Rebellion Loves Company

I will be honest with you and tell you I really don't want to write this blog.  It has been causing me some sleepless nights in prayer.  To be truthful, it would be so much easier to ignore it (if I could) and go blithely on like it wasn't even happening, but alas, I have come to the point that as the great reformer Martin Luther said, "...to go against conscience is neither right nor safe.  Here I stand, I can do no other, so help me God."  So here goes...

The other day as I was scrolling through Facebook, I noticed several photos of a woman who appeared rather photoshopped, but she was gracing the cover of Vanity Fair.  On further inspection I realized "she" was actually Bruce Jenner, now known as Caitlyn Jenner.  You would have to live in a vacuum not to know what has been happening in this country over the last 5 years regarding "gender neutrality" and the transgender movement, but this entire photo spread was put out there by many credible news agencies for all the world to see.  Something they seemed to be screaming from the rooftops, "Look, here is the new normal!  Come celebrate this man's multiple gender changing plastic surgeries, injection of chemicals, and schizophrenic use of referring to himself in the third person with us!"  Just reading an excerpt of this article you find out he has contemplated suicide since making this decision to change his identity.  Sadly enough, one of Bruce's estranged sons even said, "I have high hopes that Caitlyn is a better person than Bruce."

It made me ponder, why would the media and many people want to celebrate a man who is obviously confused and disturbed?  Why do people want to tell a man who admittedly never was a very good father to his kids or husband to his wife, "You are courageous" with the ESPN Courage Award? Why is gender mutilation applauded by the masses?  Some people seem to think that changing your gender is your free choice, much like the "It's my body and I should be able to do what I want with it" party line of pro-choice activists and not a sin at all.  But then you would have to deny the truth found in scripture from Genesis 1:27 "So God created man in His own image; in the image of God He created them; male and female He created them."  One physician from Johns Hopkins, Dr. Paul McHugh, said, "The transgendered person's disorder is in the person's "assumption" that they are different than the physical reality of their body, their maleness or femaleness...  It is a disorder similar to a "dangerously thin" person suffering anorexia who looks in the mirror and thinks they are overweight."

What the people who celebrate the destruction of someone's life are doing really comes down to rebellion.  What authority is governing people's lives?  When it is human invention, the end is always destruction.  Just ask Bruce Jenner in a few months when all the attention and fame goes away, will he really feel healed and whole now?  I doubt it.  But when we chose God's design for humanity, the end is eternal life.  The biggest mistake I see coming out of many churches today is that they cannot separate love from acceptance.  The scripture clearly says we are to love the sinner, but nowhere in the Bible does it say we are to accept the sin.  Jesus himself confronted sin and hypocrisy.  He told people to "go and sin no more."  The lie from Satan in the American Church is that love does not require repentance or sacrifice.  Perhaps the most distressing aspect of this is how our children are

now being pulled into this debate.  I read an editorial from a small college newspaper that was celebrating the addition of gender neutral bathrooms stating, "Students should not have to identify in order to be easily accommodated, and that's the way it is at Western."  Even Canada is beginning to teach an aggressive sex-ed curriculum to it's students.  Starting in third grade their curriculum introduces to children the idea that gender is fluid, that little boys can decide to be girls, or vice versa. (from Same-sex "Marriage" and the Persecution of Christians in Canada by Lea Singh)  Right now the Human Rights Tribunal in British Columbia is reviewing the case to remove identification of sex on birth certificates because critics say it it discriminatory for doctors to assign a baby's sex "based on a quick inspection of the ...genitals at birth." Nevermind the fact that most everyone is born with either 2-X chromosomes, or 1-X and 1-Y chromosome (less than 0.2% are born XXY), but somehow it is discriminatory to call the baby with xy a boy and the baby with xx a girl.  And before someone thinks this wouldn't occur here in the US, look no further than the Fairfax County Public School System which is considering a new sex-education curriculum for 7-12 graders stating that there is no such thing as "100% girls or 100% boys" but that instead that there is a broader, boundless, and fluid spectrum of sexuality that is developed throughout a lifetime.  (Fox News- Parents furious over school's plan to teach gender spectrum, fluidity by Todd Starnes).

This all reminds me of what was prophesied in Isaiah 5:20-21 "Woe to those who call evil good, and good evil; Who substitute darkness for light and light for darkness; Who substitute bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter!  Woe to those who are wise in their own eyes and clever in their own sight!"  Just as Satan was not content to rebell alone but also brought a third of the angels with him, these people who seek to pervert the truth will take everyone they can with them, especially the low hanging fruit of the mentally and emotionally disturbed.

So how do we respond to this shift in culture?  First and foremost we must not be deceived.  As Galatians 6:7 states, "Do not be deceived: God cannot be mocked, for whatever one sows, that will he also reap.  For the one who sows to his own flesh will from the flesh reap corruption, but the one who sows to the Spirit will from the Spirit reap eternal life."  Knowing that Paul said that the desires of the flesh are against the Spirit, and the desires of the Spirit are against the flesh, we must be vigilant through reading God's Word and in prayer to be sensitive to what the Spirit is telling us so that we can know right from wrong.  Secondly, we must obey God rather than man.  Many times this means that we will be hated by the world, even when we speak the truth in love. Jesus himself said, "If the world hates you, keep in mind that it hated me first.  If you belonged to the world, it would love you as it's own.  As it is, you do not belong to the world, but I have chosen you out of the world. That is why the world hates you." (John 15:18-19).  Lastly, and most importantly, we must pray. Pray that as John 8:32 says, people might know the truth and the truth will set them free.  Only Jesus Christ can change a rebellious heart.