Sometimes I feel like I’m living outside the bubble of society, an observer peering in from “over there.” From this vantage point, I often find myself muttering, “Now wait a minute,” and “Hold on a sec.” And I know I’m not the only one.
I’m talking about the vast and rapid changes we’ve witnessed in past years, but specifically, the gender issues that have erupted.
So far, I haven’t spoken much about this publicly. And many of the others who dwell outside the bubble are likewise either too stunned to speak, still processing the rapid digression to form anything coherent, or simply afraid. Who wants to be called a name?
But I think it’s time those of us seeing things objectively, and I would say honestly and truthfully, stepped out of the shadows of introspection, and into the light, to share our thoughts, and shake one another out of the zombie-like state in which we’ve found ourselves.
This week has finally woken me up enough to say, Whoa Nellie! Or Ned, whichever the case may be.
First came this piece from a 47-year-old Jewish rabbi, claiming that Eve was the first “#metoo” victim, and God, the prime perpetrator. I first found it after reading this extrapolation of the essay by another Jewish writer, Ben Shapiro.
In its essence, the author, Tamara Kolton, is offering a brand-new exegesis on Genesis, suggesting that God had it out for women, and in fact, was first to trample upon them.
I’m not sure where to go from here in terms of the implications of this assessment, except a bewildered, “Huh?” I mean, if she were right, I could only recommend we scrap the whole God and religion thing altogether, because I’m not about to align myself with a divine abuser.
Only, she’s not right. Not even close. Her analysis only made clear to me that, as suspected, the bubble-dwellers are losing their grip on reality. It also seems quite clear that the voice breathing into her soul is not God, but his opposition. After all, God created us. The last thing God wants to do is hurt us. The first thing Satan wants to do is confuse and distract us.
But my “huhs” didn’t stop there. Check out this article about a “former” female pastor who has come out as a transitioning male, who, this weekend, will be renamed Peter.
I encourage you to review the video, and then ask yourself, “Is this a man I am seeing?” Promise you’ll be honest, please. Need help? I am willing to lead the way. Emphatically, I say, the person talking in the video, wearing the clerical collar, is a woman. I’m so glad I am no longer a mainstream journalist, because then I, too, would be forced to play along with the lie.
Remember, journalists are supposed to keep a check on truth, on what is false and what is not. Sad day, when we realize that’s an impossibility, lest they face being fired, or worse.
At the end of the piece here, the pastor is quoted as saying, “I am grateful to be in a congregation in part to be a bold witness to God’s mercy and grace.” Yes, our God is a merciful God, but he is not duped. I pray for mercy for her, and the grace to help her see truth soon.
Then on Twitter, I came across this Youtuber. Forget about the subject of the video itself. Watch just a bit of it, and tell me with every bit of honesty you can muster that you are watching a woman. If you do, I will have to call your bluff. Because no woman I’ve ever seen has an Adam’s apple like that. And unless “she” is experiencing either annoying or even debilitating menstrual cramps on a monthly basis, “she” doesn’t deserve to confiscate that label the rest of us real women have lived.
Understand, I see these people as victims. It is not my intent to make fun of them. I am calling all of this as straight as I possibly can. And I am doing so grounded in reality. I know the culture wants to sway me, but it won’t work. Though imperfect, I live in truth, and have a feeling you do, too. I pray that you will stay here with me. Because someone has got to remain firmly grounded right now.
Finally, and perhaps most importantly, and related to all this, I’d like to propose something that may seem radical, but is really just real. I heard it discussed on Catholic radio the other day and immediately recognized its truth. That being, though the culture would have us believe church and religion are the agents limiting gender variations, the true source of such limiting actually is….(drum roll…) the culture.
Think about it. A male teen begins to develop, and looks to the culture to see how a man is depicted. Looking in the mirror, he compares the cultural image to his own, and finds they don’t match up. He begins to question whether he was placed in the wrong body. The culture encourages this questioning, even offering to accompany him to the nearest clinic performing gender-altering surgeries to match interior feelings to exterior realities – based, again, on limited models of masculinity.
This same individual, had he allowed the church to present the confines of gender, would have found a much wider array of possibilities. “Wait, that’s not true,” a bubble-dweller might say. “Look at how the Bible limits gender!” But I say, look at your worldly options. They are the ones severely limited.
One does not need to be Superman to be truly and fully masculine. And if we’re discussing the definition of woman, one does not need to be Wonder Woman to be truly and fully feminine.
One can be close to either of those, or one can be a wide variety of other derivations of male and female, because in God’s eyes, there are as many variations of each gender as there are individuals. And yet God, in this way, is very simple. He created only two genders, as we’re reminded in Genesis 5:2: “Male and female he created them, and he blessed them…” Just two, but with all sorts of variations within.
The culture, on the other hand, is now turning to the false idea of a million different gender possibilities. A million different attractions. The variation now becomes not a blessing, but a curse.
It is the world, the culture – not the church – which has sown confusion, and brought heartache and ruin to many. This skewed ideology is, at its core, evil, and life-shattering.
How many lives will have to be destroyed before we wake up and see how beautifully God made us all, and that we don’t have to fit into the narrowly-defined confines of the culture to determine our value? We only have to look to God, who calls us each “Beloved.”
The bubble’s interior is one of chaos and madness. I don’t know how we can possibly prevent the ship from sinking at this point. What I do know is that I am determined to continue observing from the perch of reality, and not be drawn into the deception.
Earlier this week, I heard Fr. Mike Schmitz say in a podcast talk: “God cannot love what isn’t real.” God cannot be confused by a deceptive exterior. God sees through it all, and despite the mess we’ve made, he’ll continue loving us into truth.
We must pray for those who are confused, and those who sow confusion. May we pray, too, for each other, as we look from over here into the bubble, alarmed, but not deterred.
Truth will win. And yes, love will win, too, but only love based on truth.
Q4U: What about our culture today most confuses you? How have you dealt with this?
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