Marianne received an exciting text about gender in light of the Christian worldview in Vårt land and Dagen. You can also read the post here:
There is currently a debate about whether so-called "non-binary" people should be able to be ordained as priests in the Church of Norway. There have been several interesting contributions to the debate, but they seem to only touch the surface of the topic. I miss a deeper exploration that sees today's gender confusion in light of the ideological basis of Christianity. Here is my contribution to the conversation.
Psychological contagion
In recent decades, we have seen a significant increase in the number of people who do not identify with their biological sex. Mikael Landén (professor at the University of Gothenburg) points out in an article that the increase may be due to what he calls culturally-bound psychological contagion. In short, it is about ideas that spread contagiously between people.
What ideas are we talking about?
It is about the notion that one can be «born in the wrong body» and that one can «choose one’s own gender». This brings us to the core of the debate; namely which conceptual framework one uses to understand reality. Here we move into the overlapping domains of philosophy and theology.
What is reality? And how can we gain knowledge about it?
Answers in the Bible
The Bible offers answers to these questions. God created an orderly world where everything has a purpose. He created man in his image, as male and female, with a purpose to live in harmony with the truth of our created nature. In Genesis 1:31 we read that God saw everything he had made and concluded that it was very good.
The Bible also tells us that God gave Adam the task of naming every living thing on earth. He gave this task to humans because we are the only creature with a rational intellect. This is where we resemble God, who is the eternal Logos (rationality/reason).
Humans were created with the ability to recognize truth and to understand the «nature» of a thing. Through our senses, we form a holistic experience of what a thing is. We can recognize what a tree is, what a person is, and the difference between a woman and a man.
Purpose
We also have the ability to recognize the purpose that lies inherent in a thing. An acorn has the purpose of developing into a large and beautiful oak tree. We can say that the acorn has a potential that is actualized under the right conditions. In the world of philosophy, this is called telos (purposefulness), and is an expression of "the good."
Similarly, a young girl is meant to grow up and blossom into a mature woman. She is created with a rational intellect, the purpose of which is to live in accordance with «the good and the true.« She has thus been created with some inherent potentialities that will bring her to »full bloom« (eudaimonia), and it is therefore good for her to live in accordance with her inherent qualities.
But if this is true, then why do we experience so much confusion and suffering?
Prevented from seeing
The Bible also provides an answer to this. After the Fall, a veil has been placed over our subjective understanding, preventing us from seeing and appreciating creation as it actually is. Self-harm, eating disorders and gender dysphoria are examples of suffering that is due to our inability to understand what is good.
Fortunately, we have a God who understands. He knows we suffer, and He cares for us. That is why He sent Jesus to earth so that we can be healed on the inside and have eyes that can once again «see» the glory of God.
A dangerous lie
The challenge for humans is to accept this gift, namely the faith of restoration. Instead of accepting it like a little child, we tend to cling to our fallen nature. We normalize the fallen nature and claim that this is how we were created – and therefore it must be so. It is a dangerous lie!
The devil, the father of lies, wants to distort what is good and true. He sows false thoughts about us: your body is wrong, you are not pretty enough, etc. Are these really the forces we want to feed?
A better story
No, we have a better story to relate to. The new covenant has restored what was broken. We have no reason to remain in the fallen nature; we are to turn away from the fallen nature and have faith that restoration is a real fact. By fixing our eyes on Jesus and the Word of Eternal Life, we will find that what was previously so obscure will become increasingly clear.
God loves the prayers of the sincere, so let us pray for eyes that «see»!
