Sexual identity - the gender agenda
Introduction
Many of those most committed to the overhaul of traditional gender distinctions and sexual norms are aware of the profound way in which spirituality impinges upon sexuality. They know that as new religious ideas gain traction in a culture it is only a matter of time before those ideas express themselves in the arenas of gender, sexual identity and sexual orientation. Thus the truth behind the gay marriage headlines and the transgender agenda is that these are the necessary and logical consequences of a culture experiencing a comprehensive worldview change.
Worldview
The Judeo-Christian worldview, which has for years dominated the western world, starts by affirming what theologians call the Creator/creature distinction. This distinction, which affirms that God is wholly other (transcendent), establishes a binary principle within the universe that affirms separateness and difference. The very notion of holiness is built upon this foundation in that to be holy means to be set apart. Thus we may say that God alone is holy because only God exists eternally by virtue of his own being – he is set apart.
This binary principle expresses itself powerfully in the separate and different sexual identities of male and female. Just as there is a God who is wholly other who, through covenant agreements, unites himself to humanity, so male and female, as separate and different sexual identities, are united through the covenant of marriage.
Paganism
In pagan spirituality the opposite is true. The pagan worldview begins by rejecting the transcendent Creator and instead affirms creation as divine. Thus the binary principle of the Judeo-Christian worldview is abolished and the pagan worldview begins to turn in on itself. This explains why, in the pagan system, there is so often a clear and deliberate attempt to destroy gender distinctions and promote androgyny as normative. This, as we shall see, has profound implications not only for marriage but also for the very ordering of society.
Implications
It should come as little surprise that as quickly as the God of Bible is ousted from the public square so paganism rushes in to fill the gap. The growing influence of paganism in the West can be clearly seen in the recent decision by Members of Parliament in the UK to vote overwhelmingly in favour of gay marriage. It is a simple fallacy that gay marriage is the next great civil rights issue. Rather gay marriage is a logical and necessary step toward the paganisation of the western world.
We need look no further than the state of Massachusetts for evidence of where this journey will likely lead. In 2011 the Massachusetts legislature amended several state statues in order to prohibit discrimination on gender identity. Recently the Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education issued guidelines for how the amended legislation should be implemented in public schools.
The guidelines promote a clearly pagan worldview in that they seek to create space in the public school system for a transgender identity amongst children thus eliminating normal gender distinctions. They maintain that it is up to children to determine their own gender identities and that those children and teachers who refuse to affirm or support their transgender classmates be punished. In practical terms this means, according to Joe Carter of The Gospel Coalition, that:
The students are also allowed to "access the restroom, locker room, and changing facility that corresponds to the student's gender identity." If transgender students are uncomfortable with using a "sex-segregated restroom" then "a single 'unisex restroom or the nurse's restroom" must be made available to them. However, the concerns of other students are dismissed since "discomfort is not a reason to deny access to the transgender student."
Carter also comments that:
The students are to be referred to by whatever name or pronoun they prefer (for example, a student whose student record identified him as a male named John was referred to as "Jane" and "she."). All school personnel are required to use "the student's chosen name and pronouns appropriate to a student's gender identity, regardless of the student's assigned birth sex."
It should be clear by now that the agenda behind these changes is not simply equality or justice. These are profoundly religious issues and this is a startling vision of what education in Britain may look like if the government continues down its current path. Adam MacLeod and Andrew Beckwith of the Witherspoon Institute comment that:
Massachusetts lawmakers have for many years been eradicating sexual distinctions from the law. This result seems to us the logical consequence of those efforts.
Redefining marriage to eliminate sexual complementarity as an essential characteristic doesn't automatically commit a state to forcing girls to share locker rooms with boys. But there is a logical connection. One of the premises justifying the redefinition of marriage also grounds these new regulations, that is, the view that sexual difference is irrelevant to the practice of marriage.
But if sexual difference is irrelevant to marriage, then how can it be relevant to any practices? Once the state has determined that sexual difference is no longer a legitimate reason to extend special recognition to man-woman monogamy, there is no reason in principle to maintain sexual distinctions in less intimate practices. If one's anatomical reality isn't relevant to one's marriage, it's even less obvious why it should be relevant to one's bathroom choice.
Conclusion
When God made man in his own image he created them male and female (Genesis 1:27). Thus gender distinctions are not only normative within creation but also fundamental to what it means to be created in the image of God. One can only imagine the destructive and potentially murderous implications of our concerted effort in the West to rob people of their identity as made in God’s image. Here is the bizarre logic of the pagan/progressive agenda – in our push for equality we’re at the same time destroying the basis for true individual value, worth and freedom.
For more details about the case in question see:
http://www.thepublicdiscourse.com/2013/03/9244/