I’ve been thinking about ‘identity’ a lot lately, but I guess that’s not surprising given the kind of coverage it’s had recently. Take Bruce Springsteen’s highly-publicised intervention in the gender debate. Springsteen, a major crowd puller, cancelled a concert in North Carolina, joining business groups in condemning a state law he reckons invalidates anti-discrimination measures that protected gay and transgender people and requires people to use public toilets that correspond to the sex listed on their birth certificates. Such behaviour he argues is nothing short of ‘prejudice’ and ‘bigotry’ and deserves to be opposed.

And then there was best-selling author Fay Weldon’s hugely provocative claim that women have won the battle of the sexes so decisively that it’s resulted in men opting for transgender surgery. “The only way men have of fighting back against the natural superiority of women,” she reportedly said “is by becoming women themselves”

And we must not forget the ‘paternity bombshell’ that exploded in Archbishop Justin Welby’s family last week. Welby has just discovered that his biological father is his mother’s former lover rather than the one she was married to when he was born. This revelation he said was ‘a surprise.’ Some might feel that this is something of an understatement.

Confusing as all this might seem we do well to begin on a positive note. It’s worth stressing that our sense of personal identity is dependent on our capacity for self awareness and the ability to ask questions such as “Who am I and what makes me tick.” We ought to rejoice in this because it reflects our dignity as human beings -indeed, I would want to go further and say our dignity as creatures made in the image of God.

But we need to understand that we live in a fallen world, a world that is shaped by what one Professor of Psychiatry has labelled ‘radical individualism’ i.e. we believe we have the right to define who we are. This sounds good but sadly it has led to the absurd scenario on which a transgender father of seven children in Toronto reportedly left his wife and family to start a new life as a six-year-old girl and a 20-year-old Norwegian woman claimed to have been born in the wrong species. As far as she is concerned, she is a cat trapped in the wrong body.

Now I would be the first to say that when we are faced with people who are struggling with their sense of identity, and their gender identity in particular we need to respond with love and respect, even if we believe, as I do, that gender is ultimately the result of genetic disposition.

But Archbishop Welby went on to say something else last week too. Having admitted that discovering the truth about his father was a bit of a shock, he observed that he and his wife had experienced far worse in life - like the tragic death of a young child. And, he claimed, one thing sustains him at all times: “I find who I am in Jesus Christ not in genetics and my identity in him never changes.” Who ever said faith is irrelevant?

Rob James is a Baptist Pastor broadcaster and writer who currently operates as a church and media consultant for the Evangelical Alliance Wales. He is available for preaching and teaching throughout Wales and can be contacted at [email protected]