Shocking Texas Marriage Makes Us Thankful for God’s Word

Jennifer Jack met Andrew Mireles when she was 16 years old and soon married him, but wondered about his bizarre behavior in the bedroom throughout their seven years together.

After the couple divorced, Jennifer Jack learned the stunning truth about her ex-husband while flipping through an old yearbook; she found a photo of her former spouse as a female. Soon, her former husband's shocking secret came to light: born a female, Mireles underwent a surgical procedure to alter her gender and legally changed her name from Phyllis to Andrew.

A Texas judge earlier this month ruled in favor of Jack's petition to have the marriage annulled on grounds that she did not know that her ex-husband was a woman. News reports quote Mireles as insisting that Jack knew of his past, but she contends that her husband kept it a secret, telling her that they would be unable to have biological children because he had a vasectomy.

Perhaps the saddest factor here is that Jack and Mireles have two children — one fathered by another man before the marriage and another conceived by artificial insemination. Jack and Mireles are locked in a custody battle for the children.

While this might well serve as "Exhibit A" as an illustration of the dangerous outworking of the push within culture toward gender self-definition (or more accurately, redefinition), we as Christians should take no merriment over this mind-boggling situation. Instead, let us be thankful that God spoken and has provided clear guidelines on the way those created in His image are to function:

"So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them." (Gen 1:27)

This is eternal, transcendent wisdom that, if followed faithfully, will never create an instance such as the one unfolding in Houston, Texas. But the good news is that this very Gospel also provides the life-giving antidote that will bring the light of grace to bear on such a dark, sin beleagured circumstance.

Let us pray for the children of this couple and for both Jack and Mireles that the Gospel of God's redeeming love in Jesus Christ will bring eternal healing to them all.