There are moments when, as I read the news, I cannot help but to wonder what the founders of this nation would think about the direction our nation has taken. A recent decision made by the US Department of Education causes me to think they would not recognize the nation they established just slightly more than 200 years ago. At a high school in Illinois, a boy who identifies as a girl (yet who is still anatomically male) has been allowed to participate on the girls’ sports teams but has been provided with a private area for changing and showering. Enlisting the help of the ACLU, however, this young man has appealed, demanding that he be allowed full access to the girls’ changing and showering facilities. Remarkably, the Department of Education has ruled in favor of the young man, informing the school that it is in violation of Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972 (the gender equity law for education). Since violation of Title IX jeopardizes the school’s federal funding (and could even result in criminal charges against the administration), how the school will respond remains uncertain. Up to this point, the school had argued it was in compliance with Title IX by allowing the boy to play on the girls’ teams and was protecting the young ladies by providing the private areas for the boy. In today’s society, however, such accommodations are viewed as tantamount to “separate but equal” and therefore a violation of one’s civil rights.
It can be easy for our initial reaction to such stories to be frustration, anger, and disgust, yet as believers we must approach all things through the lens of the Gospel. We must recognize, first, the fallen world we live in, a world in which all things have been marred by sin. This includes even our self-image, which can result in confusion over gender identification. What’s more, our sin natures cause us to focus on our own self-interests above all else (“It’s all about me!”). According to a secular worldview, if we would only provide more education, more sensitivity training, more enlightenment to people, they would cease to be chained to such traditional ideas as binary gender (only male and female) and would instead understand how there is really nothing wrong with allowing a young boy who self-identifies as female to shower with high school-aged girls.
Looking at this through a Gospel lens, though, reminds us the only thing that can bring about true, lasting change for the better is a heart regenerated by God and the sanctification of the Holy Spirit. The world’s wisdom tells us there is nothing wrong with us as we are; if a boy thinks he’s a girl, then he’s a girl…and we have no basis to suggest otherwise. The Gospel tells us there is something wrong with each of us – something so terribly wrong that we cannot remedy it ourselves: sin. Whereas the world’s wisdom offers no hope (since first, there’s nothing wrong with you, and second, all you have to do is change yourself if you don’t like how things are), the Gospel offers the greatest hope of all: a heart, mind, and life radically transformed by Jesus Christ. The ugliness of sin is replaced by the beauty of Christ’s righteousness. So, when we hear these stories (and they’ll be all the more common), let’s respond not with anger or frustration, but with the Gospel. Just something to think about…
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