Gender Fluidity and Divine Design
Dr. Rex M. Rogers Gender fluidity is the cultural soup du jour.It's the latest craze that's morphed beyond political correctness to indisputable orthodoxy. Dissent is not permitted. If you ask questions, based upon common sense, biology, a few thousand years of human history, or even religious conviction, you're a bigot, a hater.
Proponents (especially activists) of gender fluidity believe biology is not destiny. In their view, biological sex is mutable, something "assigned" at birth. One's "real sex" is determined by one's feelings about gender, conveniently presented as an ever-lengthening spectrum of choices (some social media are offering 112 gender choices).
For proponents or activists, (most people struggling with gender dysphoria are not activists¹) there is a clear set or steps a person should pursue once they self-identify with a gender that does not align with their biological sex.
If your perceived gender does not align with your body parts, and a person struggles with gender dysphoria, then according to the new gender ideology, the way to proceed is to begin 1) a process of social transitioning, 2) a series of hormone treatments, and possibly or eventually for those declaring transgenderism 3) "gender confirming" sex change surgery.
This gender transition, we are told, liberates and makes the person whole. Except it does not.
Neither do any of the other hybrid gender identities ostensibly resulting from the newly declared fact of gender fluidity.
Gender Dysphoria
Let's reflect for a moment to make a few points abundantly clear.
Gender dysphoria "refers to the experience of having a psychological and emotional identity as either male or female...that...does not correspond to your biological sex—this perceived incongruity can be the source of deep and ongoing discomfort."² People who experience gender dysphoria often endure genuine painful depression, detachment, fear, anxiety, and distress.
Nothing in this article suggests gender dysphoria is not real, consequential, or concerning. Certainly, no perspective here suggests people struggling with gender dysphoria are crazy, weird, perverted, or otherwise undeserving of caring and kindness.
Gender dysphoria is not sinful.³ It is a feeling, some say rooted in mental disorder, some in emotional and psychological confusion, but gender dysphoria is just feelings, a subjective confusion, and only that unless acted upon.
People with discordant thoughts about sex and gender need compassion not condemnation. They need love, help, caring, and hope.
The subject of this piece is not the challenge of gender dysphoria per se, nor is it in any way a slander of people struggling with these feelings. Rather, this piece is about the possibility, rationality, and reality of gender fluidity and the ideology that has grown up supporting it.
That ideology is fast becoming a kind of orthodoxy activists are marketing with religious zeal. Corporations, academia and athletics, health and medicine, the military, and governments are climbing on the bandwagon, all in the name of inclusiveness and non-discrimination. Meanwhile, the promotion of the LGBTQ+ agenda including gender fluidity is on collision course with religious liberty.
Cellular Sexuality
Approximately 37.2 trillion cells comprise the adult human body. Yes, that's T for trillion, another incredible testimony of the omniscience and omnipotence of our Creator God.
"Each cell of the body contains a full set of chromosomes."
"Humans have 46 chromosomes in 23 pairs. We inherit 23 chromosomes from our mother and 23 chromosomes from our father. The chromosomes in the first 22 pairs are identical in a normal cell and they are the same in both genders. The 23rd pair is the sex chromosome and therefore determines the sex of the individual. This chromosome is either XX for female or XY for male."
"Whatever set of chromosomes a person has when they are born cannot be changed. This is because chromosomes are in all the cells that make up our bodies. To change a person's chromosomes would mean changing trillion of cells! There
aren't any technology (and probably won't be in the future) that can change a chromosome in all of a person's cells."
"While the condition of gender dysphoria (the persistent and painful identification with the gender opposite one's biological sex) is real and deserves sympathy, it does not erase the fact of biological sex. Human beings are male or female down to the level of their DNA, and males and females have different biochemistry even before they are born."
Let's restate this: XY or XX chromosomes are found in every cell with a nucleus in the human body.
Consequently, sex is not "assigned" at birth. It begins with conception and can be determined on ultrasounds prior to birth. Sex is literally hard-wired in the human design via the trillions of cells in the human body.
So, one's sexuality is deeper than anatomy, appearance, feelings, or expression.
Our sex is part and parcel of who we are, and it cannot be changed no matter what drugs or hormones we might take and no matter what surgical procedures, including extensive gender reassignment surgery, we might choose to endure.
Gender fluidity is therefore a matter of psychology, but it is not a matter of biology. Where does this leave us?
"What is the best way to help people with gender dysphoria manage their symptoms: by accepting their insistence that they are the opposite sex and supporting a surgical transition, or by encouraging them to recognize that their feelings are out of line with reality and learn how to identify with their bodies?"
Divine Design
Pursuing gender fluid lifestyles, especially those involving surgical treatment, does irreversible damage to the body and the soul.4
This is so because God created only two sexes, male and female. Both male and female were and are created in the image of God (Gen. 1: 27-28). Without male and female there is no human race. Male and female are equivalent in God's design, equally ultimate at the top of the created order.
Challenging, which is to say, rebelling against God's creation design is not simply a matter of sexual freedom. It's about identity, who we are and what the human race is about. We are in God's eyes male and female, but we are much more, for our sexuality is not the end-all be-all of our existence, and while our sex is enormously influential in our lives, it is not what defines us.
Pursuing any form of gender fluidity, a biological impossibility but a psychological expression of selfhood, arrogantly flies in the face of the Creator God's design and intended purpose for not simply our sexuality but for our lives and ultimate well-being, including "happiness."
Those who pursue gender fluid options make a choice to rebel against God's loving reality for them, whether they realize this or believe it. They choose unreality based upon the glorification of self, not God, which is sin, and the endgame offers nothing but travail, sadness, and self and social destruction.
But calling a human behavior or act "sin" is not the end of the story. It's not a shortcut, or should not be, to condemnation. And ironically, neither is it harsh or cruel.
Actually, if this truth is spoken in love according to the Scriptures, calling something "sin" provides hope, because it means there is a remedy. There is the possibility to redemption and reconciliation.
Conclusion
Being a man or woman is not our imagination, nor is it a pathology. It's woven into our divine design.
We learn theology from the revealed Word of God, not from feelings. We don't change our theological convictions because a beloved family member or friend chooses to pursue a gender fluid lifestyle.
Our Christian responsibility is to never capitulate but to resist and respond with truth to those who promote a gender fluid worldview and values contrary to God's revealed Word, to work to be salt and light in a culture chasing after the wind.
And for those struggling with gender dysphoria, our Christian responsibility is to share love, hope, and truth that can set them free.
Dr. Rex M. Rogers, President SAT-7 USA,
www.sat7usa.org, www.rexmrogers.com,
www.linkedin.com/in/rexmrogers/
1 Ryan T. Anderson, When Harry Became Sally: Responding to the Transgender Moment, NY: Encounter Books, 2019, p. 45.
2 Mark. A. Yarhouse, Understanding Gender Dypsphoria: Navigating Transgender Issues in a Changing Culture, Downers Grove, IL: IVP Academic, 2015, p. 19.
3 Andrew T. Walker, God and the Transgender Debate: What Does the Bible Actually Say About Gender Identity?Epsom, England: The Good Book Company, 2017, p. 67-68.
4 Abigail Shrier, Irreversible Damage: The Transgender Craze Seducing Our Daughters, Washington, DC: Regnery Publishing, 2020
