I saw a headline yesterday that made me want to both laugh at its absurdity and cry for the state of our civilization: Trans Male YouTuber’s New Complaint: Feminine Hygiene Products ‘Very Female Oriented’.
Is it just me, or does it feel like we have fallen down the rabbit hole and are now at the Mad Hatter’s tea party? Even 20 years ago could you credit that such a bizarre headline would ever be possible?
If you wonder how on earth we got to this place as a society and how to understand the philosophy that governs the path we’re on, the book “Love Thy Body” by Nancy R. Pearcy is a fanatastic resource. It is a well thought through, thoroughly researched and articulately presented exposition of liberal secularism – the philosophy that drives today’s western culture.
The author points out that what underpins all the moral touch points of the age – transgenderism, abortion, euthanasia, homosexuality and promiscuity – is the underlying belief that our bodies are somehow separate from our true selves and not really part of who we are. That they don’t define us, that they don’t have meaning in themselves and that what we do to them doesn’t affect the “essential” us.
In contrast, Pearcy argues, Christianity has a profoundly integrated view of personhood. Who we are inside and outside is one and the same. Our bodies are good, they are an essential part of us, they are part of what defines who we are and they, along with our spirits, are offered redemption and eternal life through the saving work of Jesus Christ on the cross. What we do to and with our bodies, according to Christianity, impacts our souls and has an eternal consequence.
Pearcy points out the absurdity of denying biology to such a profound degree that ‘human being’ is no longer synonymous with being a person. Once personhood is separated from our humanity, babies might be humans but not persons until some undefined and completely subjective point, which ultimately becomes determined by the state.
The state will also then get to decide when your personhood ends and your ‘quality of life’ is no longer worth sustaining into your old age.
If male and female are not determined by biology then what is their definition? If we are going to define truth not by objective, scientific means but by subjective feelings, what will be the end of such obvious self-deception?
What is the point of feminism if anyone can be female and men can take over women’s sports and fill female quotas? How do we fight to protect women and girls who are trafficked, raped and beaten up at much higher rates than men, if any man can claim to be one?
Trangenderism is in fact narrowing the definition of what it is to male or female, not giving those non-typical men and women freedom to be themselves. If you don’t fit a specific idea then you must be the other, instead of allowing a breadth and depth of difference within each biological sex. Why can’t you be a sensitive, slightly built, artistic man, without being a girl?
If children are taught to question the obvious truth of their own anatomy, how will they ever grow up integrated and secure? We are asking them to ‘choose a gender’ when we should be reaffirming the biological building blocks that God has given them on which to construct their identity.
And the result of turning the body into an instrument and severing it from the soul? (Also known as dualism, based on the ancient heresy of Gnosticism). Deeply unhappy, disorientated and unfulfilled people, who are turning to drugs, alcohol, self-harm, pornography and suicide in record numbers out of desperate hopelessness.
The good news of Christianity, unlike what any other philosophy or religion offers, is that although you are more than your body, your body IS you; you are an integrated whole. Your biology is important, your body was made with a purpose, it says something about who you are and form indicates function. You are an integrated, beloved creature, who was made with intention, whose life has meaning and value. Sex is not meaningless but sacred. What you do to yourself matters. You are an eternal soul but even your body is promised redemption and eternal life in Christ.
‘Love thy Body’ is engaging, relevant and informative, holding a mirror up to the madness of modern thinking and showing us a better way. As one reviewer stated “Pearcy takes us beyond the ‘thou shalt nots’ to show why God’s ways are best.” Find it online.