Rob Smith is a pastor in theologian who lectures in systematic theology and ethics at Sidney,

missionary, and Bible college in Australia.

Rob, last time you said gender dysphoria is real.

It's the experience of real felt distress, which some people have when there is, you

know, psychological or emotional gender identity or sense of gender doesn't match up with

their biological or birth sex.

Of course, many Christians are agnostics here.

I mean, we need to be informed so we can be careful in what we embrace and in what

we deny.

So are there any common precipitating causes behind gender dysphoria?

That's, again, a very important question, and in some ways, I guess, an obvious question

to ask, and I have to make clear, I'm not a medical doctor or a psychologist, I'm a

pastor and a theologian, but I am talking with doctors and psychologists and sexologists

and others about these issues trying to come to groups as they are with this question

of causation, and here's the perhaps disappointing answer to the question, nobody really seems

to know.

There are various theories out there, and in some cases, it may be easier to determine

what the causes are for this particular person or that particular person, but in general,

it's something of a mystery.

Now, having said that, I guess the general answers, or at least ways of trying to think

through an answer are simple enough, is it nature, is it nurture, or is it some combination

of the two, is it determined by our heredity and biology, or is it determined by our environment

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