16 I say then: Walk in the Spirit, and you shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh.
17 For the flesh lusts against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh; and these are contrary to one another, so that you do not do the things that you wish.
The chapter includes a listing of works of the flesh, as well as the fruit of the Spirit. We have to recognize our own vulnerabilities as believers in Christ. There are areas in which the enemy will tempt us, and it is important that we are alert, girded up with the power of the Holy Spirit and with the full armor of God. We have the tools to resist temptation, and we can, through God's direction, learn to recognize it when it comes. We have to reject bad, sinful ideas and not buy in to the delusion of the enemy.
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It's really not surprising that there is a prevalence of sinful ideas that are corrupting the hearts and minds of individuals. 1st Timothy chapter 4 tells us to expect that:
1 Now the Spirit expressly says that in latter times some will depart from the faith, giving heed to deceiving spirits and doctrines of demons,
2 speaking lies in hypocrisy, having their own conscience seared with a hot iron...
Another characteristic in the "genderverse," where men try to become women and vice versa, and men marry men and women marry women, is this whole business of gender pronouns.
There's even a poll out of Harvard, reported on by The Christian Post, that gauges Americans' viewpoints on the practice of using pronouns corresponding to the gender identity of individuals who do not identify by their biological sex. Turns out, a significant percentage of Americans reject that practice. The Post reported:
Researchers with Harvard's Center for American Political Studies and Harris Poll conducted a survey in May that asked over 1,900 registered voters whether children should be able to choose between using “he,” “she” or “they,” or whether they should be addressed by their sex.
Nearly six out of 10 respondents (59%) said children should be "called by their sex."
Forty-one percent of respondents believe "Kids should be able to pick their pronouns."
Likewise, the survey found that...
...A solid majority — 60% — said they believe preferred pronouns are an “excessive measure that does more to confuse kids about their sex." The other 40% believe using pronouns preferred by children “prevents discrimination.”
The Christian Post story also highlighted legal challenges in the education sector, one of the most recent being a case out of Kansas, where...
...U.S. District Judge Holly Teeter partially granted a preliminary injunction on behalf of Fort Riley Middle School teacher Pamela Ricard preventing Geary County Schools Unified School District 475 from disciplining her for not referring to a student’s preferred name and pronouns in her communications with a trans-identified student’s parents "within the regular course of her duties."
Another teacher, Tanner Cross, out of Loudoun County, Virginia, believed that using gender identity pronouns was lying to a student. Glenn Stanton of Focus on the Family used his quote in an article at The Federalist:
I love all of my students, but I will never lie to them regardless of the consequences. I’m a teacher but I serve God first and I will not affirm that a biological boy can be a girl and vice versa because it’s against my religion. It’s lying to a child, it’s abuse to a child, and it’s sinning against our God.
Stanton writes:
Cross is correct. Christianity and Judaism both hold from page one that God lovingly creates each of us in His image and likeness as male and female. It is specifically and singularly our human male and femaleness that show forth the image of God in the visible world.
Thus, our bodies make a very profound statement and God certainly does not tell us lies about ourselves through our bodies, as transgender ideology suggests. In fact, it’s just the opposite, and our bodies speak a profound truth about us.
He also states:
For reasons still not fully understood, 75 to 90 percent of children struggling with gender dysphoria at young ages revert to identifying with their natural sex and gender by puberty. This is also supported in a careful 2020 re-evaluation of the Dutch approach published in the journal European Child & Adolescent Psychiatry explaining, “In a majority of the cases, the adolescents themselves ended the (transitioning) process due to a discontinued wish for medical treatment.”Christian believers are called to walk in reality, not the whims of culture in the "genderverse." And, we are called to speak truth. Now, we are also called to speak that truth in love, so we have to make sure that we are couching our refusal to play along in a compassionate manner, which can be challenging - seems it would be easier to go along with the crowd, but it's not speaking truth.
So when all the adults around such children have “affirmed” their dysphoria by cooperating with name, clothing, pronoun, and other identity changes, it can be exceedingly difficult for the child to revert to their natal sex identity as they desire.
We have to reject playing along with sinful, destructive ideas, whether its in the area of sexuality or other areas in which we may be vulnerable. We have to stay grounded in the truth of God's word and have our feet firmly planted in reality. And, we should stand ready to minister to those who have been deceived while we discern the deceptive ideas that are so prevalent.
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