I recently saw a video about the latest ‘progress’ in gender pronouns, and it is weird. It is now in fashion for folks to identify not only as the opposite sex, but as things, places, or whatever else they feel like, using neopronouns. It gets really confusing really fast, because people can make up their own arbitrary pronouns, and if you don’t use them you’re a bad person. It sounds silly, the kind of thing some troll would put out just for laughs, but it’s not. Not only did someone think this is a good idea, but enough people bought into it for it to take off.
This same week, Caitlyn (formerly Bruce) Jenner announced his run for governor of California, in opposition to Gavin Newsom. He’s also running as a Republican. You know, the conservative party.
Yeah, it’s a pretty weird take for a man who claims to be a woman to be the champion of ‘conservative values’, but what do you expect from worldly political parties grasping for power? One more example.
Back in 2019, there was a bit of a flap in conservative circles when J.D. Greear, an allegedly conservative pastor, began advocating the idea of ‘pronoun hospitality’. This is the idea that, although we know that it’s not possible to actually change one’s sex, Christians should use a ‘transgender’ person’s preferred pronouns as an act of love.
This position, I think, is key to understanding why people are giving in to transgenderism so quickly. They want to be ‘nice’ and ‘loving’ to gender-confused people. They don’t want to hurt anyone’s feelings. There is one glaring problem with this, however, which make it an absolutely untenable position for a Christian.
The big problem with ‘pronoun hospitality’ is that it shows a greater concern for the feelings of ‘trans people’ than for obeying God. We know that God hates liars, see Revelation 21:8 if you don’t believe me. Using someone’s ‘preferred pronouns’ is to concur with them in saying that they are a woman, or man, or pan-furry-dragon-skyscraper-attack-helicopterkin, or whatever they claim to be, and are not. Lying is an offense to God, and knowingly using ‘preferred pronouns’ is to lie, because you are saying someone is what they are not. There’s no way around this. You may try to be ‘clear in other ways’, but that doesn’t change the fact that using someone’s preferred pronouns is still saying they are what they falsely claim they are. In doing so the pronoun-hospitable Christian is privileging the ‘transgender’ person’s preferences over God’s preferences. This would be loving the ‘trans person’ more than God. Not ok.
So, what can we do? Well, I think it is acceptable to use a ‘trans person’s new name because they’ve changed their name, and names can be gender neutral. I’ve met guys named Ashley, gals named Andy, and we could multiply examples of names that can apply to either sex. Also, you can avoid pronouns entirely when referring to someone; it’s a good way to not lie. That’s really it.
Faithfulness to God requires that we do not lie and use the ‘preferred pronouns’, no matter how much pressure is brought to bear against us. The screaming, crying, name-calling, and cancellation is only temporary; God will vindicate Himself and His people. Better to trust Him than to try to appease the rainbow mob.
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Applied Christianity 