Opinion/Biblical Advice

By Summer Lane

Photo: Deposit

The concept of transgenderism, drag, and gender identity is one that Christians must confront head on. The transgender movement is taking aim at reshaping society through a sexualized lens, and Christians are caught in the crosshairs of this cultural battle. Where should we stand? What should we believe?

Part of this editorial is taken from a piece that I wrote last year, titled, “Gender Wars.” I have utilized some of the original text to explain some important concepts surrounding the transgender movement, because the information I laid out at that time is more relevant than ever before as we look into the events of 2023 so far.

First: the definition of “love” matters. Jesus commanded us to love just as powerfully as he advised people to “go and sin no more” (John 5:14-18). We cannot love our neighbors by affirming something that the Bible specifically calls sin.

Second: gender identity is a modern term that is based on the disturbing, predatory, and horrific experimentations from a pedophile, Dr. John Money. This is important to understand, because his gender theory has provided the foundation for the gender-bending fad that has swept our young teens and adults up in a nasty honeytrap.

Third: transgender youths and adults deserve our compassion and our prayer. According to the Office for Victims of Crime, one in two transgender people in the U.S. have been sexually assaulted – which means that at least 50 percent of the transgender population is likely struggling with their sexuality at least in part because of past abuse. We must resolve to compassionately be truthful to our transgender youths – feeding them puberty blockers and cutting off perfectly healthy breasts will not fix the pain they feel inside. Only God’s truth can do that.

This week, the Counter Culture Mom Show has boldly invited detransitioners onto the program to talk about their experiences going through gender transition – and their decisions to make a sharp U-turn and return to living their lives as they were meant to be lived.

Speaking God’s truth into a world of subjectivity is a scary thing to do. Remember, Jesus said, “Do not think that I have come to bring peace to the earth. I have not come to bring peace, but a sword.  For I have come to set a man against his father, and a daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law. And a person’s enemies will be those of his own household.” (Matthew 10:34-36)

Prudent, faithful, and exegetical teaching of the Word of God is not based on how we feel but rather, on what God says is true. When we divorce God’s truth from any arena, there will be touchy-feely, self-worshipping chaos.

What we feel does not matter – what matters is what God says is true.

I heard Amy Davison (Mama Bear Apologetics) recently state, “Emotions are a great check engine light, but they’re a terrible GPS.”

How true. We cannot trust our feelings or our emotions, but we CAN trust the objective truth of God’s Word.

Let’s start by looking at the Biblical definition of love.

Love is Love is Love is Love

Context is everything. If there’s one thing that I’ve learned about the importance of Biblical theology, it’s that when you’re looking at what the Bible says, it’s important to note the context. For example, there are a lot of people who say that the Bible preaches love. And it does. But the Biblical definition and context of love is defined by God, which is a lot different than how our culture currently defines love.

God is love (1 John 4:8), therefore God defines love. God lovingly judges, punishes, and protects. Justice is loving. Punishment is loving. John Piper rightly assessed that God’s love also encompasses His righteous jealousy for the exclusive love and worship of His people, and sometimes, in His love, His people were justly punished for their iniquities. Love encompasses truth and justice, which is a far cry from those who post Bible verses about loving thy neighbor on social media to support radical sexual agendas…forgetting that loving thy neighbor is all well and good, but it must be tempered by speaking truth and living in accordance with God’s laws.

You cannot have one without the other, because love is God, and God encompasses all things (although He is not all things, as panentheism would claim – there is a clear distinction between the Creator and his creation). Because God is loving, He has clearly defined for us the parameters of our moral behavior, and we are told that His rules are good. They keep us safe. Give us peace. And there are plenty of verses in the New Testament that clearly explain that the law (God’s law) is good and just (Romans 7:12, Romans 7:7, 1 John 5:3, etc.). Romans 3:20 is especially interesting to me, because it tells us the following: “For by works of the law no human being will be justified in his sight, since through the law comes knowledge of sin.” In other words, without God’s law, we wouldn’t even know how we were sinning against Him. The law sheds light on our dreary situation and points us in the right direction, and so as Christians, we can be thankful that the commandments of the Old Testament and the New Testament exist to give us both guidance and objective truth. God’s law gives us guardrails. Clear expectations. Warnings. Don’t do this. Don’t do that. Obey. Be careful. Be wise.

“And this is love, that we walk according to his commandments; this is the commandment, just as you have heard from the beginning, so that you should walk in it.”

2 John 1:6

Why is gender identity such a big deal?

Gender identity is a relatively new term, but it has become pretty popular with the kids these days thanks to social media and television shows that are happily pumping out LGBTQ propaganda in commercials, literature, music, and fashion. Gender identity can be defined as how someone feels inside and how gender is expressed through individual clothing choices (this is Planned Parenthood’s definition, not mine, just to be clear). In other words, it is a person’s individual sense of ingrained gender.

You’ll hear a lot of young men and women these days claiming sexless pronouns (they, them) or identifying as the opposite gender. Heritage Foundation shares that the concept of gender identity also asserts that gender is a fluid spectrum of various gender options like “gender fluid,” “non-binary” and “intergender.”

The reason why gender identity is such a bad idea – other than the fact that it is biologically ludicrous – is partly because of the research it is based upon. Gender identity is a theory that was constructed by a twisted pervert named Dr. John Money, a New Zealand psychologist who studied sexology and claimed that one’s gender was totally independent of genetics and entirely predicated on one’s environment (see this article for more on that).  Money conducted heinous experiments on little boys and intersexual children and is perhaps most infamous for the horrendous tragedy that occurred in the 1960s with a boy named David Reimer. According to an article written by El American, David was injured at birth, and Dr. Money recommended that his parents surgically reassign the infant’s gender as female. His name was switched to Brenda, he was prescribed hormones, and a lifetime of agony and misery ensued. Little David struggled deeply with depression and gender dysphoria – he was never told that he had been born a male until much later – and was subjected to horrendous experiments in Dr. Money’s presence, along with his twin brother, Brian. According to the El American report, David attempted suicide several times, and his parents finally stopped taking Dr. Money’s advice and told David the truth: he was a boy.

Unfortunately, both David and his brother, Brian, had been so catastrophically traumatized by the physical, emotional, and sexual abuse inflicted on them by Dr. Money, that both young men died young: Brian Reimer died of a drug overdose and his brother, David, committed suicide. Their father later committed suicide as well.

That is just one horror story involving Dr. Money, the so-called “father” of gender identity – which is based entirely on pedophilic perversion and despicable human experimentation. And yet, Dr. John Money has maintained his lofty status as a researcher and valuable asset to “science.” In reality, Dr. John Money was a pedophile who built the entire concept of gender identity on the backs of abused children. And here we are, promoting that same theory in our society, and wondering why our young people are feeling more depressed and confused and anxious than ever before? What a shock.

My Truth, Your Truth and The Truth

Once you’ve debunked gender identity, it’s helpful to examine another cultural idea that has taken root with our youth: the idea that there is no truth but your own. This is the idea of subjective reality – that my truth is the only truth that matters, and that something is good if I say it is. For example, I can be a boy if I want to be, and you can be a unicorn rainbow fairy if you want to, as long as it makes us both feel good. Because it’s all about me, and my truth, and what speaks to me.

Sadly, subjective reality is duplicitous. Our emotions and our perceptions fluctuate daily, and we cannot trust our own reasoning alone. The Bible tells us that the heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked (Jeremiah 17:9), and that every inclination of man’s heart from his youth is continually evil (Genesis 8:21). This is why you see so much confusion and chaos in the world. People switch genders and their depression becomes worse. They take hormones to inject their bodies with the hope of feeling more “male” or “female,” but they often become suicidal. In fact, around half of all transgender boys and “non-binary” kids have attempted suicide at some point, according to the Human Rights Campaign. This is troubling stuff. Children are confused. Who are they? What is their identity? Is their truth, as it sits in the immediate moment, influenced by life and relationships and friends, the only standard by which to measure the meaning of it all? Thankfully, the answer is no: definitely not.

OPINION: Former NCAA All-American swimmer @Riley_Gaines_ says she was assaulted for defending women’s sports. pic.twitter.com/WwJ8tySPpn

— Fox News (@FoxNews) April 17, 2023

Twitter: Swimmer Riley Gaines was recently assaulted on campus for speaking out against men competing in women’s sports.

Transgender-affirming theology is heretical. It does not exist in the context of Scripture unless the Bible is being taken wildly out of context (see above!) or it is being redefined entirely. For the Christian, Scripture offers a simple, uncomplicated view of gender and sex: Male and female he created them, and he blessed them and named them Man when they were created (Genesis 5:2).

As far as the issue of gender and sexuality go, the Bible is abundantly clear on the subject. Yes, we are commanded to love our neighbors. Yes, we are commanded to have love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control (Galatians 5:22-23). However, these fruits of the spirit are handily tempered with a fair dose of the law, which are just as important and just as relevant as the rest of the Bible. Let’s look at some examples of warnings and teachings regarding, specifically, sexual sin:

Flee from sexual immorality. Every other sin a person commits is outside the body, but the sexually immoral person sins against his own body. (1 Corinthians 6:18)

For this reason, God gave them up to dishonorable passions. For their women exchanged natural relations for those that are contrary to nature; and the men likewise gave up natural relations with women and were consumed with passion for one another, men committing shameless acts with men and receiving in themselves the due penalty for their error. (Romans 1:26-27)

Just as Sodom and Gomorrah and the surrounding cities, which likewise indulged in sexual immorality and pursued unnatural desire, serve as an example by undergoing a punishment of eternal fire. (Jude 1:7)

For you were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body. (1 Corinthians 6;20)

You shall not lie with a male as with a female; It is an abomination. (Leviticus 18:22)

Does not nature itself teach you that if a man wears long hair it is a disgrace for him, but if a woman has long hair, it is her glory? 

For her hair is given to her for a covering.

If anyone is inclined to be contentious, we have no such practice, nor do the churches of God. (1 Corinthians 11:14-16)

The Bible is filled with passages of Scripture that quite clearly address the issue of gender and sex in both the Old and New Testaments. I’m no Bible scholar, but I know how to read, and it doesn’t take much investigative skill to flip through the pages of Scripture and realize that there is an objective Biblical view on gender and sexuality that offers order and sense amidst the gender insanity of today’s sex-drunk culture.

As corporations, schools, and our government pushes a radicalized sexual agenda on our society, specifically targeting young children, it is our duty as parents to protect our youth more than ever before against the subjective agenda of a fallen, sinful world. God created sex and gender…and it is good. It is beautiful. It is right and perfect.

The world, however, is broken. Fallen. Twisted. We should not be surprised when theme parks like Disney erase gender-based terminology or that Joe Biden gave a speech to celebrate the so-called “Trans Day of Visibility.” This is to be expected. The world celebrates it and applauds it. They mock those who don’t join in and call them bigoted or hateful.

Truly, our world is crestfallen and groaning, but as Christians, we can look at the disturbing, two-faced hypocrisy of a world obsessed with self-indulgence, and we can be comforted by the simple, objective truths offered in the Bible.

God is love. God is truth. God is peace. God is justice.

Protect your children. Advocate for policies that are based on truth and purity.

And take heart. Jesus has overcome the world.

“I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.”

(John 16:33)

The opinions in this article are specific to its author, and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of the entire Counter Culture Mom team. This specific article was written by Summer Lane, and may not be reproduced, except to quote for reviews or interviews, without the express permission of the author. 

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Listen to this emotional interview with Prisha Mosley, a young woman who was medically moved toward gender transition as a minor. Now Prisha regrets her double mastectomy and the lifelong pain hormone medication will have on her body.

Summer Lane is the #1 bestselling author of 30 books, including the hit Collapse Series and Resurrection Series. She is an experienced journalist and columnist who reports on news within the U.S. and abroad. She is the Associate Editor for Right Side Broadcasting Network. Additionally, she analyzes politics and policies on The Write Revolution.

Summer is also a mom and wife who enjoys rural country living, herding cats, and gardening. She is passionate about writing about women’s issues, parenting, and politics from a theologically-grounded perspective that points readers to the good news of the gospel.

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