Equipping Dinner: Gender Ideology

The purpose of these equip dinners is to inform and instruct you on the challenges facing our culture

Jesus said that those who endure to the end will be saved

Our role as a church is to equip the saints

2 Timothy 3:16–17 ESV

All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work.

This equipping enables you to engage the community in a loving way

Tonight I want to equip you with an understanding of something called Gender Ideology

A couple of years ago I would’ve called this the Homosexual agenda

It has evolved because the transgender movement has exploded on to the scene

When I say transgender I do not mean cross-dressing men

Gender Dysphoria: the psychological condition where a person feels like their personal identity does not match their anatomical sex

There is a strong push in our culture to agree with the transgendered movement that when one’s gender, defined as their feelings of being male or female, conflicts with the biological markers of maleness or femaleness

Transgenderism argues that our internal sense of self is what makes us men or women.

This has brought on what is called the Gender Ideology

Gender Ideology says that gender is a social construct

Gender: the sense of masculine or feminine tendencies person senses

They’ve separated gender from biology and you determine what your gender is by your feelings

Ideology: a system of ideas and ideals, especially one which forms the basis of economic or political theory and policy

There is a new gender ideology that is pressing hard in our country

It’s taking gender which has been understood as man and woman since the beginning of time and turning it on its ear

Tonight I was to define markers of this movement and show you how to discuss it and minister to those caught in it

It is impacting every area of our lives and has caught everyone off guard because new administration is militant about pushing

Examples of Ideology

Dave Chapelle’s Netflix special set off a firestorm last fall when he claimed there is only two genders

Netflix is the most liberal company in the country and it’s LGBTQ community erupted in protest

Chapelle’s response? Well, I can’t tell you

In October US government had Intl Pronoun day

Several videos surfaced showing Disney execs purposely targeting preschoolers with trans agenda in their cartoons

In Tennessee a Teacher told young students that Doctors don’t know the gender of a baby when it is born, they just guess

School districts in the state of Washington prevent teachers from telling parents if their child is transitioning because they fear for the child’s safety

Hollywood has mandated that 40% of writers be minorities which includes sexual orientation

This is why Gay couples in every movie, TV show, & commercial when only 5% of population

Homosexuality is exploding in young people

Gay vs. Same sex attraction

We want to differentiate between the aggressive LBGTQ+ Movement and those who identify with it and those individuals who struggle with personal issues of gender, identity and same sex attraction.

LBGTQ is a worldview or lense people see the world thru

They interpret everything through their sexuality

Same sex attraction is being attracted to someone of the same gender

History of Gender

Throughout most of human history, however, gender meant being male or female.

There was no distinction made between one’s biological sex and one’s gender.

It wasn’t until 1963 that gender began to refer to social constructs that differed from biological sex.

Social Construct: a tradition or law that society has made to dictate behavior

This new definition was used by Feminists Kate Millet and Simone de Beauvoir, to miscategorize gender as the cultural manifestation of biology.

Feminists argued that patriarchal society contrived gender roles merely to degrade women, thereby rejecting the biblical understanding that God created man and woman from a godly pattern for a creational purpose.

Transgenderism emerged from this feminist political rejection of the creation ordinance that says God made human beings male and female, so their biological sex and not their internal feelings determines their maleness or femaleness.

Transgenderism argues that our internal sense of self is what makes us men or women.

Gender ideology was first presented as a human right movement

It was about giving homosexuals equal rights

About 8 years ago it became apparent that they were never going to be satisfied and battle lines were drawn

Vocabulary

Pronouns

Pronouns: The use of He/Him She/Her orThey/Them to indicate your gender because you can’t tell that from the outside

Using the correct name, pronouns, and gender to refer to someone show that you support them and know that their identity is valid. At its core, it’s about showing basic respect to other human beings. Demonstrating this basic respect can be beneficial in lots of ways.

Demi Lovato came out as Non-binary and preferred to be called “they” which is the most common gender neutral pronoun

Binary/ Non-Binary

Binary: Gender binary is the classification of gender into two distinct, opposite forms of masculine and feminine

Non-Binary: You don’t feel comfortable on either gender binary. You don’t want to be seen as a man, you don’t want to be seen as woman.

Transgender

denoting or relating to a person whose sense of personal identity and gender does not correspond with their birth sex.

This word combines two older words. The first is “trans,” which is derived from part of a Latin verb that means to bring across or over, to transfer, to cause to cross, to extend across, or to convert.

The second is “gender,” which derives from the French word for genre and the Latin word for genus, meaning kind, sort, or class.

“Transgendered” became “transgender” after 2015 to indicate the new idea: that transgenderism something that is true of a person’s very essence.

Grooming

Grooming: is the manipulative tactics used by grade school to convince children they are transgender

This happens through books and videos, changing of bathroom signs, and demanding the use of pronouns

The more confusion they can produce the higher the likelihood the child will choose transgender

Gender wars

The transgender movement has declared war on three areas of life

Attack on heterosexuality

Have you been made to feel like the whole world is turning gay?

To be straight almost seems like a crime

That is on purpose

In an attempt to make them feel more secure in their lifestyle they want to make you feel guilty about yours

Sin always rebels against God’s design

Cisgender: a person whose sense of personal identity and gender corresponds with their birth sex.

Biblical view on Gender & Sex

Genesis 1:27 ESV

So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them.

Nothing else in all creation, spiritual and material, is declared to be in God’s image.

To be human means to be unique by virtue of bearing His image.

So, under its origin, identity isn’t self-invented; it’s assigned.

Attack on the family

The next battlefield is on the family

A healthy family is an attack on the Transgender movement because it won’t produce more transgender people, but it is also a stark contrast and reminder to their lifestyle

School districts are actively grooming children and excluding parents

Some children are being persuaded by school staff, including guidance counselors, that they are truly “transgender.”

For example, one girl said that because she likes doing some “boys” things like fishing, she was told that probably she really is a boy.

They are producing confusion which the parents have to deal with

Teachers are being bold in saying that they know what is best for the kids because they spend the most time with them

Parents are left with a child that is damaged after they finish

Attack on the Church

The final battlefield is on the church

The final attack we will look at tonight is on the church

The church is one of the last bastions that will stand for God’s design and against sin

Although that is quickly shrinking

The government, media, corporations, and education institutions want to restrict the influence of the church

Some countries have arrested or put on trial people who have held to the biblical view on gender and marriage

There is a former legislator in Norway who is on trial for coming out and saying that homosexuality is a sin

She is a devout Christian and very few are standing behind her

How to Minister to a Homosexual

The dilemma confronting the Evangelical Church today is how to oppose the destructive measures advocated by the LGBTQ+ Movement seeking to normalize life-destroying perversion while at the same time holding forth The Gospel in a winsome way to those struggling with their gender identity.

Minister to the person, not the movement

The LGBTQ movement is about activism. most of which is directly opposed to Jesus, the Bible, and the church

The solution is to acknowledge not everyone struggling with gender identity is an enemy.

Whatever their current condition, God loves them and wants them to be saved.

Frankly, their identifying as “trans” is just one of a whole inventory of sins God wants to deliver them from. It’s likely not even the worst.

As significant as gender confusion seems, pride is a far more egregious error.

Know the Truth

God defines what it means to be human.

That is not something we can alter or edit.

And being human means being male or female.

Gender is attached to the unalterable nature of what it means to be human.

Just as our identity as humans is fixed, so is our gender.

If the Devil can twist gender into something other than what God intends, he’s advanced his goal.

This is why the Law of Moses forbade the blurring of gender distinctives.

Deuteronomy 22:5 ESV

“A woman shall not wear a man’s garment, nor shall a man put on a woman’s cloak, for whoever does these things is an abomination to the Lord your God.

Acts 2 sets the pattern for the Bible's call that sinners repent and believe to be saved.

Call to Repentance

Salvation follows on turning from (repenting) unbelief to faith in Jesus.

That first repentance then issues us into a life of ongoing and progressive repentance from thoughts, affections, and actions that fail to align with God.

Recognize the Root

Transgenderism, from the perspective of Scripture, is related to the sin of envy.

Specifically, transgenderism is, at root, sinful envy of the sexual anatomy of another.

Proverbs 27:3–4 (ESV)

A stone is heavy, and sand is weighty, but a fool’s provocation is heavier than both. Wrath is cruel, anger is overwhelming, but who can stand before jealousy?

Envy, biblically speaking, is an obsession, a driving passion that insatiably drives a person to desire another’s gifts, possessions, achievement—or sexual anatomy.

Proverbs 14:30 ESV

A tranquil heart gives life to the flesh, but envy makes the bones rot.

In other words, if we do not deal with the sin of envy in its infantile stage, it will devour us. Envy will eat us from the inside out.

Only repentance can cure envy

When a person repents of envy it is replaced with contentment

Contentment is being satisfied with what God has given you and trust His process

Have the Hard conversations

You can love the person and still not accept their sin

You don’t hate them if you don’t agree

The result may be sitting across the table and coming to the understanding that one of you is going to hell

Resources

3 people to follow

Sam Allberry

Author: “Is God Anti-Gay?”

Priest in the Church of England

Coined term Same-sex attraction

Christopher Yuan

Author: “Out of a Far Country”

Professor at Moody College

Rosario Butterfield

Author: The Secret Thoughts of an Unlikely Convert

Former Professor of English & Queer Theory at Syracuse

Gay activist until conversion in 90”s

This runs counter to the current fashion of “gender fluidity” that divorces gender from biology.

A Biblical perspective on what God intends a man to be and a woman to be would bring a better grasp on Who God is since it yields a clearer picture of God’s image in human beings.

The devil doesn’t want us to know what God is really like because God is so gloriously attractive; it would draw us to Him.

So it has ever been the devil’s plan to distort our understanding of God.

The principle behind that is repeated in the New Testament when in 1 Corinthians 11:4-16, the Apostle Paul gives instructions on head coverings.

Using a custom specific to the culture of First Century Corinth, Paul makes clear that men and women ought to use culturally relevant idioms denoting their gender.

In other words, followers of Jesus ought not to adopt fashions that would confuse an observer on what gender they were.

Men ought to dress and behave in a manner consistent with being a male while women do likewise as females.

That Paul uses the culturally-relevant custom of head coverings as a manifestation of gender-differentiation means being sensitive to how a given time and place identifies men and women.

The more important principle is not to confuse genders. Men are to dress and act like men, women as women.

In sharing The Gospel with sinners of all stripes, we need to clarify that what they are being saved from is sin and that walking with God means forsaking all that which dishonors Him.

If someone balks at that, they aren’t in the right place to put genuine faith in Christ.

The point here is this – Let’s not make a special case for the transgender we wouldn’t make for the flannel-shirted lumberjack who likes porn.

Both need to understand giving themselves to Jesus means giving Him the right to call the shots on where they go on the internet and what gender they identify as.