Since this is Memorial Day weekend, first let me say to you who served in the US military, Thank you for your service.
The word, “discipleship,” causes most Christians to think of Matthew 28:19—Jesus’ great commission--Go therefore and make disciples of all nations. That is good, but it is worth noting that the call to disciple the nations doesn’t begin in the NT; it begins in the very first chapter of the Bible—in Genesis 1:28 where God said to Adam and Eve, Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it. From the beginning of creation, Adam and Eve were commissioned to disciple the developing nations, to subdue the earth, to shape the emerging culture according to God’s moral law written on their hearts as God’s vice-rulers. In Matthew 28, Jesus recommissioned the church to make disciples of the nations, to spread righteousness over the earth in the power of the Second Adam who has defeated Satan, sin, and death and claims this world as his own. In theological terms, Jesus’ “great commission” wasn’t a new commission; it was a recommissioning of the new humanity to accomplish God’s original cultural mandate. Nowhere do western nations need to be discipled in this cultural moment more than in regard to their deconstruction of God’s design of gender. This episode looks at how to winsomely refute radical gender ideology.
Today we complete this 5-week series, Gloriously Feminine. So far, we have tried to understand two different groups, transgender adults (mostly male) who had childhood gender dysphoria and teen girls who are caught in a social contagion called rapid-onset gender dysphoria. But there is a third group: radical gender ideology activists, who are using the other two groups to advance their goal of chaos and social upheaval. Most of the adults who say to parents of troubled teen girls, “Would you rather have your child alive and transitioned to a boy, or dead?” are not transgender, themselves. Rather, “transgender rights” are being imposed upon our culture by the adherents of radical gender dogma, which has all the characteristics of a militant religion.
THREE CHARACTERISTICS OF RADICAL GENDER IDEOLOGY
A. Radical gender ideology is PERVASIVE. Today, these adherents want to disallow teen girls, who are confused about their gender identity, the chance to outgrow these doubts about their bodies. Instead, the moment a child seems not perfectly feminine or not perfectly masculine many declare, “I know what this is. This is a trans kid.” Parents are inclined to take them to a therapist or a doctor, nearly all of whom practice “affirming care,” which puts them on the fast track to irreversible hormone treatments and surgery. In some school systems, teachers assist this process by teaching them that only they, the children, know their true genders, even inviting them to reintroduce themselves to the class with their new names and pronouns. Changing their names and pronouns sets up children to eventually want puberty blockers. These shut down the part of the pituitary that directs the release of hormones catalyzing puberty. The most common is Lupron, a drug originally used for the chemical castration of sex offenders. To this day, the FDA has not approved the use of puberty blocking drugs to halt healthy puberty. We do not know the long-term effects of their use.
It might be asked, “why would any doctor put a child on drugs that impair their body’s sexual development, when we know that it is highly likely that by the end of puberty, 70% of children will have outgrown gender dysphoria?” Why would any medical doctor believe that children know what is best for themselves, accepting the child’s self-diagnosis that the cause of all her emotional struggles in puberty is being in the wrong body? Why would a doctor put a child on a drug to stop heathy sexual development when no one knows the long-term effects that it might have? Since going through puberty usually resolves their discomfort with their gender, the most compassionate, common-sense medical treatment would be to wait until children go through puberty to let them make such irreversible decisions about their bodies. This is especially true, since we know that the human brain is not fully developed until the mid-twenties.
However, the logical step of waiting for a child to go through puberty to make such an irreversible decision is being denied to children because many doctors today are radical gender activists first and health care professionals second. They falsely argue that these kids can’t wait, claiming “The suicide rate for the trans-identified youth and adults is very high so we need to start fixing them as soon and as dramatically as possible.” But there are no legitimate long-term studies that show that gender blockers cure suicidality or even that they produce better mental health outcomes. There are also no studies that show they are safe for this population long term, nor that they are reversible. What we do know is that puberty blockers will block all the secondary sex characteristics, sexual maturation, and the development of bone density from occurring. Studies show that once a child’s puberty is arrested through puberty blockers nearly 100% of children will proceed to take opposite sex hormones. So, the claim that puberty blockers are safe is not true, since almost 100% of girls who take them will choose to take testosterone and become infertile. They also may experience permanent sexual dysfunction, given that her sex organs never reached adulthood. The claim that puberty blockers are just a pause button without serious downsides is false. We would not accept such medical malpractice in any other area of medicine.
B. Radical gender ideology is DISHONEST.
- The well known and unknown dangers of puberty blockers and cross gender hormone treatments are minimized while their benefits are wildly exaggerated beyond the facts.
- Lies are told to discredit he researchers, journalists, and whistle blowers who have tried to report on this contagion of gender transition among teen girls.
- There is no evidence to support the argument that “affirming” a trans child reduces suicidality. Moreover, the argument that there is a high suicide rate among transgender individuals solely because of their cross-gender condition is highly suspect. The troubled teen population from which trans girls come has a very high suicidality rate to start with, apart from gender discomfort. There is actually zero evidence that this decreases after transitioning.
- Radical gender ideology is being promoted in school systems where, instead of being taught scientific truth, kindergarteners are taught, only you know your true gender.
C. Radical gender ideology is MILITANT. More troubling than its dishonesty may be the way radical gender ideology attempts to silence opponents by labeling them transphobes. Medical concerns that are wary of gender affirming care are marginalized by characterizing the concerns as driven by conservative politics. As Critical Race Theory seeks to delegitimize any opposition from white people, accusing them of “white privilege,” radical gender ideology tells “cis women” that they are not entitled to their fear or sense of unfairness, as biological men invade their protective spaces and claim their sports trophies, records and scholarships. In fact, women can’t even use the English language to describe their problem since calling a trans woman a biological male is transphobic bigotry.
Just as militant ideologies like Fascism and Maoism, crushed opposing voices, radical gender ideologues tried to silence Marcus and Sue Evans, who were closely involved with the UK’s gender clinic, Tavistock. The Evans merely posted some research findings on their Facebook page and were forced to remove the post. The National Association of Science Writers online forum expelled one of its members, Sean Scott, for mentioning, Abigail Shrier’s book, Irreversible Damage. Sean hadn’t even read it; but just mentioning it got him expelled and labeled transphobic.
RESPONDING WITH A BIBLICAL PERSPECTIVE
1. Sin causes all humans in their fallen condition to suppress the truth in unrighteousness. We must help our loved ones, especially the rising generation, understand how corrupt the views of radical gender ideology are. Sin blinds all of us and many of those who hold these irrational views are blinded to their destructive, irrational nature. Those who promote this viewpoint are not the enemy; they are being held captive by the enemy triumvirate, Satan, sin and death. Though we are to fearlessly use our personal influence to stand against lies about gender and promote a biblical worldview, we cannot achieve this goal without hearts that weep for our ideological enemies. The second kingdom value Jesus taught is mourning for the way sin destroys. We must also distinguish between transgender adults who are simply trying to live their lives and an ideological movement that wants to warp our children and wreck our families.
2. We need to help the rising generation fight spiritually—to “destroy arguments and every lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God, and take every thought captive to obey Christ” (2Cor 10:5). Here are arguments they hear:
Argument #1: Those who are born “intersex” prove there are more than two genders. Those born with sexual abnormalities are made in God’s image and must be treated with loving respect. But the intersex condition is a disorder of sexual development, not a new gender. Disorders of sexual development are not evidence of a new sex category any more than disorders of the cardiac or respiratory systems are evidence of new kinds of hearts or lungs.
Argument #2: If you don’t embrace radical gender ideology, you are transphobic. We need to help our kids realize that when they express a biblical worldview online or among friends, they should expect to be called transphobic. And we need to help them understand why. Those who embrace radical gender dogma can’t defend it rationally. Endocrinology reveals two genders shaped differently by testosterone or estrogen. Genetics reveals two genders with over thirty trillion cells in a female body marked XX, telling her she is female. All the major religions of the world believe there are two genders. Over four thousand years of human history tells us there are two genders. Those promoting this extreme irrational worldview can’t win based on logic. The only argument available to them is called, ad hominem abusive, i.e. tearing down the character of one arguing against them. Christians must point out that labeling an opponent transphobic reveals the desperation of those who have no valid argument. The one arguing from reality has the position of strength and need not fear such attempted attacks.
Argument #3: Objecting to Gender Affirming Medical Care proves you don’t care about trans kids. In fact, the opposite is the case. More and more transgender adults, themselves, are opposing this rush to push children down a path to puberty blockers, cross gender hormones, and reassignment surgery when they are too young to realize the full implications of this kind of decision.
Argument #4: The recent explosion in the number of teen girls identifying as trans is not due to social media immersion or peer contagion but due to the actual number being suppressed in the past by stigma and harassment. If it were true that the explosion in numbers was the result of more cultural acceptance, we would see a parallel explosion of women in their forties, fifties, and sixties suddenly identifying as transgender. But we don’t. We see this explosion only in the population that falls for every other social contagion—teen girls dealing with the emotional and identity challenges of adolescence.
Argument #5: It violates transgender rights if you don’t allow biological men who claim they are trans women to join women’s prisons or compete against biological women. Legitimate human rights don’t violate others’ rights. The trans agenda violates prison women’s right to privacy and protection from rape since some men claiming to be trans are convicted sex offenders. A biological boy does not have the right to take a championship trophy in track away from a biological woman because he claims to be trans. Every confused trans kid in America has the right to express his perception of his gender identity. But that does not give the trans individual the right to demand that others ignore biological reality.
Argument #6: The biological sex of your birth is not reality; it is just the sex assigned at birth. This is simply a blind faith leap into mythology for radical gender ideologues. Biology is science. So is genetics, which labels over thirty trillion cells in the female body XX and the male body XY. Every day the number of de-transitioners increases, as women who were evangelized into this delusion wish they had never been so deceived.
So, as we’ve looked through a biblical lens at the radical gender ideology being imposed upon our culture by its elites, we’ve seen that it requires 1) remembering to weep for those embracing this destructive gender ideology, 2) equipping our children to confidently refute this ideology’s weak arguments.
3. Our job is to persuade physicians, school board members, college administrators, government policy makers, and women’s sports league executives to stop allowing the destructive radical dogma of extreme ideologues to shape policy in a way that harms their constituents. This is our responsibility as Christ-followers. Matthew 6:33, Seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness perfectly aligns with Jesus’ command to disciple not just individuals but nations. It also aligns with our race’s original cultural mandate in Genesis 1, and with Jesus’ call to be the light of the word and salt of the earth. All these texts say, DON’T WITHDRAW FROM SINFUL CULTURE. You were created to shape culture and you were re-created in Christ to shape culture, i.e. disciple the nations and your were created for this cultural moment.
So how can we be light that reveals truth and salt that retards decay in today’s culture? By being as persuasive as possible. Persuasion is most effective when you can prove your point appealing to your opponent’s recognized authority. Peter, when preaching to the Jews in Jerusalem, argued for the resurrection based on what they held as authoritative—the OT, which included the Psalms, quoting 16 and 110. But when Jesus proved the resurrection to the Sadducees, he did not quote the Psalms because the Sadducees did recognize any OT writings as authoritative except the Law of Moses (first 5 books of OT). So, Jesus pointed them to Exodus 3:6, “Jesus said, have you not read in the book of Moses, in the passage about the bush, how God spoke to him, saying, ‘I am the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob’? He is not God of the dead, but of the living” (Mk 12:26-27). Paul followed the same principle. On Mars Hill in Athens, he said, I found an altar with this inscription: ‘To the unknown god.’ What therefore you worship as unknown, this I proclaim to you (Acts 17:23). The belief that there was an unknown God was a widely held truth or presupposition. So, Paul started with the Athenians’ recognized authoritative statement of truth.
At this cultural moment in the West those outside of the faith don’t agree that the Bible is authoritative—so telling them what the Bible says is NOT the way to argue (and may in fact be casting pearls before the swine.) In today’s culture, we are much more persuasive by citing science, history, and facts they acknowledge (i.e. the fact that certain medical associations are known for being very political). It is persuasive in this culture to appeal to justice, fairness, and personal rights.
EXAMPLE: PRINCIPLES TO ARGUE IN THE FIELD OF PUBLIC EDUCATION
Here is a sample of principles to undergird argument. There is far more info and specific policy change recommendations to request in my mini book.
- A public school must base its policies about sexuality and gender upon the shared views of its community, not one elite group’s particular religion or ideology. This includes local schools and universities. If you donate to your college, contact them and inform them that you will not be able to continue your financial support for this institution if it insists on eliminating male/female pronouns and justice for women athletes because of caving to gender ideology extremists instead of biological science.
- Biological science makes it clear that one’s gender identity is determined by one’s biological sex, not by one’s subjective feelings. Radical gender ideology belongs in a sociology class, not the shaper of institutional policy.
- Until 2012, gender dysphoria was called, gender identity disorder. Common sense tells us that a female child who says she is boy in a girl’s body is suffering from a disconnect from reality. Encouraging this disconnect is like letting an anorexic daughter starve herself because she believes she is fat.
- The pain experienced by gender dysphoric children requires compassion; but biological science, genetic science, all the major religions in the school district, and 4000 years of history indicate that gender is binary. Discomfort with binary school policies is not a violation of his or her rights. Feeling uncomfortable is not the same as one’s rights being violated.
- The claim that adults must accommodate a child’s confused beliefs about the child’s gender identity or the child will commit suicide is not substantiated by any legitimate research.
- Research shows that the comorbidities (i.e. other mental health problems) that surround gender dysphoria are not improved by puberty blockers, hormone therapy or gender-altering surgery, but if anything, increase them.
Let me wrap up our time by confessing, I don’t argue winsomely for the biblical worldview as much as I should, mostly because I am not as fearless as Jesus wants me to be. But it is also, because I haven’t given enough thought to how to present the biblical worldview winsomely. The booklet Our Daughters and the Transgender Craze is devoted to helping each of us be informed about the issue and to think through how to promote the biblical worldview to refute radical gender ideology in the fields of medicine, public education, government policy, and women’s sports. Lord willing, this tool will be available on our website, next week.
For Further Prayerful Thought
- Why do you think Christians in Western nations are not speaking up to counter the influence of destructive radical gender ideology?
- Why is it critical to distinguish between how Christians respond to a transgender adult, a teen girl, and social activists about the transgender worldview?
- Why do you think it is valuable to think through separate strategies to influence those in the medical profession, public education policy setters, government policy setters, and those who set policies in women’s athletics? Which of these fields has God put on your heart to seek to influence?
