Be Careful Not to Allow “Transgender” News Stories to Accustom You to Their Lunacy
Change can happen—overnight, historically speaking. People may have condemned or mocked the idea that a millennia-old institution could be redefined by a handful of activists and revolutionaries, but here we are. The younger generation of voters don’t even remember what society was like before.
(LifeSiteNews)—Simply to keep up with the carnival of absurdity our culture has embarked on with the embrace of gender theory may seem like a pointless endeavor, and indeed, it is nearly impossible to review each new daily round of dispatches from the frontlines of the Sexual Revolution as it moves through our public schools and halls of power. But because we must live in this culture and raise our children on what we hope will be islands of sanity, it is still important at least to track certain trends.
One of these trends, and I have been detailing it in this space consistently, is that of normalization. What I mean is that we are very close to becoming inured to the sheer ludicrousness of the claims made (and now largely imposed) by transgender activists. We have become so barraged by news that once would have been the exclusive purview of satire sites such as The Babylon Bee and The Onion (which, like nearly all once-liberal outlets and institutions, has been thoroughly domesticated and has become what it once mocked.)
There are, for example, headlines like this in The Metro: “Ex-soldier exposed her penis and used wheelie bin as sex toy in public.” The first line reads: “A trans sex offender lifted her skirt and exposed herself three times in one day.” This article produced a wave of derision, jokes, and double entendre on Twitter, all directed at the fellow trying to pass as a girl while flashing his member about as well as those indoctrinated or dumb enough to believe this pervert was a woman. Comments along the lines of “women are acting so weird these days!” constitute the majority of responses.
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From Silence to Complexification to Capitulation
…the movement is unmistakable, and it is unidirectional. Evangelicals who set down the path toward LGBTQ acceptance rarely turn around and head back in the other direction. And once the revisionist jump—that really wasn’t a jump—is complete, the tolerance and inclusion don’t usually last long. Sex is too powerful a thing to allow for competing visions. And so Neuhaus’ Law almost always proves true: Where orthodoxy is optional, orthodoxy will sooner or later be outlawed.
I don’t often agree with David Gushee, the liberal Christian ethicist whose “battles,” by his own description, have included “issues like climate change, torture, LGBTQ inclusion, and white supremacism.” But he spoke the uncomfortable truth when he observed years ago that when it comes to LGBTQ issues, there is no middle ground: “Neutrality is not an option. Neither is polite half-acceptance. Nor is avoiding the subject. Hide as you might, the issue will come and find you.”
I thought of those words, written way back in 2016, in recent weeks as I read of Michael Gerson’s tacit approval of gay marriage and of Dr. Bradley Nassif’s claims that he was expunged from North Park University because he upholds traditional views of sex, sexuality, and marriage. These aren’t the first cases of a self-described evangelical or evangelical institution moving into the revisionist camp, nor will it be the last. I hope I’m wrong, but I have my mental list of writers, thinkers, schools, and organizations that eventually will make the same move.
I almost wrote “jump” in the last sentence instead of “move,” but “jump” is not really the right word. Rarely do evangelical leaders and institutions leap all at once from the open celebration and defense of orthodoxy to the open celebration and defense of (what they once believed was) heterodoxy. In fact, when evangelical capitulation on LGBTQ issues makes the news it is rarely a surprise. There are almost always a series of familiar steps.
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Fighting our Enemies
Since Christ feared the Lord perfectly on our behalf, and took the wrath of God upon Him, our enemies will not be exulted over us, and our past sins need no longer haunt us. Christ reconciled us to God so that we might have friendship with the Lord, not the world. And Christ redeemed us, so that we can experience true freedom.
Several years ago I missed a turn for one of my speaking events. It didn’t take me long to realize I was on the wrong road, but I didn’t know how to find my way without help. So I pulled into a gas station and asked the locals for directions. Thankfully, they were kind and helpful, and before long I was on my way again on the right road.
Missing a wrong turn for a speaking engagement isn’t nearly as bad as missing the wrong road in life. Scripture tells us that there is a right road, the way of the righteous, and a wrong road, the way of the rebellious (see Ps. 1:1-6). Only by God’s grace can we walk on the road of righteousness.
The road of righteousness is not a popular road, but it is a rewarding road. God’s glorious presence is with us each step of the way. But once we are on the right road, Scripture teaches us that we are confronted with three enemies that tempt us to doubt the way we have chosen is good.
The enemy within (the flesh) is ready to engage in sin and remind us of past sins. The Enemy without (the devil) seeks to seduce us and persecute us. And the world tempts us to walk in its ways of idolatry and immorality. Thankfully, Psalm 25 reminds us of four important truths as we fight against our enemies.
Fear of the Lord
First, we must fear the Lord (Ps. 25:1-7). In response to the Lord’s salvation, we are to walk in His ways, love Him, serve Him wholeheartedly, obey Him, and hold fast to Him (Deut. 10:12-13, 20). When our enemies threaten to undo us, we must trust in the Lord and wait for Him to deliver us. During times of waiting we must worship Him, accept His plans and purposes, incline our hearts to wisdom, and trust Him as our Leader and Teacher.
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The Place of Conscience
Clearly, conscience plays a very important role. But with that said, a person’s conscience is not an inerrant or infallible guide, for it is possible for one’s conscience to be mistaken…as the Westminster Confession of Faith rightly says, the Bible alone is to be our “Final Umpire.”
The Wesleyan Quadrilateral vs. The Presbyterian Pentagon
There’s a helpful and well-known method for indulging in theological reflection called ‘The Wesleyan Quadrilateral’. Consistent with its geometric shape, each of its four sides represent four different aspects of ‘authority’, namely; Scripture, Tradition, Reason and Experience. The point is that when it comes to deciding an issue, one of these things will be determinative.
But I’ve recently come to see—especially through COVID—that the model is insufficient and that there is a fifth side which should be added. This is the aspect of ‘Conscience’ and as such, I’d like to suggest renaming the paradigm to The Presbyterian Pentagon. The reason I’ve made it denominationally specific is because the doctrinal standard of the Presbyterian Church—Westminster Confession of Faith (WCF)—is somewhat unique in its emphasis upon the place of conscience in the Christian life.
This is seen in Chapter 20: Christian Liberty, section 2 which states:
God alone is lord of the conscience, and has left it free from the teachings and commandments of men that are in any way contrary to his word, or beside it, in matters connected with faith or worship. As a result, to believe such teachings, or to obey such commandments, as a matter of conscience, is to betray true liberty of conscience. And the requiring of an implicit faith, and an absolute and blind obedience, is to destroy liberty of conscience, and reason as well.
And in the Australian edition of the WCF there is an additional section found in the addendum of The Declaratory Statement regarding the Civil Magistrate (vi) which adds the further clarification:
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