An appeal to Bruce Jenner

By J. Matt Barber

Dear Mr. Jenner,

You probably don't know who I am and certainly have no obligation to read on. Even so, I pray you will. As the great Olympic champion God gifted you to be, you were an inspiration to me as a boy and endured as such when I grew into adulthood and professional athletics. I hope you will serve to inspire many more generations of young people.

As it stands now, however, you instead appear poised to lead them astray. I implore you to reverse course.

I am a follower of Christ Jesus. That is to say, though in my flesh I am an especially flawed and fallen human being, Jesus, who is God incarnate, is the Lord of my life. While I fall well short of His glory each day, God's living and infallible word, the Holy Bible, coupled with His infinite gifts of grace, faith and truth, nonetheless empower me to navigate my finite and pitfall-laden time here on earth.

As a "born again" Christ follower, I have another transcendent gift: The indwelling of the Holy Spirit, the third person of the Holy Trinity, who guides my heart, soul, thoughts and words. It is this selfsame Holy Spirit who has prompted me to write you.

And so it is by His authority that I do so.

Mr. Jenner, before it's too late I wish to warn you of a major pitfall in your own life. Though it eludes your vision, it looms all the same but a few short steps ahead of you. While at the time of this writing you have yet to confirm or deny reports, multiple media outlets are abuzz with rumors that you intend to "transition from male to female."

Bruce, from here on I will operate under the assumption that these rumors are accurate. I will be sharing with you a number of truths that, though they may be hard to hear, remain truths just the same. I suspect that you have very few people around you willing to do this. Though it will be called "hate," what I do, I do in love. Remember, and as I often say, truth is hate to those who hate truth.

First, the elephant in the room: As you ultimately know in your heart-of-hearts, this extreme path you have chosen to take at this late stage in your life is not the answer to the question, "Who is Bruce Jenner?" You must certainly be aware, if only deep down, that to "transition from male to female" is a hopeless and hapless impossibility, biologically, emotionally, spiritually and in every other way imaginable. If you have been convinced otherwise, you labor under grave deception.

There is a reason that after "sex reassignment" surgery, so-called "transgender" people commit suicide at a rate 20 times higher than normal, and, despite rationalizations to the contrary, imaginary "transphobia" is not that reason. If you follow through with this, Bruce, you will be making, second only to denying Christ, the biggest mistake of your life.

Here, in reality, is what you propose to do. You are about to irreversibly mutilate your body and scar your soul. By all accounts, you have already begun doing so. Cosmetically destroying your genitalia, adding artificial breasts and superficially altering your features to make you appear (you really won't) as a woman, will no more make you a woman than putting fake antlers on a puppy can make it an antelope.

It will only make you the object of pity and ridicule.

You were, are and will always be the man who is Bruce Jenner – the man God created you to be. My fervent prayer is that you might also become the man He intends you to be – the Bruce Jenner who was created, not primarily to win gold medals, but to worship, magnify and glorify the Son of God. As Saint Augustine reflected, "Thou hast made us for Thyself, and our hearts are restless until they rest in Thee."

Bruce, you are restless. I know. You will find rest in Christ alone. "Then Jesus said, 'Come to me, all of you who are weary and carry heavy burdens, and I will give you rest.'"

That emptiness inside, that void you seek to fill cannot be filled by hacking away at yourself. You have a "God-shaped hole" in your heart. You need heart surgery, Bruce, not cosmetic surgery. To attempt change from the outside in is merely superficial. It will lead only to further seeking, heartache and, ultimately, to spiritual death. That longing you feel, that change you seek, can only come from the inside out.

No team of unethical surgeons can recreate Bruce Jenner. Christ alone can do that. "Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here!" (2 Corinthians 5:17)

Famed author C.S. Lewis once wrote, "It would seem that Our Lord finds our desires not too strong, but too weak. We are half-hearted creatures, fooling about with drink and sex and ambition when infinite joy is offered us, like an ignorant child who wants to go on making mud pies in a slum because he cannot imagine what is meant by the offer of a holiday at the sea. We are far too easily pleased."

Your desires are misplaced, Bruce. You're making mud pies with your life while a holiday at the sea awaits you.

You're 65 years old. You have, what, 10, 15, maybe 20 years left? Don't do it. Don't destroy yourself. Don't let this unfortunate and bizarre footnote to your life become that which defines it.

Christ is calling you, Bruce Jenner. You are not "a woman trapped in a man's body." You are a child of God awaiting adoption.

Please seek counsel from a biblically faithful pastor or priest. I am likewise delighted to meet with you anytime and anywhere to share with you the good news of the Gospel, which maps out the exclusive path to joy, rest and eternal salvation. My email is jmattbarber@comcast.net, if you'd ever like to talk.

Either way, I am praying for you. Many who read this are praying for you.

May God bless you and keep you, Bruce.

Matt Barber

© J. Matt Barber