Let's Talk about Gender

There has been a massive cultural shift in the last decade or so with the rise and popularization of the transgender movement. There has been transgender people for a long time in some sense; we’re not going to get into the legal distinction between transgender and transexual, which is important but not for us tonight.

Here’s the thing. You all have seen the massive societal changes in, I want to say recent years, but y’all were really in Elementary School when this started hitting the major cities and college campuses, but you are probably reasonably aware that its only been the last couple of years when the idea that gender is fluid and that gender exists on a spectrum has worked its way into small towns and rural communities like ours.

Most of you, if not all of you, know at least one person who would identify as transgender, queer-gender, gender fluid, or otherwise non-binary. Whereas 10 years ago you almost certainly would not have known anyone like that, 20 years ago most people would go their entire lives never knowing anyone who fit that description; especially in Linden Alabama.

So tonight we’re going to discuss what happened culturally and historically that got us here to our current secular-cultural understanding of gender. It would be far too easy to open the Bible and say here’s why it’s wrong to be trans, in black and white, God says it, I believe it that settles it. That would be too easy. We would read 3 verses and then go home and we wouldn’t understand the problems any better, we wouldn’t be able to have any better discussions about this with our friends and neighbors who are struggling, we would only be equipped to yell and thump bibles and honestly that helps no one. I think it’s important and valuable for us to understand on a deeper level how we got here, and especially for you to understand in case you find yourself or someone you love asking questions about this, it’s important to understand that the entire cultural framework which has allowed for the popularization of the transgender movement is completely broken. And instead we’re going to try to replace that with a biblical framework.

We’re going to look at just one prime example from scripture and I think we’re going to see, not a simple condemnation of transgenderism, but we’re going to see a biblical and cultural standard for gender that totally dismantles the problems that the transgender movement is trying to fix.

We’re going to be in Proverbs 31 tonight. We’re not going to jump into the text just yet, but that’s where we’re going to end up.

Before we really get into this, we need to define some terms.

Have you seen this image before?

This is the genderbread person

This image is a tool used to teach children about the various aspects of gender. This has become a pretty widely used tool in our society to counsel people, especially children on LGBTQ+ issues, and we’re going to use this just to help us define some terms tonight.

Gender Identity- how you view yourself

Gender expression- how you present gender outwardly

Biological sex- which is based on measurable, physical attributes such as reproductive organs and whether you have XY or XX chromosomes

Sexual Orientation- who you find yourself attracted to.

We’re not going to get into sexual orientation at all tonight. We’re not really going to deal with any rare medical exceptions to biological sex. What we’re really going to look at tonight is expression and identity. Specifically how the culture has decided to let expression drive identity rather than letting biology drive identity. and what I mean by that will become more clear.

We’ve been super intellectual so far tonight. A lot of big words. I know. But we’re about to get a whole lot more simple. Here’s the headline tonight: iff you’re struggling with gender identity issues,

You’re not misgendered, you’ve been over gendered.

here’s what I mean by that.

Fork and Spoon illustration.

We absolutely love dichotomies, black and white, yes and no, boy and girl. Just as a human being, the way that your brain categorizes information is to put things in boxes and the fewer boxes the better. and we can put almost anything into boxes.

Think of a fork and a spoon.

If you had to based on the fork and the spoon assign a gender to each one, what would they be, and why? Is one masculine and the other feminine, are they both masculine, are they both feminine?

It’s a weird question, but I assure you I did not come up with this. This question or some version of it has been used in gender studies classes at universities all over the country for years.

Use your phone and take a look at this QR code.

This is gonna take you to a quiz on a google form. Fill this out, it should take you just a minute. There are about 50 questions. None of which should take you longer than a second to answer. They’re really easy in the beginning but some are harder than others. I’m gonna keep talking. This is anonymous, nobody is gonna know how you answered, this is just your opinion, there’s no right or wrong answer. but I’m gonna look at some of the stats on these answers and we’ll talk about them live here in just a minute.

See we as humans are really good at putting things into boxes in our minds. Especially when it comes to gender. It is super easy to label something as, that’s for girls or that’s for boys. And culturally we have done that with almost everything we can imagine. Careers, household chores, types of car. It’s mind blowing how good we are at labeling things by gender. And to be fair, this isn’t just a western cultural thing. There are entire language systems based around gendering every single noun. This is a thing. We’re good at labeling things by gender; and we used to be really good at enforcing those gender labels and making sure that our categories held up and everyone followed them.

But something happened in the 1840’s in Seneca Falls, NY that changed the world forever. The feminist movement began to organize. Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Lucretia Mott, The Grimke Sisters, and the rest of the feminist foremothers of the first wave started to rally and they argued that by virtue of their birth, women were an inherently oppressed class of people. Because even in the 19th century it was incredibly difficult for most women to own property of their own, they couldn’t vote, women had very few rights. There were strict rules that limited women, and so the first wave of feminism was about gaining women’s basic human rights and dignity and establishing that by virtue of being born a woman, and for no other reason, they were oppressed. and they were right. That was true. They even went as far, 100 years before sexual reassignment surgery became a thing, to say that if a surgeon altered a man’s body to give him female parts, that would not make him a woman, because you cannot surgically implant the emotional sense of being born oppressed like that. To put it in terms of the Genderbread person. For no other reason than their biological sex, women were being oppressed; and they were. and it took 2 generations but the first wave succeeded and women got the vote and the right to own property for the most part, there was still some issues that wouldn’t be worked out until the second wave feminists of the 1960’s.

In the 1960’s the foremothers of the second wave fought to extend womens rights into the work place, so that a woman could not be denied a job or entrance to a school simply because she was a woman. They also earned women the right to have credit cards in their own name. These second wave feminists were the bra burners, these women normalized women wearing pants, having a career, and they tried to get a constitutional amendment passed, the equal rights amendment, that stated that there could be no distinction under the law on the basis of sex. That amendment failed. There were some significant problems with it, but that was the one big failure of the second wave, the failure of the ERA. But the logical foundation of the second wave was that doing things that have been traditionally viewed as masculine, does not make someone any less of a woman. again, in terms of the genderbread person, the whole second wave was based on the idea that gender identity, is based on biological sex, not based on gender expression. So if a woman chooses to cut her hair, wear pants, not shave her legs, and work in road construction, that doesn’t make her any less of a woman. That’s the whole second wave in one sentence. Likewise, it was argued, even then, 60 years ago, that if a man wears skirts, grows his hair out, puts on makeup, and decides to work at a department store, that doesn’t make him in any way more of a woman, because he was born a man. So the second wave was all about rejecting the traditional boxes and saying that a woman is a woman whether she likes pink or not, whether she stays at home or not, whether she owns property or not. Regardless of the boxes, regardless of everything on the gender quiz, a woman is still a woman and a man is still a man.

So let’s talk about some of our answers to the gender quiz...

So all of these things that we’ve put into boxes of man and woman. What happens when as a person you don’t feel like you fit into the boxes that correlates to your biological sex.

Well, the current culture would say, and the Genderbread man would say, if you’re biological sex is male but you have more of the attributes listed in the woman box. If you like doing all the things that we checked woman on in the quiz. If you you’re biological sex is male but think you’re better described by all the things on the woman list. then our present culture will tell you that your gender identity should be woman, you were misgendered and were really born a woman just in the wrong body. Transgenderism says that your expression drives identity, regardless of biology.

Now those feminist foremothers would say the opposite. A woman is a woman whether she burns her bra, wears pants, goes to work, and stops shaving her armpits or not. According to the old school first, second, and even third wave feminists would say that your biological sex drives identity regardless of gender expression.

We even created special categories for biological females who fit more in the man box. Girls who like sports and don’t care about their makeup, we used to just call them tomboys. and Biological males who cared about their appearance, maybe they even owned a blowdryer and didn’t really do sports; we called them metrosexual.

So culturally we have broken our backs to deal with people whose biological sex didn’t quite match up with our boxes for the gender expression.

So what does the Bible actually say about the gender boxes?

Finally, now that we’ve built out a context for the discussion, turn with me to Proverbs 31: 10-31

And this is held up so often as the absolute standard to which a woman should be held, this is the standard for a biblical woman. Count the places where she doesn’t fit into our box of girl stuff.

Proverbs 31:10–31 CSB

10 Who can find a wife of noble character? She is far more precious than jewels. 11 The heart of her husband trusts in her, and he will not lack anything good. 12 She rewards him with good, not evil, all the days of her life. 13 She selects wool and flax and works with willing hands. 14 She is like the merchant ships, bringing her food from far away. 15 She rises while it is still night and provides food for her household and portions for her female servants. 16 She evaluates a field and buys it; she plants a vineyard with her earnings. 17 She draws on her strength and reveals that her arms are strong. 18 She sees that her profits are good, and her lamp never goes out at night. 19 She extends her hands to the spinning staff, and her hands hold the spindle. 20 Her hands reach out to the poor, and she extends her hands to the needy. 21 She is not afraid for her household when it snows, for all in her household are doubly clothed. 22 She makes her own bed coverings; her clothing is fine linen and purple. 23 Her husband is known at the city gates, where he sits among the elders of the land. 24 She makes and sells linen garments; she delivers belts to the merchants. 25 Strength and honor are her clothing, and she can laugh at the time to come. 26 Her mouth speaks wisdom, and loving instruction is on her tongue. 27 She watches over the activities of her household and is never idle. 28 Her children rise up and call her blessed; her husband also praises her: 29 “Many women have done noble deeds, but you surpass them all!” 30 Charm is deceptive and beauty is fleeting, but a woman who fears the Lord will be praised. 31 Give her the reward of her labor, and let her works praise her at the city gates.

If this is the standard that the Bible sets for ideal womanhood…where the heck did we get all the stuff in our boxes?!

In fact as we look over the totality of scripture, we find a very different set of requirements for what makes a man and what makes a woman that has absolutely 0 regard for our boxes. All of these things are good things that make a good woman.

But also, all of these things are things that would make a good man.

Even as we look at texts like Colossians 4,

we’re told that a biblical man should act lovingly towards his wife, and gentle and kind towards his children.

Across all of scripture we basically see the requirements which differentiate a man from a woman, is biology, identity, and the only real requirement of expression is that you shouldn’t cross dress. I think the best distinction that you could argue is that in Gen 2 a man will prioritize his work and a woman will prioritize relationships with others, but even in that situation, women still have some share of work and men still have relationships.

Men and women, biblically, are OVERWHELMINGLY more alike than they are different. Scripture has absolutely 0 regard for your boxes of who’s allowed to like hunting and who’s supposed to wear pink, and who is supposed to earn more money. It flat out isnt there.

Our boxes are culturally made up.

So when you feel like maybe you fit better in the opposite box, how would the Bible handle that…the bible doesn’t have the same boxes as you.

So maybe if you’re a man who likes cooking and sewing and pink, the question isn’t whether or not to change your gender identity. The question is simply, how do I best serve the Lord as the man that He made you to be. And if you’re a woman who likes hunting, fishing, and hates doing your hair, the question is just how do you best serve the Lord as the woman that God has made you to be.

You’re not misgendered, you’ve been over gendered.

The culture gave you boxes that have nothing to do with scripture. As long as you can meet the scriptural requirements of your gender, which is basically just identify as your biological sex and don’t crossdress, then you’re exactly how you’re supposed to be. No matter what your favorite color is.

So what do we do with this tonight...

Respect the way God made you, regardless of what boxes the culture tries to put you in.

Stop holding others to standards that God doesn’t have for them.

Repent and worship the God who made you, the way He made you.