Gender Clarity, Not Confusion

The Bible contains the foundational truths that contribute to an orderly, functioning society that honors God. Titus 2 has some principles for men and women as they seek to please the Lord:
1But as for you, speak the things which are proper for sound doctrine:2that the older men be sober, reverent, temperate, sound in faith, in love, in patience;3the older women likewise, that they be reverent in behavior, not slanderers, not given to much wine, teachers of good things--

The passage then highlights how older women are to mentor younger women and how young men are to be exhorted.

We admit that with regard to gender, God's way is best.  There is confusion in the culture about what it means to be a man and how a woman is supposed to act.  The Godly man is not called to be distant or dictatorial, and the Godly woman is not called to be militant nor abundantly mild.  And, there are people who reject their biological makeup, the way God made them, to pursue their own ideas of gender.   God can give us clarity on who He has made us to be as we are willing to embrace His truth.

From the very beginning, God began to introduce His plan for each gender, creating us male and female, each with unique purpose.  Consider the words of Genesis 1:
27So God created man in His own image; in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them.28Then God blessed them, and God said to them, "Be fruitful and multiply; fill the earth and subdue it; have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over every living thing that moves on the earth."

Many are familiar with the young lady who played Hermione Granger in the Harry Potter movies, perhaps less so for her role in the movie earlier this year loosely based on the Biblical story of Noah. Well, all of a sudden, Emma Watson has reappeared, speaking at a gathering of the United Nations last week on the topic of gender equality.  She's a spokesperson for the HeForShe campaign, which has a purpose of motivating men and boys to champion greater opportunities for women.

I've seen the following quote across the media, I think in part because it does fit the radical feminist agenda. It's quoted by Caroline Leal in a piece for the WORLD Magazine website.  Watson said, regarding the word, "feminism":

“Why is the word such an uncomfortable one?” she asked. “I am from Britain and I think it is right that as a woman I am paid the same as my male counterparts. I think it is right that I should be able to make decisions about my own body. … But sadly I can say that there is no one country in the world where all women can expect to receive these rights.”

But as Leal points out, "Watson’s comments about women’s rights have not gone unchallenged by everyone. PolitiChicks writer Julie Klose agrees with nearly all the beliefs that Watson espouses, with the exception of one: abortion."

Klose is quoted as saying, "As long as feminism embraces abortion as a right, I will not define myself with that word, despite the many aspects of it that I agree with...I am called to contribute to the equality of all mankind as how God planned it. Any campaign that supports the denial of rights to a future generation through abortion is truly not an advocate of all human rights.”

And, the feminism-abortion connection was also highlighted in an analysis of the speech by Ericka Anderson of The Daily Signal, who seized on another of Watson's lines in the speech: “My life is a sheer privilege because my parents didn’t love me less because I was born a daughter."

Anderson writes, "What she didn’t say is that many girls never get a chance to live because they are female. In fact, as many as 160+ million women aren’t alive today because they were killed in the womb or after birth for being girls."

"China is one of the worst offenders, with some provinces reporting a ratio of boys to girls of 130 to 100. Believe it or not, even in the United States, places like Planned Parenthood have advised clients on how to obtain an abortion if their baby is a girl and not a boy."

She went on to say, "Liberal feminists (yes, there are conservative ones as well) typically ignore gendercide because it hits too close to their abortion rights agenda. And to proclaim all children need fathers these days is politically incorrect."

That's right, Emma Watson also extolled the virtues of fatherhood, saying, "To date, I’ve seen my father’s role being valued less by society despite my needing his presence as a child as much as my mother’s." She also talked about how men are victims of inequality, too, “imprisoned by gender stereotypes” of aggression, macho-ness and control, as Anderson relates.

Watson said, “It is time that both men and women feel free to be sensitive. It is that time that both men and women feel free to be strong.”

You know, God has prescribed roles for men and women, and unfortunately, in the culture, self-proclaimed feminists have attempted to hijack what it means to be feminine, and to attach a "women's rights" component to it.  Men face their own set of stereotypes, too.  And, there's a whole subset of people who want to downplay the concept of gender as prescribed biologically - and Biblically.

Consider the words of Ken Ham of Answers in Genesis, who wrote recently in a blog post in response to a Washington Post story of someone who preferred not to be characterized by her gender, describing herself as "agender" or "non-binary":

This story highlights the continuing degradation of a culture that used to be based on biblical principles but has now gone adrift in a sea of everyone doing what is right in their own eyes (Judges 17:6). Instead of basing our definitions of masculinity and femininity on an absolute authority—the Bible—culture is by and large redefining male and female by what “feels most right to you.” If you have no absolute authority and being “genderless” feels right to you, why not go for it? And, of course, if you can arbitrarily change what gender means then the definition of marriage is also open to redefinition.

Ham writes, "But God has not left us adrift in regard to gender...," and goes on to say that, "Gender is not a social construct that confines us and can be arbitrarily changed based on our feelings—it is a God-ordained created order that has been present from the beginning but has been marred by sin (Genesis 3:16). Instead of trying to change ourselves into the opposite of who God created us to be, we should embrace our God-given gender."

"Sadly, we are now seeing more and more stories like Kelsey’s, but we need to remember to reach out to these individuals with the gospel of Jesus Christ and a message of the true design for men and women."

I believe that in a culture that has an abundance of ideas and philosophies that run counter to the Biblical pattern, we can demonstrate to the world healthy male and female roles and male-female relationships, based on who God has created us to be.  Following the prescriptions of His Word can help bring clarity in the confusion.