Vulnerable, disturbed individuals of all ages [are] hastily ushered into procedures that are nothing short of medical malpractice. Justice demands a reckoning in the form of penalties and strictures, for their sakes and for the sakes of others like them who may yet be saved from this Hippocratic Oath-breaking. 

There are many memorable moments in Matt Walsh’s provocative new documentary What is a Woman? But perhaps the most chilling is when Walsh sits down with Scott (Kellie) Newgent, a biological woman who underwent sex-change surgery at age forty-two. Today, Newgent is fiercely outspoken about her transition regret. Her voice trembles with rage as she tells Walsh about her tireless uphill battle against a propaganda campaign that is sweeping away a generation of troubled youth. “We have five children’s hospitals in the United States,” she says, and then she pauses to pull up her sleeve, “promoting that.” “That” is a hideously long scar where her left arm was flayed to create a phalloplasty. Newgent suffers from regular vaginal infections, which she predicts will lead to a premature death.
One such hospital provided a double mastectomy to Chloe Cole, a young woman who was fast-tracked through a sex transition from ages thirteen to fifteen. By age sixteen, less than a year after the surgery, she realized she had made a terrible mistake. Today, she joins a courageous band of other “detransitioners” who hope to save other young people from the same fate. The New York Post recently profiled her together with Helena Kerschner, who first began her own transition as an adult. To obtain testosterone, all Kerschner had to do was book an appointment at Planned Parenthood. Meanwhile, in Scotland, Sinéad Watson tells a similar story of adult transition, after a string of mental health crises that her gender clinic showed no curiosity in exploring before hormone treatment.
Detransitioning men’s stories have received less attention, but they are no less harrowing. One of them recently went viral on Twitter. Ritchie Herron began his transition as an adult, but like Newgent, Kerschner, and Watson, he was vulnerable and criminally under-informed. “No one told me any of what I’m going to tell you now,” he begins his Twitter thread. He then details the excruciating, irreversible damage caused by his own “bottom surgery.” Today, he is suing the NHS for damages.
Understandably, the discourse around gender transition tends to focus on cases like Chloe Cole—minor boys and girls who are socially brainwashed into making catastrophic, self-harming decisions. A new bill co-sponsored by congressmen Tom Cotton and Jim Banks specifically targets surgeons who offer sex-change operations to underage teens. It promises to attract wide bipartisan support not just from conservatives, but from liberals and libertarians who draw a line at trans “medical” experimentation on children.
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We know that death did not defeat Christ but that death was defeated by Christ through His dying. Like Christ’s substitutional atoning for our sins, His humiliation was also finished upon the cross. To those looking on, His burial seemed to be the most disappointing in a long stream of would-be messiahs, but in reality, His burial, His descent to the dead, was the beginning of His eternal exaltation. Although Saturday must have been the longest Sabbath the disciples ever felt, the new week began with Jesus’ resurrection, which Paul calls the first fruit. Christ’s resurrection is a foretaste and a guarantee of the great resurrection of all God’s people still to come.

And when the centurion, who stood facing him, saw that in this way he breathed his last, he said, “Truly this man was the Son of God!”
There were also women looking on from a distance, among whom were Mary Magdalene, and Mary the mother of James the younger and of Joses, and Salome. When he was in Galilee, they followed him and ministered to him, and there were also many other women who came up with him to Jerusalem.
And when evening had come, since it was the day of Preparation, that is, the day before the Sabbath, Joseph of Arimathea, a respected member of the council, who was also himself looking for the kingdom of God, took courage and went to Pilate and asked for the body of Jesus. Pilate was surprised to hear that he should have already died. And summoning the centurion, he asked him whether he was already dead. And when he learned from the centurion that he was dead, he granted the corpse to Joseph. And Joseph bought a linen shroud, and taking him down, wrapped him in the linen shroud and laid him in a tomb that had been cut out of the rock. And he rolled a stone against the entrance of the tomb. Mary Magdalene and Mary the mother of Joses saw where he was laid.
Mark 15:39-47 ESV

COVID-19 was an apocalypse. Now, I mean that in the technical sense of the word. Apocalypse means revelation or unveiling, and any crisis inevitably leads to a kind of revealing, especially of people’s hearts. One immediate effect of the pandemic has been a greater societal awareness of illnesses. Many headlines warn to beware of a tripledemic of Covid, flu, and RSV. Winter, however, has always been a season of viruses, particularly respiratory, and some seasons are inevitably worse or better than others. That has not changed, but our awareness has.
Yet, in my opinion, the greatest unveiling of the Covid pandemic was its exposure and amplification of a psychological epidemic of despair that had been growing long before 2020. For instance, suicide rates and the desperate pleas for euthanasia were certainly present before Covid, but the pandemic and the lockdowns have certainly brought them to the surface and even heightened them. Being forced to face our own mortality did not settle well on our secular society, and it exposed that most people simply cannot face the reality of death. That is why we sedate ourselves against reality as much as possible with drugs and entertainment, and when the sedation no longer works, we would rather take death into our own hands rather than embrace the uncertainly of life. We are a culture in despair.
We would do well to consider intently this passage of Mark because His followers were certainly faced with despair in the wake of Jesus’ death. You see, even though Jesus told His disciples three times that He would both die and rise, we have also seen repeatedly that they did not yet have eyes to see that blessed promise. Rather, the Christ who they hoped would restore the kingdom of Israel had been crucified, ridiculed by men and cursed by God, and His disciples had abandoned Him in His suffering. During His life, Jesus made it seem as if God’s kingdom really was at hand, but with His death, it never felt more distant. The sun may have begun to shine again with Jesus’ death, but an even greater darkness loomed over the hearts of the faithful. Though the greatest victory of all time had been accomplished, they could only see the most savage of all defeats.
Yet in the midst of this despair, Mark records for us three examples of courage (a confession, discipleship, and an act of love) from the three unexpected places. We will look at each individually before considering their collective exhortation for us today who likewise live between the cross and the resurrection.
Truly This Man Was the Son of God! // Verses 39
Although the priests and bystanders were not able to understand the sign of the darkness around because of the darkness within them, a ray of light pierced through the most unlikely person imaginable at the foot of the cross.
And when the centurion, who stood facing him, saw that in this way he breathed his last, he said, “Truly this man was the Son of God!”
Although there were other Roman soldiers at the crucifixion, this centurion was their commander. He was responsible for overseeing the execution of Jesus and the two robbers on either side of Him. Timothy Keller notes:
Centurions were not aristocrats who got military commissions; they were enlisted men who had risen through the ranks. So this man had seen death, and had inflicted it, to a degree that you and I can hardly imagine.
Here was a hardened, brutal man. Yet something had penetrated his spiritual darkness. He became the first person to confess the deity of Jesus Christ.[1]
Indeed, Mark explicitly notes that the centurion saw Christ’s divinity through His manner of death. He saw how Jesus breathed His last breath, and a fountain deep within the centurion’s violence-stained heart broke open. As a dealer of death, he knew it very well. He brought the curse of Adam upon others for a living, so he was no doubt intimately familiar with how it snatched up the strong and the weak alike, both old and young, men and women, slave and free. He knew firsthand that all living would be dragged down into that everlasting darkness called the grave.
Yet Jesus was different. Death did not fall upon Jesus; He gave Himself over to it. Even while hanging from the tree, mocked by men and forsaken in our place by the Father, Jesus was still Lord. As both God and the only sinless man, death had no claim over Him; therefore, His life could never be taken from Him. He could only lay it down. I doubt that the centurion could have expressed his thoughts and emotions very well, but I believe that this is what he saw. As the one presiding over the crucifixion, I think he understood that even from the cross Jesus was really in command of the proceedings. Jesus’ death was so unlike normal deaths that the centurion could only conclude that Jesus was indeed divine. Indeed, as Keller said, he is the first human to confess Jesus’ divinity in Mark’s Gospel, and he is the first to confess the second part of Jesus’ twofold confession of Jesus: that He is the Son of God.
Now, we do not know the degree of the centurion’s faith past this point. Did he become a Christian? Perhaps; perhaps not. We will never know on this side of the river. We should, however, commend both his faith and his courage. We can safely assume that the centurion did not have everything in mind that we as Christians do today whenever we talk about the Son of God. I do not think, for example, that he was miraculously given understanding of the Trinity. Instead, the phrase ‘son of god’ was an honorific title given to humans who were deemed to have ascended to divinity. Most notably, it was a title used by Caesar, that is, the centurion’s king and commander. He was, therefore, making a very dangerous confession. He was, at the very least, confessing Jesus to be as equally divine as Caesar.
Also, we should note with wonder and joy that this centurion Gentile is only a foretaste of the salvation that Christ’s death would bring to all nations.
Revealed Under the Cross // Verses 40-41
The second example of faith and courage in the face of despair is not an individual but a group of women:
There were also women looking on from a distance, among whom were Mary Magdalene, and Mary the mother of James the younger and of Joses, and Salome. When he was in Galilee, they followed him and ministered to him, and there were also many other women who came up with him from Jerusalem.
Though all the disciples fled from Jesus and did not have the courage to follow Him to Golgotha (John being the only exception), this small crowd of women did. Just as they had followed Jesus in Galilee, they now followed Him as He went to His death. They were likely forced to do so from a distance because the soldiers would not let them nearer.
I find it significant that Mark makes the revelation of how these women followed and minister to Jesus throughout His ministry immediately after His death while His body still hung upon the cross. In most of the events that we studied in this Gospel, these women were there as eye witnesses. Hearing His words, and seeing His wonders. Yet we are only told of their presence here. I would imagine that their ministry to Jesus was largely unnoticed by the other disciples as well. Luke tells us that it was women like Joanna and Susanna that financially supported Jesus’ ministry, yet their mention is almost like a footnote. They served in the background, until this moment when the more prominent disciples fell away in fear. This again is a picture in miniature of what Jesus taught. The proud will be humbled, while the humble shall be exalted. The servant of all is counted the greatest in the kingdom. The first become last, and the last become first.
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Unfortunately, as we look at the list of many of the sources5, Eubanks lists that he draws upon for his knowledge of the Enneagram, his worldview and his understanding of the word of God. He primarily draws from heretics, New Agers, and non-believers who are the leading lights in the Enneagram movement. This alone would show that the material in this book is not informed by scripture – but rather, scripture is interpreted through the New Age spiritual sources who created the Enneagram.

One of the newest books promoting the Enneagram to Christians is How We Relate: Understanding God, Yourself, and Others through the Enneagram by Jesse Eubanks.1 We will grant that Eubanks probably has good intentions and very likely desires to help his readers understand themselves and their relationships. However, we must ask, is the Bible insufficient for faith and practice? Is something needed to fill the void God left in His word regarding human relationships? Is that special something to be found in the Enneagram?
Since its introduction into the Evangelical church by IVP in 2016, the Enneagram has been racing through the church and has become the go-to resource for Christians. Pastors are using it for a nine-week sermon series. It is used for marriage counseling, retreats, church membership classes, and discipleship. It provides opportunities for the budding new growth industry of Enneagram “coaching.” One can be trained by such New Age luminaries as Ginger Lapid-Bogda or Beth McCord, who received her training from five popular New Age teachers.2  About five years ago, Marcia Montenegro and MCOI warned this would happen. At last count, Christian publishers have produced over 160 Enneagram titles.
In the Introduction of How We Relate: Understanding God, Yourself, and Others through the Enneagram, Eubanks includes comments on the origins of the Enneagram:
The origins of the Enneagram are mysterious and often contested. Some say it came from the early church in the fourth century. Others say it was primarily developed in the last hundred years. It’s not really clear, but what is clear is that, with such a broad list of contributors (both Christian and not), the Enneagram is best understood not as a ‘Christian’ tool but as a human tool.3
Actually, we do clearly know the Enneagram’s origins, but its promoters have obfuscated and changed their stories as a result of our exposure.4 Eubanks is proposing another strategic change, calling the “Enneagram a “human tool,” and not a “spiritual tool.” Of course, the Enneagram is a “spiritual tool,” originating from occultic spiritual sources, and NOT Christianity. Besides that little detail, it has no validity as a beneficial “human tool.” After performing a psychometric test, Jay Mendenwaldt concluded in his report, “The Enneagram, Science, and Christianity – Part 1,” that it does not perform for the purpose for which it is being used:
For those who have studied psychometrics, it’s a no-brainer that the enneagram simply cannot do all its proponents claim it can. Any scientist who studies personality would simply look at the reliability scores and conclude the test is not accurate enough to be helpful, and therefore, they wouldn’t use it because the potential for harm will be too high.
Even if it were a valid “human tool” used to inform us about how to relate to God and others (the premise of this book), it would have to be subjected to Scripture as the final authority for faith and practice of Christians. Non-Christians have the choice to opt for whatever tool that strikes their fancy, but Christians are and have always been tied to a biblical foundation for life and practice. Unfortunately, as we look at the list of many of the sources5, Eubanks lists that he draws upon for his knowledge of the Enneagram, his worldview and his understanding of the word of God. He primarily draws from heretics, New Agers, and non-believers who are the leading lights in the Enneagram movement.

Richard Rohr, Franciscan Monk,6 (Contemplative mystic)
Russ Hudson (New Age)
Don Riso (New Age)
Brennan Manning, Franciscan7 (Contemplative mystic)
Beth and Jeff McCord (Trained by five New Agers)
Ian Morgan Cron (associate of Richard Rohr and has taught at Rohr’s Center)
Suzanne Stabile (Mentored by Richard Rohr)
Beatrice Chestnut (New Ager)
Sarajane Case8

This alone would show that the material in this book is not informed by scripture – but rather, scripture is interpreted through the New Age spiritual sources who created the Enneagram.
In the Introduction, Jesse Eubanks describes his once-growing resentment toward God due to:
The gap between my dreams of how life could be and the reality I was trapped in had grown bigger than I could hold.9
Struggling with our life circumstances has been an issue for the people of God all down through history. We find examples of how the heroes of the faith wrestled with life’s disappointments and yet stayed focused on the faith. David would cry out to God in the Psalms, asking why those who hate God seem to be prospering while he was suffering. We then see how his focus shifts, often within a few verses, from his present circumstance to God as the center of his attention. God gave Elijah a great victory over the prophets of Baal, but when threatened by Queen Jezebel, Elijah turned his focus from God, fled into the wilderness, hid in a cave, and prayed to die. God refreshed Elijah and reminded him of the greatness of God and of His preservation of His servants. (1 Kings 19:1-18). We could write a book on these examples, but then we already have one – the Bible. We often need to turn our focus from our present circumstances to God and His word.
Out of his struggle, Eubanks poses a question:
“What is the purpose of life?”10
This is a great question, perhaps the most important question in life. He then proposes an answer:
If I could be so bold, I would like to humbly submit my answer: The purpose of life is relationships11
The answer the Enneagram provides sets the “purpose of life” bar far too low. An analogy may be helpful. Something we learned about driving a semi (and all vehicles, really) is to “AIM High in Steering.” (Smith System 5 Keys to Driving) The simple explanation is to not focus our primary attention on what is immediately in front of us but on what is down the road 15 or more seconds ahead – perhaps a quarter or half a mile. In so doing, we take in everything in between our present position and the point we are looking at down the road. If something happens that far ahead, we can safely prepare for our next move. We remain aware of what is immediately in front of us, of course, but we also take into consideration what waits ahead of our immediate view.
King Solomon concluded that the purpose of life is to,
Fear God and keep his commandments, for this is the whole duty of man. (Ecclesiastes 12:13)
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