I saw an episode of a tv show hard at work selling the narrative of the new sexual revolution–or, rather, what is fast becoming the new sexual despotism. A young girl was dealing with gender dysphoria, convinced that she was really a boy. But her mother would not affirm this desire that she be treated as a boy. This caused a rupture in their relationship, until eventually her mother had an epiphany and realized that her daughter really was a boy. The beautiful reunion came, and full of emotion the mother lied to her daughter, and affirmed her as a boy.
That’s one side of the narrative: affirmation of the claim that gender is separable and sometimes different from biology. This is love.
But the story continued. The mother could not really handle this change, and reacted by suddenly packing everything up and completely abandoning her daughter.
That’s the other side: people can’t offer this love and acceptance, and reject their child or friend.
Of course, an unbiased logician might look at this narrative and wonder if at least one option for how the situation should play out isn’t being ignored…suspiciously ignored. And a Christian must insist that this neglected option is, in fact, the only option conducive to human flourishing.
What if we didn’t have to choose between truth and love?
What if the mother had stood firm on the truth, and refused to affirm her daughter’s conviction that she was really a boy? And-shocking!-what if she had also refused to reject her daughter, but had continued to offer to her love and acceptance as her child?
This is the option that would be crippling to the message of the show for them to admit. They are selling the story that rejection of transgenderism and hatred go hand-in-hand. Loving refusal to affirm transgender identity doesn’t fit in their narrative. And, as I said, it is the only option conducive to human flourishing. For just as surely as the mother’s rejection of her daughter because of this struggle would be destructive to that daughter’s emotional well-being, likewise affirming the lie that her daughter was a boy would be destructive to that daughters emotional and spiritual well-being. How could it not? How could confirming someone in a lie lead to wholeness?
But whatever our struggles, Christ can make us whole if we come to Him and rely on Him to give us identity. We must model this truth, and the love of Christ by which we come to know the truth.
