Gender Revolution

National Geographic magazine is ushering in the new year with a special issue devoted entirely to “Gender Revolution” (link). Although this may be hard to read, it is necessary to know what is taking place in the rapidly-changing world in which we live.

One of the two “historic” covers has a picture of a boy with pink clothes and long, pink hair who identifies as a girl. He is quoted as saying “The best thing about being a girl is, now I don’t have to pretend to be a boy.” On the other cover is a group of teenagers who identify themselves as “bi-gender,” “androgynous,” “intersex nonbinary,” and other of the multitude of new categories that have been created.

As the covers indicate, the issue is especially focused on the place of children in the gender revolution. There is even a discussion guide for parents and teachers to use in working through these issues with their children (link).

Throughout the issue there are pictures and stories of transgender children—boys who want to be girls, and girls who want to be boys; children who aren’t quite sure what they want to be, and children who are quite sure they don’t want to be put into any category. Some are receiving “puberty suppressants.” Others are undergoing “sex-reassignment surgeries.” Boys are having genitalia removed. Girls are removing their breasts and doing what they can to eliminate menstrual cycles.

According to the revolutionaries, the whole “gender identity” topic is a “shifting landscape.” Happily, children are being “freed” from the oppressive “binary of boy and girl.”

National Geographic is correct in labeling this a “revolution.” By definition, a revolution is a conscious, concerted effort to overthrow an established order. The established order is the division of the sexes into male and female. The radical revolution is trying to overthrow this basic distinction.

This gender revolution follows hard on the heels of the sexual revolution, with its “victory” in the landmark Obergefell v. Hodges decision by the U.S. Supreme Court. With the sexual revolution, the revolutionaries are trying (and apparently succeeding) to overthrow the established order of marriage as one man with one woman.

The new revolution refuses to accept that our gender is defined by our physical anatomy. Gender is rather a social construct, one which in the past has been largely shaped by a bunch of misogynistic pigs. Now there is freedom from those outdated ideas. A child’s gender is based on their feelings. If their feelings tell them they are a boy, then that’s what they should be, no matter that they have the physical anatomy of a girl. In fact, they have every right to mutilate their body through pills and surgeries to match their feelings.

In the end, what this revolution seeks to overthrow is the established order of God. On the sixth day of creation, God made mankind, the pinnacle of his creation. Gen. 1:27 says, “Male and female created he them.” He made a male out of the dust of the ground (Gen. 2:7), and he made a female out of the rib of the male (Gen. 2:20-23). They were the same in that they were both humans, but they were different in very obvious, anatomical ways. This is the basic division of the human race that God ordained for all time.

The gender revolution seeks to overthrow this most basic distinction that God has made.  This is the spirit of the Antichrist, who seeks “to change times and laws” (Dan. 7:25).

Parents who allow their children to choose what gender they would like to be based on their feelings are hardly fit to be called parents. Foolishness is bound in the heart of every child (Prov. 22:15). Every child has sinful thoughts and desires. But it is not the calling of parents to allow the child to indulge those lusts. The parent must instruct and correct the child, even when this upsets the child and brings him to tears. “Let not thy soul spare for his crying” (Prov. 19:18). But the parent who leaves his child to himself to do whatever he wants will be brought to shame (Prov. 29:15).

This is not to deny that there may be difficult situations that parents face with regard to the gender of their children. There is evidence in rare instances of chromosomal issues and ambiguous body parts among children. We live not in paradise, but in a world under the curse. In those situations parents—with the combined wisdom of a multitude of counselors—ought not be guided by personal choice but should seek to determine as best they can the God-given gender of their child.

Aside from these very rare cases, the matter is clear-cut.

Will we honor the god of self with the attitude, “I will do what I want because this is how I feel”? And in so doing will we cave to the lawless, Antichristian spirit of the age?

Or will we honor the wise Creator and his handiwork in our bodies? And in so doing oppose with might and main the “gender revolution” afoot?

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This post was written by Rev. Joshua Engelsma, pastor of Doon Protestant Reformed Church in Doon, Iowa. If you have a question or comment for Rev. Engelsma, please do so in the comment section.