Boys in the Girls Locker Room

Since taking the oath of office, President Biden has signed a flurry of executive orders at an unprecedented rate from previous Presidents.

One that has raised concerns not only from Conservatives but Moderates and even some on the Left is the directive titled “Preventing and Combating Discrimination on the Basis of Gender Identity or Sexual Orientation.”

This order, writes Ramona Tausz in a New York Post article, “spells disaster for women’s shelters, sports and health care in the name of transgender equality.”

“For instance: Institutions that receive Title IX funding must allow biological males who identify as female to compete in women’s athletics.” Less our readers think the title of this post has overstated the directive, posted on the White House web site says, “Children should be able to learn without worrying about whether they will be denied access to the restroom, the locker room, or school sports.”

“Of course,” Tausz writes, “by asserting that ‘sex’ in Title IX includes ‘gender identity,’ the order not only denies reality and discriminates against biological women. It also effectively reverses Title IX, instituted to give female athletes a level playing field through female-only teams.”

While it ought to be obvious to anyone that biological males identifying as females are given an unfair advantage given the difference in bone density, muscle mass and lung capacity, our concern is not political, social or based on fairness in athletic competition. Our objections are moral and spiritual.

Theologian Albert Mohler, President of the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville KY, correctly observed that these policies are a push for “normalizing” transgenderism much like the efforts to transform cultural attitudes toward same-sex marriage.

Mohler pointed out in his recent podcast, The Briefing, that “normalizing” takes something that we once thought was “unthinkable” and “abnormal” and have turned it into something that is now considered normal.

But even beyond what is “normal,” what is right? And wrong? What is Truth? What does the Bible say about gender?

In the beginning God created the first pair “male and female.” He pronounced a blessing upon them and said, “Be fruitful and multiply.” (Gen 1:27-28). Later when Jesus was asked by the Pharisees a question relating to marriage, He responded this way.

“Have you not read that He who made them at the beginning ‘made them male and female,’ and said, ‘For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh’? So then, they are no longer two but one flesh. Therefore what God has joined together, let not man separate.” (Matt 19:4-6)

The Bible does not give us free rein to choose our sexual preferences and gender identity.

Our culture has taken something simple, and obvious and made it so complex and complicated that it goes beyond the absurd. Yet, “enlightened” educators, politicians, journalists, and sadly some church leaders, nod with some kind of knowing empathy that everyone is entitled to their own beliefs, feelings, behavior, and sexual identity or preference.

Our culture has lost its way. The real crisis today is a crisis of values. G. K. Chesterton was right when he wrote, “The danger when men stop believing in God is not that they’ll believe nothing; but that they will believe in anything.”

Part of the problem in dealing with issues of gender identity, same-sex marriage, and other disorders is overcoming the claim, “But, that’s just the way I feel. I can’t help it.”

There’s no question that it’s possible to develop inordinate feelings based on unfortunate circumstances, carnal influences, or childhood nurturing, or the lack thereof.

Without delving into the area of psychology or medical science for which we are not equipped or trained, it does seem that some people may have a genetic predisposition to certain types of feelings, urges or behavior. It is a timeless debate between the impact of “nature vs. nurture.”

Regardless of the reasons, the Bible acknowledges that certain things may seem or feel right, even when they are not (Prov. 14:12). God constantly warns us about being self-deceived (Jas. 1:16; 1 Cor. 6:19; Gal. 6:7).

The solution is not to seek our gender identity, but to seek God. To desire spiritual communion with Him. To accept who He created us to be. And to celebrate our unique, distinct God-given roles. Male or female.

–Ken Weliever, The Preacherman