Colin Smothers on answering student questions on sexuality

Colin Smothers is the Executive Director of the Council of Biblical Manhood and Womanhood. he recently wrote about his experience answering youth questions in rural Indiana about these matters. And what he says is rather interesting anecdotal evidence about young evangelicals.

In between the Sunday services, I had the unique opportunity of speaking to the church’s youth group, which included middle- and high-school aged boys and girls. For an hour, we opened the floor for any and all questions the students might have surrounding issues of gender and sexuality.

The questions these students asked ranged widely, but the general theme was trying to figure out how to respond to the growing pressures of accepting LGBT identities as the new normal. Keep in mind this was rural Indiana.

One high school girl asked what she was supposed to do when she walks into the girls’ restroom and she encounters one of the boys in the school who is claiming to be a girl. Another wondered how she is supposed to hold to Christian convictions about homosexuality while interacting with and having friendships with so many who are “out” and “proud.” One middle school boy asked why the Baptists believe homosexuality is wrong and the Methodists don’t. (No joke; this is quite literally the question he asked — and I was happy to set the record straight about Methodism’s courageous stand this past spring.) Another student wondered, more generally, about her responsibility as a Christian to speak up when their teacher is disparaging Christianity.

Going into the Q&A time, I didn’t know what kind of questions I would get from these students in rural Indiana. What blew me away, though, was when they told me how many students identity as LGBT in their school. These kids told me that at least 15 students in their high school, which only has around 30 students per grade level, openly express an LGBT identity. That’s roughly 12.5% of this rural high school in Indiana, where Mike Pence was governor three years ago. The number 12.5% reported in this rural Indiana high school takes on particular significance when it is compared to the national average of people who identity as LGBT in America.