God and Gender

Isaiah 5:20

Introduction

On the subject of homosexuality and gender, the world is a more confused place every day.

A movement that has been gaining steam for decades, seems to have added jet fuel.

It is hard to keep up with the pace of the every changing and expanding boundaries of what is beyond the pale.

We will spend some time today exploring where we are and what the Bible has to say about it.

The Current State

Where we are was arrived at through careful (if imperfectly applied) strategy.

After the Ball:

1.  Talk about gays and gayness as loudly and often as possible.

2.  Portray gays as victims, not aggressive challengers.

3.  Give homosexual protectors a “just” cause.

4. Make gays look good.

5. Make the victimizers look bad.

6.  Solicit funds: the buck stops here (i.e., get corporate America and major foundations to financially support the homosexual cause).

For a long time corporations have tried to balance this cultural land mine but there remains no balance.

The indoctrination is no longer subtle in many instances (though subtle influence remains as well).

Questions about homosexuality and transgenderism pervade every facet of life:

Entertainment

Every effort is made to “represent” ever departure from traditional gender and gender relationships.

Sports

Everything from celebrating those who come out in one way or another to controversies over what to do about biological males who compete and dominate in female games.

Politics

Laws are passed and imposed on an unwilling people by unelected judges.

Appointees are made in order to make a point even if it means disqualification by definition.

Education

These things are being taught at younger and younger ages.

Those who do not get in line will be punished.

Workplace

You have likely been to some form of training for these issues.

Some sort of diversity or intersectionality training.

This is leading to some very difficult questions for Christians who are being asked to play along like nothing is wrong.

Tenets of transgenderism:

Male and female are too simple to describe all of the types of people in the world.

This is true because some people have physical conditions that are not so easily defined.

But it is also true when there is physical clarity but mental tension. That is, a person does not “feel like” what their body says they are.

The solution to these problems is an encouragement and celebration of all of the confusion.

This has in fact, increased the number of suicides which are already high in this segment of the population.

The Case is Made

Passages specifically addressing homosexuality are “contexualized.”

The arguments against slavery and for changes in women’s roles are repackaged to allow for changes in societal norms.

People are more important than laws (Mk. 2:27).

God didn’t make anything binary.

Physically ambiguous people proves that mentally ambiguity must be a part of creation.

Love is the overarching “ethic” of the Bible (Ex. 20:1-17; 1 Cor. 13:6).

Unintentional Allies

Why does it matter what I think about slavery (Ex. 21:20-21).

“Feminism was good to a point”

“Look at what my little girl can do?”

“Let people live their lives”

“At the heart of liberty is the right to define one’s own concept of existence, of meaning, of the universe, and of the mystery of human life.”

Conclusion

So we are in a place of massive confusion and we stand and shake our heads.

The world is reacting in all directions.

Few are calmly opening their Bibles and digging in deeper.

Here is where clarity is found.

There may be those here who are caught up in this swirl of confusion. Here is calm clarity for you as well.