The LGBTQ activists have masterfully divided the Christian community into two camps: the Truth Tellers and the Lovers. One group emphasizes Love over Truth, the other, Truth over Love. Both create a false, one dimensional, view of God. The Truth tellers often come across as “haters,” while the Lovers often enable broken people to continue in their delusions. Furthermore, the Truth Tellers and the Lovers often end of fighting each other.
As much as possible, our responses on every cultural issue need to reflect the entire nature of God—not just one aspect. That requires great wisdom—and prior thought.
I recently wrote a blog on Dylan Mulvaney, Budweiser and Jesus. My goal was to keep God’s attributes of Love and Truth in balance. However, it generated numerous questions, so today’s blog is about answering some of those questions. Many Christians are still confused about what the various transgender terms mean. Others simply are asking the question, “As a follower of Jesus, how do I respond in a way that reflects both God’s truth and His love?”
TRANS TERMS
We’ve all been a part of conversations where we hear terms slung around, and we’re not completely clear as to what they mean. The transgender movement has certainly spawned a new vocabulary. So, let’s just talk about some of those terms for a moment.
You probably know what transgendered means. But do you know what “cis-gendered” and “non-binary” mean? Initially, I was never sure if a transgender woman was a man or a woman. Ditto for a transgender man. And then there was all the other new jargon as well.
Let’s start with the term “cis-gendered.” If you ask someone over 50 what it means you’ll often get a blank stare or a shrug of the shoulders. If you ask a 10-year-old what it means they’ll likely say it means a person is a “hater.” We’ll talk more about that in a moment.
But what does cis-gendered really mean?
If you identify as the gender shown on your birth certificate, you are cis-gender. In Latin, the prefix “cis-” means “on this side of.” In contrast, if you identify as the gender opposite of what is on your birth certificate you are Trans-gender. The prefix “trans-“ in Latin means “on the other side of.” In other words, “Cis” means “same as.” “Trans” mean “the opposite of.” “Cis” and “trans” are antonyms (opposites).
So, a trans woman is the opposite of a woman—a man who believes he is a woman. Conversely, a trans man is the opposite of a man—a woman who believes she is a man. When you hear trans, think “opposite.”
However, in public education today, cisgender is not used as simply a descriptive term. It is portrayed as a pejorative term—a label of shame. It is the modern Scarlet Letter. Therefore, if you go into a public school and ask all the 4th graders to raise their hands who identify as cisgender, often, not a single child will raise their hand. Why, because if you identify as cisgendered, you will be labeled a hater, because that is what is taught in the public school classroom. If you have a child or grandchild in public school, ask them if they are cisgendered. See what they say. Then when the opportunity presents itself, ask their friends as well.
There is still one more broad category: “non-binary persons.” Basically, a non-binary person is a transgender who believes they are either both genders, neither gender, of a fluid gender (meaning they can change genders from day to day). There are numerous variations and terms under this category, but basically it is a catchall category for an ever-evolving alphabet soup of terms. It is the “+” on LGBTQ+.
DENYING GOD AND SCIENCE
But here’s the rub. In order for a man to claim he is a woman, or for a woman to claim she is a man, or a person to claim they are neither or both, they have to deny both God and science.
In Genesis 1:27, God created two genders: male and female. God said the two genders, the way he created them, are designed in His actual image.
Furthermore, God states, in Deut 22:5, that a man should not dress like a woman, and a woman should not dress like man. In other words, a drag queen. But that’s not the worst of it. Some people claim this verse is just biblical civil law, not moral law. Therefore, it doesn’t pertain to us today. However, the command concludes with these words: “God detests anyone who does this.” Through Moses, God gave the Israelites over 600 regulations. This is only one of a handful where God specifically emphasizes His personal revulsion. Does that sound like civil law to you?
So, either self-proclaimed transgenders must maintain that God said, “Oops!, I made you a man, but I meant to make you a woman,” or they must completely deny the existence of God. Either way, they are God deniers; they either deny his words or his existence.
They are also science deniers. Science has proven that a pregnant person is a female. A person with an XY chromosome will never get pregnant. No exceptions. Science has proven that a menstruating person is a female. A person with an XY chromosome will never have a period. Science has proven that a person who produces sperm is a male. A person with an XX chromosome is incapable of impregnating anyone. These are all undeniable scientific facts. In the words of Barak Obama, it’s “settled science.” If you don’t believe the science, you are a science denier.
In order to believe that a man can be a woman, you have to deny both science and God.
Think of it this way:
If you are white, but you think you are black, then you are white.
If you are 5’ 4”, but you think you are 6’ 2”, then you are 5’ 4”.
If your eyes are blue, but you think you have brown eyes, then your eyes are blue.
If you are male, but you think you are female, then you are male.
Facts are facts. “My Truth” supersedes scientific fact approximately 0% of the time.
So, if your feelings, your Truth, don’t reflect objective reality, where is the real problem? The problem is not with God, science, or nature. The problem is in your head.
But let me take this one step further. I am going to ask a series of questions which will help clarify where the problem is:
- If a man is addicted to porn, is the problem in his pants or in his head?
- If a man can’t keep his zipper up outside the marriage bed, is his problem in his pants or in his head?
- If a man is sexually attracted to other men, is the problem in his pants or in his head?
- If a man thinks he is a woman, is the problem in his pants or in his head?
The answer to all four questions is: in his head.
In light of that, can anyone explain to me:
- how can dressing like a woman help correct the problem, if the problem is in his head?
- how can changing clothes in the girl’s locker room at school help correct the problem, if the problem is in his head?
- how can having a sex change operation help correct the problem, if the problem is in his head?
This is not helping; this is enabling. It’s no different than enabling an alcoholic, a drug addict, or a glutton.
The first step in correcting a problem is that you must be honest: brutally honest with yourself; gently honest with others. Dishonesty, or avoiding it altogether, is not loving. Again, that is enabling. It may keep the peace, but it is not love. It condemns the person to ongoing imprisonment inside their delusion or addiction. A Transgender’s problem is not in their pants, it’s what’s in their head. They are not mentally disturbed. They are mentally broken.
This is simple enough for a child to understand. So why is there some much confusion on this issue? Why would a person deny both science and God?
THE CORE ASSUMPTION UNDERLYING TRANSGENDER IDEOLOGY
There is a core assumption behind the transgender aberration: God is not the ultimate authority. Science is not the final authority. My experiences, My Truth, is the supreme authority. My experiences, my desires, my perceptions determine what is true.
That is what the term, “My Truth,” means. It implies, I am the Supreme Authority in the universe. It insinuates, “I’m smarter than God.” It even connotes, “I am god.” If you listen to Dylan Mulvaney who has been the center of controversy recently, you will hear Dylan say, “My Truth” as if that settles it.
If My Truth is the Supreme Authority, then scientific facts and God’s truth are truly irrelevant.
Welcome to postmodernism, which demotes science and God. For the postmodernist, my opinion equals ultimate truth. My Truth eclipses God’s truth. My Truth supersedes scientific fact. I conform both God and science to My Image.
This is really nothing new. The Old Testament expresses it this way: “Every man did what was right in his own eyes.” Today, we call it “My Truth.” The terminology has changed, but postmodernism has been around for thousands of years.
This is the core choice we all face every day: either my experiences will determine how I see God, or my view of God will determine how I see my experiences. When it comes to transgenders, their experiences are the fountainhead of all truth. Therefore, their experiences govern how they see God. Consequently, their experiences also define how they perceive the world and themselves.
The watershed issue is, who (or what) determines what is real? In postmodernism the debate is not God vs. science. The debate is God and science vs. Me. Transgenders cry, “Me!”
But this goes well beyond the transgender issue and touches every area of life. The reason the mobs on campus try to drown out free speech rather than engaging in argument, is because in post-modern culture, where the individual determines his or her own Truth, reason is irrelevant. Once reason dies, the volume inevitably crescendos.
This is also why narrative (story) is so powerful in modern culture. Without reason, only narrative can sculpt our experiences into understandable patterns. Facts alone cannot order themselves. Without reason, only narrative remains to shape how we see the facts. Narrative determines which facts we acknowledge and which facts we ignore. What we are seeing today is the logical result of cancelling God, and therefore reason, from culture and education.
Once God was cancelled, it was only a matter of time until science was cancelled as well—as we see with transgender ideology. The scientific method was birthed on the assumption that there is order and reason in the universe because the Creator was a Being of order and reason. In light of that, it makes sense that we would cancel science as well, which is based on the assumption of order and reason in the universe.
The result is that there is no longer any perceived overarching ordering principle in the universe. All that is left is, “survival of the fittest,” which, by default, makes it all about the almighty “Me.”
HOW SHOULD CHRISTIANS RESPOND?
Determine you are going to be like Jesus: love more; tolerate less. Let me state it another way: never compromise God’s love, and never compromise God’s truth.
Like Jesus said to the woman at the well, “Your sins are forgiven. Go and sin no more.” He never condemned her, but He never excused her sin either. He never said, “That’s okay.
We’re all human. We all make mistakes.” He forthrightly acknowledged her sin, forgave her, and then gave her a second chance to make right choices.
Like Jesus, we start by extending God’s forgiveness. We are a culture drowning in guilt and shame, in dire need of God’s love and forgiveness. But that means we must be honest. We cannot downplay sin. God is not tolerant, but He does forgive. But it also means that you have to invite people into real relationship, just as Jesus did. Relationship changes hearts.
Let me ask you, why do people resort to violence? Because of pain and hurt right? No psychologist can take away their pain. Only God can. All a psychologist can do is offer coping mechanisms. That’s why we have to extend relationship as the arms of God on earth, in the hope that we can be a bridge to God himself.
At the same time, we must never compromise the truth. We don’t use truth as a bludgeon, but we don’t cancel it either. We need to make the conversation about what God thinks, not what I think, or what you think, because God is the authority. God alone is the Judge. At the end of the day what I think doesn’t matter.
Following are some examples of what this might look like:
When you hear someone use the phrase “gender affirming care,” how do you respond? I would ask,
“I think we can both agree that God loves every child. So, do you think a loving God smiles when we castrate a child whose gender He created? Isn’t that implying that God said ‘Oops! I made a mistake?’”
When an acquaintance says, “Children should be able to have sex change surgery,” reply in a compassionate voice, “Do you think the all-knowing Creator said, ‘Oops! I got the gender wrong again?’ Could you ever trust such an inept God?”
When a co-worker says, “Trans women should be able to choose the locker room they want to use,” compassionately respond,
“Do you think a loving God would force a 14-year-old girl to be confronted with a man’s penis while she undresses in the girls’ locker room? Do you think God loves a man who identifies as a woman MORE than a 14-year-old girl?”
The three previous examples all employ questions to make their point. Generally, questions are the best way to soften to blow in order to engage a person in real conversation. However, sometimes you need to draw a line in the sand, especially if others who are persuadeable are listening in. In such cases, you must take the perceived moral highground. In this case, you can do that by defending women, and then concluding with a question about what God thinks:
“Any man who dresses up as a woman is guilty of gender appropriation, demeaning all women.
“Any man who identifies as a woman so he can compete against them is a misogynist. He is stealing their scholarships. He is taking away their medals. He is robbing them of opportunities to achieve. He is intentionally doing real harm to real women.
“Do you really think God loves men who identify as women MORE than biological women?”
Again, the point is to utilize powerful emotive arguments, making it about about how God feels, not about how you feel.
Modern culture ignores logical argument but is stopped in its tracks by powerful emotive argument. These are powerful emotive arguments. Use them. But always use a compassionate voice, and end by making it about how God feels.
Womanhood is not a mental disorder. It is a God ordained, scientifically verifiable, undeniable genetic trait—just like ethnicity. When God created women as women and men as men, He did not say “Oops!”
Remember, be more like Jesus: love more, tolerate less. Never compromise God’s love, and never compromise God’s truth.
God is the issue—in every issue.
By Brad Bright
Copyright © Brad Bright, 2023. All rights reserved.