How should a Christian view drag queens?

Verse 5 forbids a woman to wear man's clothing or a man to wear women's clothing, for it is an abomination to thus try to pass as a member of the opposite sex. If God has created one as a man, it is an insult to God for him to outwardly take the place of a woman, and similarly for a woman to take a man's place. Let us rather be thankful for what God has made us and seek to bear faithfully the responsibilities of that place as well as to enjoy the blessings of it.

Our conduct to them should be courteous, kind, affable. There should be no sanctimonious air as if we were better than they. We should act so as to win their respect for the Master we serve, and if possible to win them for Him.

First of all as to our relation to men generally. Though converted, we are left for a longer or shorter period in this world, very often amid the same surroundings as in our unconverted days. In any case, we are constantly rubbing shoulder to shoulder with men who have their portion in this life. How are we to behave to such? The Word of God gives us a general principle to guide our conduct. "Esteem all men," it says. Naturally we are prone to go to one of two extremes, just according to our bent. Either we sink too much to the level of other men, or we are apt to 'assume an air of superiority, and act the Pharisee. Scripture points out a middle course, which, if adopted, would prove both a safeguard to ourselves, and a help to those who are at present outside. All earnest Christians, who desire to follow the Lord fully, have doubtless felt a difficulty as to their precise attitude towards worldly friends and neighbours. It is easy enough to treat people with cold indifference, to avoid them, or pass them by with only the slightest recognition. In doing so we can never hope to win them for Christ, nor do we give them an opportunity of seeing what Christianity has done for us. On the other hand, it is equally easy to form worldly acquaintanceship and fall under its influence, rather than, as the children of God, shining as lights in the world. But if we seek to carry into practice the injunction to "esteem all," we shall neither be looking down upon people, nor yet defiling our garments, but we shall be letting our light so shine before men that they may see our good works and glorify our Father who is in heaven.

Again, it is indeed most important to be separate from evil, but what is true separation from evil? It is emphatically not the separation of the monk and the nun. True separation from evil is Christ-likeness which moves about amongst our fellowmen, but is altogether of a different spirit from that of this world, with other motives, desires and ambitions. Thus it is written, "He that loveth not his brother whom he hath seen, how can he love God whom he hath not seen," but what about our brother who lives in our street, our neighbourhood, and whom we have often seen, but we have never done anything to show our love to him? Will it do at the judgment-seat to say, he was not "of us," and therefore we were justified in ignoring him. We are bound to shew love to him, how have we done it? Truly we have reason to be humbled to the dust, for we have not neighboured our brother, and if our excuse is, "Oh, he is all wrong," this will only make our own case worse, for the need was all the greater. "If thou forbear to deliver them that are drawn to death, and those that are ready to be slain; if thou sayest, behold, we knew it not; doth not he that pondereth the heart consider it? and he that keepeth thy soul, doth he not know it? and shall he not render to every man according to his works? (Prov. 24:11-12.)

Thus also we are to love and do good, in a lesser degree, to all, irrespective of social position, worth, nationality, or any such distinction. Only thus can there be the setting forth of the character of God and of Christ.

Yet the Christian must not be indifferent to the wants and needs of men. He must do good to all, and show the grace that belongs to the kingdom of which he is a happy subject to the most unworthy and unthankful.

Even if there be plain evil, good is that which alone will overcome it; in any case we are not to return evil for it, but to pursue always what is good; and that not only towards one another, but towards all. We are not permitted in such things to have one rule of conduct towards those inside and another towards those outside the Christian circle. We are not to have one face in the Church and another in the world. The love of God goes out to the world; and with the reflection of that divine love we are to love it too; all the more because we know the real and immense distance which the grace of God has made between us, and the certainty that as to those who remain in it, eternity will only confirm and increase that distance. Of that love of God from which they must break away to share the portion of the devil and his angels, we have the happiness and the responsibility of being representatives.

Contacts with those who are dead in trespasses and sins, which are not according to the will of God, defile the Christian. This does not mean our refusing all inter-course with the men of this world, but, like our Master, seeking in converse with them to bring to them the grace of God. Peter would have refused to eat with the Gentiles, but God gave him a vision to take away his natural prejudice as a Jew, and Paul had to withstand him to the face when the old prejudice reasserted itself. But the Christian is not to be unequally yoked together with unbelievers (2 Cor. 6:14-18), but to be separate, "and touch not the unclean," the men of this world in their unholy associations from which God, in His grace, has called us to be His "sons and daughters."

"A Lover of Justice;" "I. P. S.," London. You both deem us one-sided in our remarks on dress in our November issue; and you consider that we ought to have dealt faithfully with our brethren, as well as our sisters. We accept your reproof, and thank you for your candour. But we must say we have not met with many cases such as you name of "brethren," and "even teachers," wearing "gold rings and chains," "goldheaded walking canes," "white waistcoats," and "peculiarly fashionable hats." We can hardly conceive such things in connection with any measure of spirituality of mind. Indeed, we have rarely met with them where there was even sound sense and a vigorous intellect, to say nothing of Christianity and the work of grace in the soul. The most distant approach to foppishness should be sedulously avoided by a Christian man, but more especially by any one who takes part in the service of God. However, as we have said, we have not met with much of this sort of thing; and, besides, we must remember that the exhortations of the Holy Ghost on the subject of dress are all addressed to women.

The same general principle applies to the whole question of the house, its furnishing, and the dress of the person. We rejoice in our Christian liberty and the freedom from that uniformity which characterizes a religion of the flesh. Perhaps there is a danger of going to the other extreme of conformity to the world in matters of display and luxury. We may be sure that the spirit at least of the New Testament will check that extreme subservience to the fashions of this world which marks those who belong to it. On the other hand, mere peculiarity of dress or personal habits is not the mark of spirituality. Untidiness in person, dress, or surroundings, is really the mark of sloth and the New Testament as well as the Old calls this by the name of "sin." A Christian, while not obtrusively fashionable, will also be not obtrusively shabby.