex offenders. The third stage is surgical transition. It is euphemistically called “gender confirmation surgery,” but it’s the amputation of healthy sex organs and/or plastic surgery for the purpose of creating tissue that resembles opposite-sex organs. This third stage is tantamount to bodily mutilation.

In North Point’s video, Britt Kitchen affirmed all three stages of transition. He described how a five-year-old child who came to their church was first given a new name, new pronouns, and different clothing. Later the child was given puberty-blocking drugs. Kitchen even approvingly refers to “upper” and “bottom” surgery, another euphemism for amputating breasts and genitals or harvesting body tissue to create new “parts.” This collaboration with a child’s confusion to mutilate their body is horrific and abusive.

Third, North Point can’t be trusted with children who experience gender dysphoria. In the training video, Kitchen laments that, unlike North Point, many churches don’t help children feel “comfortable” with their struggle. While I agree there’s a place to make people feel comfortable in some contexts, it should never be at the expense of truth or the safety of children. A gender-dysphoric child who finds “comfort” at North Point is likely to be encouraged to socially, hormonally, and surgically transition. Church leadership would collaborate in a process that can lead to genital mutilation. The body of Christ should never participate in such abuse.

Not only do most Christians recognize the harm of WPATH’s prescriptions, but lesbian academic and feminist Camille Paglia also warns that “anyone who collaborates in an intrusion into a developing child’s body and mind is guilty of child abuse—a crime against humanity….” She joins a chorus of atheists, evolutionists, and self-identified gays and lesbians who also oppose transgender ideology. It’s a growing alliance of non-Christians who recognize this ideology is pseudoscience and violates basic principles of medicine. It’s time North Point recognized this as well.