As today we complete our short 4-week series, Reconstructing Manhood and Womanhood In a Culture Where They Are Broken, I’m reminded of the sobering words of Jesus’ best friend, John, about Him. In him was life, and the life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it (1:4-5). John would later say, the light has come into the world, and people loved the darkness rather than the light because their works were evil (3:19). Nevertheless, in this darkened world, Jesus says to us, “You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden. Nor do people light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on a stand, and it gives light to all in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before others” (Matt 5:14-16). This episode seeks to answer the question, “How do we let the light of God’s truth about gender shine in the darkened culture around us?”
Despite the fact that fallen mankind’s nature is to love the darkness rather than the light because our works were evil, Jesus tells us that he has placed us on a lampstand. At this cultural moment, we have influence with exactly those God has ordained to surround our lives. Jesus commands us, “Don’t squander that opportunity. Don’t be an unfaithful steward of God’s truth about gender. Don’t hide that light under a basket. Instead let your light shine….”
As we endeavor to bring such light to OUR world, I believe that we need to take two different, distinct steps. The first is to logically analyze the fallacies of worldviews that contradict Scripture. In describing spiritual warfare, Paul writes, We destroy arguments and every lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God. Using debate language this verse means analyze the weaknesses of your opponent’s argument and logically refute it. In this episode, I will present arguments that refute gender theory—that oppose it, that combat these lies of the evil one. But that is just the first step. So often, Christians go out to fight gender theory ideologues thinking those ideologues are the opponent. We have a combative attitude towards them. But THEY are not the enemy, they are BEING HELD CAPTIVE by the enemy, Satan and by his deceptions. We must know the logical fallacies of Satan’s lies—step one. But step two is to winsomely guide others to see those inconsistencies and fallacies so that they will be persuaded to embrace God’s truth. Such persuasion is more likely to happen, in my view, the more we develop the skill to ask questions as Jesus did. Three foundational premises of gender theory must be refuted and then an effort made to winsomely win others to the biblical truth in its place. Here is a flawed attempt to do both.
I. Premise # 1: Your gender identity is NOT determined by your biological sex. Gender is subjective and fluid, so you can make it male or female or anything in between.
Analysis
- The concept of that gender identity is distinct from one’s binary biological sex is a theory proposed by John Money over fifty years ago. It is scientifically outdated. His theory that gender identity has no relationship to one’s biological sex would have been laughed at had he proposed it in 2020 or even 2000. In the 1970s, Money did not have the technology to see that the cells of the female body uniformly have XX chromosomes and the male body XY. In addition, enormous strides have been made since then in understanding the biochemistry of the brain, discovering how the presence of testosterone in the male baby’s brains changes the way it develops. Similar progress has been made in the field of endocrinology, so that we now understand how the differences in the levels of testosterone and estrogen in males and females impact behavior. NIH’s Human Genome Project has confirmed what we already knew. Every one of the 30 trillion cells in the normal female body is marked XX and the male body XY. Science uniformly shows that gender is binary, whether biology, anatomy, embryology, endocrinology, or genetics.
- Disorders of the reproductive system (formerly called hermaphroditism and now called intersex) do not prove the existence of more than two genders any more than disorders of the heart or lungs prove there are two types of hearts and lungs. This rare birth disorder occurs in one birth per 10,000. That means that in my state, Maryland, statistically in 2022 there would have been 7 children born with sexual abnormalities and 68,493 births of girls and boys with male and female genitalia. No rational person could look at that data and conclude that biology teaches more than two genders.
- Every major religion and the 4000-year history of human thought reveals what common sense affirms. There are two genders, male and female. By every means humans have of understanding REALITY, gender is binary.
- A boy who thinks he is a girl trapped in a boy’s body is deluded. He is experiencing a disorder. Another word for his experience is psychosis. The definition of the word psychosis is a severe mental condition in which thought and emotions are so affected that contact is lost with external reality. That perfectly descries gender dysphoria.
- Affirming a child’s disconnect with scientific reality is dangerous. A four-year-old who thinks he is Flash and can outrun cars must be rescued before he reaches the highway. Promoting gender theory, which causes a biological girl to think she is a boy puts her in a category of troubled children that have a 40% rate of suicidality. Affirming a child’s delusion HARMS a child!
- Gender theory is an ideology that is disconnected from reality. It is being promoted by a small, radical group in our culture. It victimizes children.
Promoting Truth—the Biblical Worldview: What Might You Say
Example #1: You’re in a conversation and someone says, “Gender is whatever you want it to be.” What makes you say that? Lots of people on the social media, like Chase Ross. Do you know where gender theory originated? No. A psychologist, named John Money over fifty years ago. He was the one who made up the term gender identity and proposed the idea that the physical body had nothing to do with ones “gender.” Okay, but who cares who invented the theory? It’s important because the theory is now outdated. How so? Money formed this theory before the technology we now have to see that in the female body every cell has XX chromosomes and every cell in the male body has XY chromosomes. Do you know what embryology has discovered? NO. If the baby is a boy, testosterone shapes the way the baby’s brain is formed. Male and female brains develop differently in the very womb. Are you familiar with the field of endocrinology? I’ve heard of it. Similar progress has been made in the field of endocrinology, showing the differences in the levels of testosterone and estrogen in males and females and their impact on behavior. So, you are saying that science shows that gender is binary? Yes. Then why are so many saying that gender is your subjective choice? Because they are promoting gender ideology for political reasons.
Example #3: You are having a conversation with someone who says, “Christians are transphobic if they don’t accept a transgender person as she is and try to change her.” What makes you say that? People have a right to determine for themselves what their gender is. But what if what they believe is a delusion. For 100 years in psychology a girl thinking she was a boy was considered a disorder. Calling it is disorder is just being a transphobe. But what if it actually is. The definition of a psychosis is: a severe mental condition in which thought and emotions are so affected that contact is lost with external reality—like ones’ reproductive organs. Okay. That does sound like what is happening with trans kids. Do you think encouraging a disconnect from reality helps someone or hurts him. I think there is a place for dreaming. But are girls who are trans dreaming about being a boy or saying they are a boy? Okay. They are believing a delusion. May I ask you a question? Sure. You have a three-year-old son, right? Yes, Tyler. If Tyler had just been watching Thor on TV and were to run to the top of your basement steps, yelling “I’m Thor, I can fly” and got ready to dive down the steps, what would you do? Stop him. Why? Because delusions are harmful. Did you know that if a non-trans teen girl becomes convinced through gender theory that she is in the wrong body, her suicidality rate (those seriously considering suicide) goes from 10% to 45%? Wow. Studies actually prove that? Yes, several.
II. Premise # 2: It is wrong to refuse to AFFIRM one’s chosen gender identity BECAUSE IT VIOLATES THEIR CIVIL RIGHTS. Refusing to affirm transgender people is like the racism. It is cisgender, usually white male discrimination against people because they are trans.
Analysis
- Using a person’s body, i.e. his reproductive organs, to determine which restroom is to be used is no more discriminatory than using a person’s body. i.e. how much he weighs—to tell a 200lb boy that he cannot wrestle in the 106lb weight class or using his body, i.e. how old he is to tell a 14 year old he can’t drive. Basing policy decisions upon biological reality is not discriminatory, but common sense.
- Transgender children do not have the right to force the rest of the students to violate the rules of grammar that use feminine pronouns for biological girls and masculine pronouns for biological boys to adjust to their wishes any more than Chinese students have the right to force everyone else to speak Chinese to adjust to their wishes.
- A biological boy who claims a trans identity and thus feels “uncomfortable” in a male locker room does not have the right to violate the right to privacy of biological girls in the school by forcing them to take a shower with him, in the girl’s locker room, making them more than “uncomfortable!”
- A biological boy who claims to be trans does not have the right to compete in athletics against biological women. That violates the rights of every woman in that league. Legitimate human rights don’t violate the rights of others.
III. Premise # 3: It is wrong to refuse to affirm one’s chosen gender identity BECAUSE THEY WILL COMMIT SUICIDE IF YOU DON’T. Gender theory ideologues at the highest levels of American medical associations and in the Biden Administration are promoting affirming care, an abusive approach to trans children requiring adults to immediately affirm a gender dysphoric child’s desire to be put on puberty blockers, then cross gender hormones, and then experience sex-change surgery if they demand it lest the child commit suicide.
Analysis
- There is ZERO legitimate scientific data to support the gender theory assertion that a child with gender dysphoria who is affirmed in her belief she is a boy decreases either her suicidality or actual suicide rate. Zero. This false assertion is used by gender theory ideologues to blackmail parents into starting their gender dysphoric child on puberty blockers.
- Puberty blockers have never been studied or approved for use by the FDA with gender dysphoric children. The most common, Lupron, has been used to chemically castrate sex offenders. NIH recently issued a warning that puberty blockers cause a serious loss of bone density.
- The gender theory argument that gender blockers are a “pause” in development while a child determines for him or herself what gender she wants to be is a lie. Over 99% of children who begin to take puberty blockers move on to take cross gender hormones. Taking puberty blockers and then cross sex hormones results 100% of the time permanent infertility.
- Children are being urged by this ideological movement to make these decisions, in some radical states without parental permission, when recent findings in physiological development are now telling us that a child’s brain is not finished forming until about age 25.
- 80% of children with gender dysphoria will grow out of it if left alone.
- A Swedish study of 324 transsexuals concluded that after sex-reassignment surgery, patients had a considerably higher risks of death, suicidal behavior, and psychiatric problems than the general population. Another study found that those who have sex reassignment surgery are 19 times more likely than the general public to commit suicide.
- A growing number of Detransitioners—those pushed down the path of puberty blockers, cross gender hormone treatments and irreversible sex-change surgery who are now in anguish, posting their regrets on Destransitioner websites.
- Increasingly, European countries led by their health care scientists are backing away from gender theory—especially the UK, which shuttered its only gender clinic, Tavistock. Sweden now severely restricts prescribing gender blockers, and cross gender hormone treatment and prohibits gender surgery under 18.
Promoting Truth—the Biblical Worldview: What Might You Say
Example # 1: Someone at work says to you, “I can’t believe all the racist conservative states that are passing laws violating transgender rights.” What rights are you talking about? You know—the right to be trans—to chose my own pronouns and what bathrooms to use. It’s the same old white cisgender discrimination. May I ask a question? Sure. Do you think a 200lb pound wrestler is discriminated against when he is not allowed to wrestle in the feather weight 106lb division? Of course not. That wouldn’t be fair. How do you know its not fair? Because one guy weighs 200lbs the other 100lbs. So their physical bodies determine their weight class. Right. Then why is using a child’s body—their reproductive organs—to determine which restroom they use discriminatory?
Example #2. Someone says, “Transgender athletes should be able to participate on whatever sports teams they choose. Girls’ sports should be open to anyone who says they are female.” Do you know why men’s and women’s athletic competitions have long been separate? Not really. Guess how much more muscle mass the average man has than a woman? 10%? 36%. Men’s bones are thicker and denser. Conversely, women have lower lung volume and lower airflow capacity because they have smaller lungs and airway diameter. Okay I’ll accept your generalizations. Did you know that the International Olympic Committee has a geneticist from UCLA to consult about male and female differences? No, I didn’t know that? His name is Eric Villian and he says there is a 10-12% difference between male and female athletic performance. So, if a boy who claims to be trans, is allowed to compete against women, who is being treated unfairly?
Example #3 Someone says “if you deny people the opportunity to change their gender, they’re going to kill themselves. Is that what you want?” Of course not. I want them to be happy just like you do. What makes you think that taking gender blockers, getting cross gender hormone treatments, or having sex change surgery, which makes a person permanently sterile, would make people happy? They say they are not happy in their biological gender. Did you know that NIH released a study showing that puberty blockers cause a loss of bone density? No. The study must be recent. But puberty blockers are just a harmless pause in the process of becoming a man or woman for a child to decide what he or she wants. Did you know that one of the most commonly used puberty blockers, called Lupron, has been used to chemically castrate sex offenders and that puberty blockers have never been approved by the FDA to stop puberty in adolescents? Really—they are prescribed by doctors at Planned Parenthood and gender clinics and they’ve never been approved to arrest puberty by the FDA?
That’s correct. There are NO studies showing that taking them is harmless. What we do know is that 99% of those who start to take puberty blockers will eventually take cross-gender hormones and taking cross gender hormones cause sterility 100% of the time. But they insist that the are trapped in the body of the wrong sex. If you were a doctor and a 95lb anorexic teen girl came to you saying she needed diet pills because of all the emotional trauma she was feeling because she was too fat, would you give her the pills? Of course not. Why wouldn’t you honor her self-diagnosis of her problem? Obviously because she is NOT too fat. So her self- diagnosis is a wrong assessment of her biological reality. Yes. Then why should doctors accept a gender dysphoric child’s assessment that the solution to her emotional trauma is that she is a boy in a girl’s body? Her self-diagnosis is a wrong assessment of her biological reality. But she says changing genders will make her happy. When you were a teenager, were you ever mistaken about what would make you happy? Yes. But it’s not my place to judge what a trans person thinks would make her happy.
But what if you know she is about to take irreversible steps that science and research demonstrate don’t alleviate the suffering of gender dysphoria? There aren’t any studies that show that. A 2011 study at the Karolinska Institute in Sweden followed 324 people who had sex-reassignment surgery. The study revealed that about 10 years after having the surgery, the transgendered began to experience increasing mental difficulties. Most shockingly, their suicide mortality rose to a level almost 20-fold above the comparable non-transgender population. So, what does this long-term study show about changing genders to try to find happiness? That for them it did not work. The biological reality is that a biological girl thinking she is really a boy is a delusion and she needs help for her psychosis. In a recent poll of Americans, 64% of those polled believe that “transgenderism is not a healthy human condition.”
When it comes to refuting gender theory’s, irrational view of sexual personhood and enabling those around us to see how much better the biblical worldview of gender conforms to reality, I’m reminded of Proverbs 18:17: The one who states his case first seems right, until the other comes and examines him. If we remain silent, many of those around us will buy into gender theory and its destruction.
For Further Prayerful Thought.
- In refuting the premise that gender identity is NOT determined by your biological sex, which arguments seemed most cogent to you. What thoughts do you have about winsomely persuading others that gender is binary?
- In refuting the premise that it is wrong to fail to AFFIRM one’s chosen gender identity BECAUSE IT VIOLATES THEIR CIVIL RIGHTS if you don’t, which arguments seemed most cogent to you? What do you think is the best way to persuade a coworker that transgender rights can’t violate women’s rights?
- In refuting the premise that it is wrong to fail to AFFIRM one’s chosen gender identity BECAUSE THEY WILL COMMIT SUICIDE IF YOU DON’T, which arguments seemed the most cogent to you? What is the most persuasive way to convince others that affirming care is harmful to children?
