Cross-dressing is a growing phenomenon today. Often called “drag queens” or “female impersonators,” men who dress as women are becoming more normalized than ever in our sexually broken culture. Some who do so are gay, but people of other genders and sexual identities sometimes also perform as drag queens.

Some “drag queens” have social media audiences exceeding two million. “Drag Queen Story Hours” are events hosted by drag queens who read children’s books in public libraries and otherwise engage with children aged three to eleven.

RuPaul Andre Charles is the best-known drag queen in American culture; he has appeared in numerous movies and documentaries, won several Emmy Awards for his show, RuPaul’s Drag Race, and became the first drag queen to become a spokesman for a major cosmetics company.

What should Christians think about this phenomenon? How should we respond biblically and redemptively?

Is cross-dressing a sin? What does the Bible say about cross-dressing?

The Bible forbids men and women from dressing as the opposite gender: “A woman shall not wear a man’s garment, nor shall a man put on a woman’s cloak, for whoever does these things is an abomination to the Lᴏʀᴅ your God” (Deuteronomy 22:5).

This text does not forbid women from wearing slacks or men from wearing something a woman might also wear (such as sunglasses or a jacket). Rather, the context points to the intent to deceive, to present oneself as something he or she is not.

In other words, men are not to change their clothing and appearance to attempt to look like women; women are not to do the same to appear to look like men. Anything else is a rebellion against God’s created order of men and women, both made in his image and likeness but bearing appearances and traits unique to their genders (Genesis 1:27).

A New Testament parallel is the biblical call for men and women to wear their hair at a length appropriate for their gender (1 Corinthians 11:14–15).

Further, we are taught in Scripture that our bodies must be used for God’s glory: “Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God? You are not your own, for you were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body” (1 Corinthians 6:19–20).

We are not to dress in ways that draw undue attention to ourselves (cf. 1 Timothy 2:9–10; James 2:1–4). Instead, “Whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God” (1 Corinthians 10:31).

Why do some people cross-dress?

I am not a professional counselor, but in my online research I have discovered the following:

According to psychologists, cross-dressing often involves “recurrent, intense sexual arousal.” It is a form of “fetishism,” with the clothing as the fetish, and is also considered a type of paraphilia (“atypical sexual behavior”).

Cross-dressing can also constitute a defense mechanism to suppress one’s feelings against loss. It can be done to subvert gender norms, as an act of sexual liberation, or to explore one’s gender identity.

By contrast, God’s intention for our sexual lives is clear. We are created as male and female and intended to live in alignment with our gender (Genesis 1:27; 2:18–24). Sex is therefore intended only within the monogamous, covenant marriage between one man and one woman (Genesis 2:24; Hebrews 13:4; 1 Corinthians 7:3, 39).

Any activity that violates this intended order, such as cross-dressing, adultery, prostitution, or pornography, is sinful and harms those who engage in it.

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How should Christians respond to cross-dressing?

If you know someone engaged in cross-dressing (or whose spouse is doing so), how should you respond redemptively to them?

1. Pray for the Spirit to bring this person to repentance and restoration to God’s design for their lives.
2. Be willing to share biblical truth with them as you have opportunity under the Spirit’s guidance, doing so “with gentleness and respect” (1 Peter 3:15).
3. Seek to live with personal biblical morality. We are all broken, fallen people (Romans 3:23). You may not be engaged in cross-dressing, but there may be other areas of your life where Christ is not Lord. Submit your life fully to the Spirit each day (Ephesians 5:18), presenting your “body” as a “living sacrifice” to your Lord (Romans 12:1).

Charles Spurgeon testified, “I would sooner be holy than happy if the two things could be divorced. Were it possible for a man always to sorrow and yet to be pure, I would choose the sorrow if I might win the purity, for to be free from the power of sin, to be made to love holiness, is true happiness.”

Will you experience “true happiness” today?

Related articles

• What does the Bible say about transgenderism?
• What does the Bible say about pornography? Can you break free from sexual temptation?
• What does the Bible say about homosexuality?

If you want to know more about God’s design for sexuality, check out our book, Sacred Sexuality: Reclaiming God’s Design. The book arms believers with the knowledge and wisdom needed to confront the challenges of a post-Christian culture with the unchanging truth of the Bible.

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Israel has confirmed that a body extracted by their forces in a southern Gaza tunnel is that of Hamas leader Mohammed Sinwar. The brother of Oct. 7 mastermind Yahya Sinwar, he was killed in a May 13 airstrike as he hid under the European Hospital in Khan Younis.

“We found a military base under a hospital,” said the company commander who discovered the body. His statement forms a descriptive metaphor for my article this morning.

According to a new report profiled by journalist Simone Rodan-Benzaquen in the Free Press, the Muslim Brotherhood is building an extensive infrastructure in Europe. This radical movement seeks to impose Islamic law through schools, charities, and religious networks, creating “ideological bases under hospitals,” as it were. It claims to reject violence, but it has extremist offshoots such as Hamas and often blurs the line between nonviolence and radicalization.

Founded in 1928, the Brotherhood views Islam as a total system. And, as Rodan-Benzaquen warns, “It is coming for all of the West.”

 “Reaching far beyond the mosque”

Rodan-Benzaquen’s article tells us how:

The Brotherhood has methodically expanded its presence across [Europe]—embedding itself in local communities through a network of mosques, charities, educational institutions, and civic associations, all designed to promote its vision of political Islam under the cover of religious outreach.

In France alone, the Brotherhood’s network comprises 280 mosques. Every Friday, some ninety-one thousand people worship in these spaces. The movement also controls or influences twenty-one private schools and 815 Quranic schools. According to Rodan-Benzaquen, over sixty-six thousand minors in these schools are “taught to see themselves as part of a global Muslim community in moral and cultural opposition to Western secularism.”

For example, they have distributed texts that praise Sharia law as superior to man-made law (such as democracy), denounce interfaith marriage, and vilify Jews. The Brotherhood has also established stores, youth centers, job training programs, matchmaking services, Islamic microfinance initiatives, and charities that collectively form parallel structures of authority for Muslims to utilize. Their larger purpose is to elevate religious law over that of the country and impose social pressure on Muslims to comply.

Their new frontier is digital, with waves of online influencers trained in Brotherhood institutions and fluent in grievance politics who are focusing on younger audiences. Rodan-Benzaquen warns that they are “reaching far beyond the mosque, preaching on screens in palms and in sitting rooms all across the globe.”

Qatar and Turkey have been funding and supporting the movement and its affiliated networks. Its larger purpose is global cultural and political domination for Islam.

Fertile soil for immorality

One reason the Brotherhood’s ideological strategy is so effective is that it encounters so little cultural resistance. Not only has public discourse been accommodating under the banner of multiculturalism, but the West has long abandoned any cohesive worldview to oppose it.

When secularized society has no way to separate truth from falsehood, labeling both as subjective fictions, how are we to counter the truth claims of the Muslim Brotherhood or any other worldview? Our ideological “soil” is fertile ground for any agenda organized and incentivized enough to take advantage of the opportunity.

The “sexual revolution” that has normalized pornography and premarital and extramarital sex while redefining and trivializing marriage has been possible only in a world where biblical morality was first marginalized. Continued public support for abortion and the growing embrace of euthanasia across the country are possible only because the sanctity of all life is ignored or rejected.

In each case, what seems attractive at first to a post-Christian culture is destructive to our souls and our collective future. “Military bases under hospitals” is an apt metaphor for our day.

Imparting “the very life of God”

The good news is that we’ve been here before. The first-century Roman Empire was at least as hedonistic as American society today. Unwanted children were abandoned; unwanted elderly people were euthanized; every kind of sexual immorality was normalized and practiced. Like the Muslim Brotherhood infiltrating Europe and the West, foreign powers and movements threatened the Empire from within.

Then came Pentecost, and the God who created the universe began living inside humans by his indwelling Holy Spirit (1 Corinthians 3:16).

He not only forgave fallen people for their sins, he set them “free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death” (Romans 8:2) and made them his “new creation” (2 Corinthians 5:17). They became a new and different kind of people (1 Peter 2:5), demonstrating a character so different from the fallen culture (Galatians 5:22–23) that others could tell “they had been with Jesus” (Acts 4:13). And over time they built the mightiest spiritual movement in history and transformed the Western world.

Billy Graham wrote:

When we give our lives to Jesus and trust him as our Savior and Lord, the Spirit renews our souls and brings the life of God into us. We have joy and peace, and we have a new direction to our lives because the Spirit of God has imparted to us the very life of God (my emphasis).

When “we have all that is needed”

Now it falls to us, as with our first-century sisters and brothers, to live out “the very life of God” in every way we can. First, by submitting every day to the Spirit and giving our lives to his leading and purpose (Ephesians 5:18). Second, by leading everyone we influence to join us in the abundant life found only in Christ (John 10:10). And third, by declaring and defending biblical truth and morality in a culture desperate for light in its darkness (1 Peter 3:15–16).

I remember touring Carlsbad Caverns years ago. After our group descended into the heart of the cave system, our guide had us sit on a rock ledge and then extinguish our flashlights. The darkness was so absolute as to be tangible. I could not see the hand in front of my face. Then he turned on his flashlight, and my eyes were drawn instinctively to its light.

So it is with the light of the Spirit—the darker the room, the more powerful, tangible, and attractive he becomes. A. W. Tozer reminded us:

“When we have the Holy Spirit, we have all that is needed to be all that God desires us to be.”

If Jesus is your Savior, you have all of the Spirit.

Does he have all of you?

Quote for the day:

“The Holy Spirit transforms and renews us, creates harmony and unity, and gives us courage and joy for mission.” —Pope Francis

Our latest website resources:

• California cracks down on child sex buyers
• What is Pentecost and how can we experience it today? A guide to experiencing God’s power for God’s purpose
• Preparing for Sunday with resilient faith
• What does the Bible say about homosexuality?
• Is cross-dressing a sin?

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How God is at work in surprising places and ways

Nearly thirty million more US adults are following Jesus today than was the case just four years ago, according to Barna. Their CEO, David Kinnaman, called this “the clearest trend we’ve seen in more than a decade pointing to spiritual renewal.” He notes that this movement is being led especially by “younger generations.”

God is moving in other parts of the world as well, places where the death of the church has long been predicted. In France, for example, 10,384 adults were baptized on Easter Sunday, a jump of 46 percent from last year and nearly double the number in 2023. The number of teenagers baptized was ten times higher than in 2019. One priest said, “We are overwhelmed by what is taking place.”

God is moving dramatically in the UK as well:

• Bible sales in the country increased by 87 percent between 2019 and 2024.
• Twice as many people are making first-time commitments to follow Jesus compared to 2021.
• Last year, more than two million people tried the Alpha course, a ministry designed to answer seekers’ questions and lead them to faith in Christ. This is the highest figure ever recorded.
• A woman showed up at one church seeking help because Jesus spoke to her in a dream, telling her she needed to be baptized.
• A young woman came on an online Alpha course with a painful case of shingles. The Alpha leader prayed with her, and the shingles vanished.
• One church saw 120 people respond to the gospel on Easter Sunday.
• A PhD researcher in Wales collected more than six hundred stories in just a couple of months of people being healed.
• A youth ministry called Spring Harvest saw 630 professions of faith last year.
• Last Christmas, more than one hundred thousand believers took the gospel to the streets of London, singing carols and sharing the gospel. There were numerous reports of salvations, healings, and revivals in churches.

If you’re like me, your first question is: How can we join this movement? What will it take for a true spiritual awakening to transform our nation?

The answer may surprise you.

The true purpose of the universe

All of God there is, is in this moment. Jesus promised us, “I am with you always, to the end of the age” (Matthew 28:20). But for what purpose? What is the living Lord Jesus trying to do in our lives today?

1. S. Lewis wrote:

The Church exists for nothing else but to draw men into Christ, to make them little Christs. If they are not doing that, all the cathedrals, clergy, missions, sermons, even the Bible itself, are simply a waste of time. God became Man for no other purpose. It is even doubtful, you know, whether the whole universe was created for any other purpose.

Our Father seeks for us to be “conformed to the image of his Son” (Romans 8:29) and sent his Spirit to indwell us (1 Corinthians 3:16) so that Christ can be “formed” in us (Galatians 4:19). The “fruit” he manifests is the character of Christ operating in and through our lives (Galatians 5:22–23).

If God will settle for nothing less than Christlikeness in our lives, we should join him. Oswald Chambers warned, “The great enemy of the life of faith in God is not sin, but the good which is not good enough.”

Jesus wants to be as real in our bodies as he was in his, seeking to incarnate himself in Christians to continue his earthly ministry through us. In this way, he becomes “the firstborn among many brothers” (Romans 8:29). As a result, accepting anything less than Christlikeness is settling for less than the abundant, victorious, overcoming lives we are supposed to be living today.

Here’s my point: The more we become like Jesus, the more this miraculous transformation in our lives catalyzes us to lead others to him.

And the more we advance the spiritual awakening we need so desperately.

Four biblical steps

So, here’s the practical question: How can you and I partner with Christ to become more like him?

First, seek spiritual renewal for yourself and your nation. Our Lord promises, “You will seek me and find me, when you seek me with all your heart” (Jeremiah 29:13). Philip Yancey is right: “God goes where he’s wanted.”

Second, stay close to Jesus to become like Jesus. Paul wrote that when we are “beholding the glory of the Lord,” we are “being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another” (2 Corinthians 3:18). This is why consistent prayer, Bible study, and worship are vital “channels of grace.” It is also why the enemy tempts us to separate Sunday from Monday and religion from the “real world.” The more we practice the presence of Jesus, the more we become the presence of Jesus to others (cf. Luke 6:40).

Third, ask in every setting the familiar question, “What would Jesus do?” Then ask the Spirit to empower you to be the change you wish to see (Ephesians 5:18).

Fourth, spend your life and influence leading others to do the same. We become like Christ as we help others become like Christ. Only then do we align our lives with the purpose of the one who came “to seek and to save the lost” (Luke 19:10). This is God’s design for humanity in which we are linked to one another in his tapestry of grace.

“The only thing in the world worth caring for”

The theologian Sinclair Ferguson noted:

God’s ultimate purpose is to make us like Christ. His goal is the complete restoration of the image of God in his child! So great a work demands all the resources which God finds throughout the universe, and he ransacks the possibilities of joys and sorrows in order to reproduce in us the character of Jesus.

The Scottish evangelist and biologist Henry Drummond added:

“To become like Christ is the only thing in the world worth caring for, the thing before which every ambition of man is folly and all lower achievement vain.”

Do you agree?

Quote for the day:

“God never allows pain without a purpose in the lives of his children. He never allows Satan, nor circumstances, nor an ill-intending person to afflict us unless he uses that affliction for our good. God never wastes pain. He always causes it to work together for our ultimate good, the good of conforming us more to the likeness of his Son.” —Jerry Bridges

Our latest website resources:

• Pride Month, Ukraine drone attack, Elon Musk tensions & “Would You Rather” game
• How can we eradicate poverty through missions?
• Nigeria is becoming a “mass grave” for Christians: Why American believers cannot be silent
• Is Dr. Jordan Peterson a Christian? New video of him debating atheists goes viral
• Is Joe Rogan going to church? An update on Wesley Huff, Joe Rogan, and how God is at work

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