Pretending about male and female

We all remember times when we were kids, playing with friends, when someone would propose a race: “First one to the _____ (tree, driveway, end of the block, etc.) wins!”  Then everyone would take off running.  Sometimes the guy in last place would say, “Last one to the tree wins!”  Similarly, you might remember that kid who was always changing the rules mid-game, ruling this or that fair or foul, pretending that his new rules were accepted and right all along.  We all knew that he was really just attempting to benefit himself and nullify the good play of his opponents, but there was no way to talk sense into him.  We also all knew what he was doing was selfish and wrong.

There are people today doing the very same thing, only now they’re called heroes and put on the cover of Vanity Fair.  The whole culture is allowing these grown-up children to selfishly change the rules, but this time there is much more at stake than winning the race to the tree.  Bruce Jenner is a man.  He was created a man.  Blood tests would confirm he is a man.  A thousand years from now, if some scientist digs up his bones, he will conclude Bruce was a man.  To even make the pretense of femininity, Bruce would need major surgery and lots of artificially injected hormones.  Even then, he won’t be a woman.

Genesis 1:27 reads, “So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them.”  Bruce Jenner is denying this verse, among others.  He says God did not create him rightly.  Bruce believes God made a mistake and that he knows better than God whether he is male or female.  Bruce thinks he can re-create himself as a herself.  Bruce thinks he is God.  Or better than God.  One of those two.  Asking the church to accept such transgender behavior is nothing less than asking us to abandon the Bible and to quit being Christians.  It is a call to cease living according to the real world that God created and to start pretending with Bruce and everyone else.

And yet it is not enough for Christians to merely live according to the real world.  We have to speak out.  Yes, the world is hostile toward those who do not play along with their fantasies.  But this fantasy is dangerous; it undermines the whole idea of male and female and all that is built upon it.  Gender distinctions are foundational, and losing them would bring chaos.  For example, should transgender men be able to play women’s sports?  Does a school fulfill Title IX if their women’s basketball team is comprised of men pretending to be women?  Maybe more importantly, do you feel safe sending your little girl into a public women’s restroom that’s accessible to men pretending to be women?  It certainly doesn’t seem like public schools are going to recognize gender distinctions
much longer.  They are already starting to teach that gender is a state of mind; they are already “pretending.”

Bruce Jenner needs us to speak out with the truth.  Transgendered people everywhere need to hear the truth.  They need to know where healing really is found, and that’s in Jesus Christ.  Bruce Jenner is not going to be happier or better off as a woman.  He may pretend, but he won’t be.  Bruce knows there is something broken inside of him.  But instead of getting it fixed, he chose to break his body to match his broken soul.  Now the outside and inside match, but he is still broken.  Only Jesus Christ can make the crooked straight.  In Jesus our sinful brokenness can be forgiven and fixed, redeemed and repaired, saved and sanctified.  Bruce, and any others falsifying their gender, don’t need people lauding their sinful brokenness.  They need to be directed to the One who actually can save them.  They need the truth.  And Jesus is the Way, the Truth, and the Life.