Painting a Picture of Society
The story of Bruce Jenner has got a lot of us talking. In my opinion, it paints a picture of a popular culture that is self-absorbed and flirting with a promise of freedom that cannot deliver. In fact it has never delivered. Popular culture's narcissism to try and fix herself has brought other complications that her proponents had never thought about. The sexual revolution of past decades brought in other issues with which some remain oblivious of while others try to cure (STI's, teen pregnancy, emotional consequences etc). In an article in Psychology Today "The architects of the Sexual Revolution intended to unleash the evolutionary energies of sex and love in service of human liberation. Instead, attempts at sexual revolution have been repeatedly sidetracked, hijacked, and eventually derailed by a combination of greed, lust, and immaturity." When we speak of these issues of sex, freedom, conservatism and liberty, many times we address the symptoms and not the root cause: The fact that human nature is depraved. In trying to process the current debates around the issue of sex reassignment and definition of sexual identity, I can't help but see the depravity of man (from here on meaning man or woman i.e. humanity). A solution to this depravity is not to encourage freedom to do anything, but freedom to be who we were meant to be as imagers of God.
Portraits of Evidence
Empirical evidence proves this point. I read an article by a John Hopkin's Distinguished Professor of Psychiatry at the first things blog who tries to explain why the world renowned centre of Medicine took a different turn to the 1970's emergence of sex-change surgery. He bases his arguments upon the follow-up of males who had undergone sex-change to show that the procedure had not diagnosed the underlying psychological disorders that these patients had. It is interesting from the research documented, in the article from Hopkins as well as the Clark Institute of Psychiatry Toronto, to note the groupings of the mental disorders into two according to this demographic: " One group consisted of conflicted and guilt-ridden homosexual men who saw a sex-change as a way to resolve their conflicts over homosexuality by allowing them to behave sexually as females with men." and the other group "consisted of heterosexual (and some bisexual) males who found intense sexual arousal in cross-dressing as females."
Here then we see that the argument for homosexuality and transsexualism is underpinned by an underlying disorder: That man is depraved save for the restoration that can come through Jesus Christ. No wonder then that Jesus' ministry to the world is centred upon His words in Luke 4:18 "The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to set the oppressed free." Nuriddeen Knight in her article observes the "enslaving freedom" of popular culture well: "Paradoxically, the more our society tries to free itself from gender stereotypes, the more it becomes enslaved to them." True freedom lies not in redefining life-flourishing presuppositions but in accepting the gracious offer of freedom from the slavery of our life-diminishing perspectives, ways of living and relating. In the same parallel article, Nuriddeen draws an analogy to the reaction that her parents would give her if she was to one day decide that she wants to be a white girl. In her words, "If I had gone to my parents begging them to be white, I think they might have laughed, cried, comforted me, and worried what they did wrong as parents. But what if I had told them not only that I wanted to be white but that I actually was white? What if I had declared that the race of my body simply didn't match that of my mind? I think they would've been deeply troubled."[1]
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| Narcissus by Caravaggio depicts Narcissus gazing at his own reflection. |
Pursuing Truth, Freedom and Love
Can't we see that our culture is troubled? When we start changing the rudimentary fabric of humanity by basing gender on culturally conditioned experiences, we see that human beings in their depravity will try to change even the very nature of things to suit their dispositions. The idea of complementary maleness and femaleness is meant to image God. The idea that God created male and female has implications on life itself, literally through offspring, as well as the institution of marriage. Hence arguments for transsexualism directly bear on God's design for the world and his purpose. This teleos is meant to bring everything to its proper end. When we try to define things our own way, then the ripple effects of the consequences we have to deal with become a tough pill to swallow. For instance, the effects that redefining marriage has brought on broken relationships, disenfranchised children and the confusion on familial order, just to name a few.
Man is depraved save for Jesus Christ. From the comments of the "open-minded," this seems to be elusive. They base their freedom of rights on emotional appeals. Can't we just let them be? A simplistic and non-critical framework such as this paints a picture of a people, a society, a culture that is askance towards ethical imperatives. Contemporary popular culture may be blessed with technological advancements and other socio-economic and political gains, but her ethical fibre is seriously wanting. What may be known about God and His righteousness is plain for all people in the world yet they have suppressed this truth through their depravity (Romans 1:18-32). Even the very essential nature of man and woman is disproved, based on the ideal of freedom to do what we want. No matter how much one may suppress truth, one can never ignore it. It is this malaise of our culture which instead of pursuing Truth, (true) Freedom and Love, ignites our self-absorption anchored upon the depraved image of our society. Like the story of Narcissus, we face dying out of the frustration of not devouring our beauty in the water.
The mirror of society clearly depicts a world that is wounded. Any rebuttal for defining reality, life and beauty based on the reflected image can only birth wounded-ness. Moving from our self-absorption, we need to be absorbed by the Great Physican who can bring true holistic, healing. Some may say, "but you are not being loving to others." Far from love being feeble and weak, true love is scandalous: More than assuaging our own intellectual, moral and emotional leanings, love even transforms them. This type of love even dies for her enemies (Rom. 5:7-9). It is this compassionate love that at times unsettles us that we all need for a clear perspective on issues.
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Postscript from Dad
My father replied this on a Facebook post, which I think is a succinct summary of hope:
Postscript from Dad
My father replied this on a Facebook post, which I think is a succinct summary of hope:
That is precisely why Jesus came: to deliver people like Bruce Jenner and us from our domains of sinful darkness (Colossians 1:13) and our failing, disordered bodies, and give us glorious, powerful, disorder-free resurrection bodies (1 Corinthians 15:42–44). “Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord,” there is a greater hope than gender identity can provide (Romans 7:25). It is Jesus’s truth that sets all of us free (John 8:32)." Jenner professes to be a Christian. Whatever that means, he at least may have potential openness to biblical truth. Let us pray that the truth of the gospel will set him free (John 8:32), knowing how much Jesus loves to redeem and restore sin-broken people. Let us pray for Jenner, that God will send to him one or two who will speak the truth of the gospel with Christ-like love and that he will have ears to hear. Jenner’s hope is that “as soon as the Vanity Fair cover comes out, I'm free.” But we know he will not be free. After some period of euphoric relief, he will find that he is still a “wretched man” who needs to be delivered from his body of death (Romans 7:24).
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[1] Nuriddeen Knight, “An African-American Woman Reflects on the Transgender Movement,“ in Public Discourse Accessed June 2015, http://www.thepublicdiscourse.com/2015/06/15108/
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