Video Transcript: Critical Gender Theory

Steve – Alright Henry, topic 2. 

Henry – Well, you thought topic 1 was something, now we're gonna get into  critical gender theory.  

Steve - So it feels heavy, Are we really well, there's a lot of controversy over  this. But I think there's also just a lot of confusion. We don't have the tools with  which to talk about it.  

Henry - You know what I don't like,I'm just gonna be transparent. I don't like  where you can talk about this in a curious way. Without people leaving the room. I don't get that. Like, we grew up and you talk about anything and everything  more, there's more. But today, it seems like difficult to even be disagreed with  without somebody cancelling you 

Steve - and I think what's happened, and we'll talk about that in several  sessions, is these things of, if this is your only identity, if this is where all of your  self esteem rests. And now you poke at the one thing that I have, then I am not  very gracious, I'm not, because you just, you took the legs from under my feet,  whereas maybe in the past, we're just talking about a topic, that is just one of  the many things that define who I am. If you totally destroy this one topic, I still  have my self esteem intact. Right now, everything rests on this thing, and you're  poking at it, and  

Henry - how insensitive Are you to do that?  

Steve - So here, and critical gender theory, same thing with the race thing,  everything relates to gender, genders, with the power use their power to keep  their power over other genders inequality, let's just talk a little bit about that. So  you know, the whole patriarchal society kind of thing where men have used their gender their, and they're the ones in charge, they were, you know, because  most of the culture, you know, if you go back far enough, was about strength,  and they were stronger, so they dominated. And they used their power, and they set up laws and structures that help them keep the power. The females would  not get that power. Right. So now that is being extrapolated to almost every area of society, whether it's, well, we'll talk about where it shows up to current social  manifestations, you have gender equality. You've got LGBT, which is lesbian,  gay, bi, and trans. You've got the whole self identify you can you identify your  own gender, we've got the bathrooms in sports. What do you do with that? And  the pronouns, he/she/they and others, 

Henry - so this seems like a mess. 

Steve - Well, you know, and from, from people that are fighting for these things,  their identity is these things and they feel like the world doesn't, you know, if you  didn't feel like the world understood you, and accepts you as you are, then  maybe you'd fight tooth and nail as well. So it seems like there's a lot at stake.  And I think that's why people have a hard time talking about these things. You  know, I might talk about it, but it's not the biggest issue in my life. Right. But I  might be talking to somebody that it is. And we're going to have a hard time. If I  say any one is like a in the book, madness of crowds. He talks about, like, you  know, war, they put these tripwires and if you trip over the wire, the grenade  goes off. Right. But you don't know where the tripwire is. Right? So it seems like  right now in our culture, we have all these trip wires out there. And if you  accidentally unintentionally trip over one, you could lose your job. You could lose your social connection you could lose a friend family members a marriage. Got  it? Right. A son or a daughter. It's it's tough out there. 

Henry - It's a struggle, every family, maybe understand that I have a son who  transitioned as a woman, my oldest and I love her. And they're family but it was  very difficult to see how the culture went through this and see my own family  culture and to see choices and the ways social sciences and counseling has  gone. You know, through the years 2012 and 13, 14. Our family struggles we  learned a lot And we learn that these topics are relevant. And we hold to the  biblical worldview of gender to this day. But even within our family, this is a  controversial issue.  

Steve - Right? And, you know, I suppose what's hardest is, it's difficult to just  talk about it, right? Like  

Henry - to bring this up, are you gonna go there Henry? And are you going  there, and God must fix those things that have broken. And ultimately, we rejoice in what God is doing. But all these issues are in play. This is not just for some  people out there, right now.  

Steve - We are all connected to this.  

Henry - I mean, you know, my family around me, we know all of us know,  families 

Steve - within churches, every church is dealing with this, every school system  is dealing with this. It's a big subject. And this was the biggest. So what is  gender? Is it biology? Is it a social construct? That's our being argue in our  culture right now. 

Henry - The biology side is that your gender is assigned at birth?  Steve - It's your DNA is so many chromosomes?  

Henry - And then the social construct is that, that society through history and  things like church and family and patriarchy, you know, advantages and  disadvantages that your gender was constructed. Now, I find that very  interesting, because studies from Stanford University that I read, clearly identify  that there was a difference in gender, 

Steve - right? So there is a biology thing that then people say, well, then the  construction part maybe overrides it. So anyway, there's a lot of discussion, and  we're not going to have time to go into all of that. The Bible, Genesis 1:27. So  God created mankind in his own image in the image of God, he created them  male and female, He created them.  

Henry - So that is a biblical worldview. A biblically constructed understanding of  gender, 

Steve - right? So that doesn't mean people don't feel one way or another, or  that there are people I know, some who are born with like two different genitalia,  and the doctors are not sure which, male or female, right? So there is these gray problem areas that we are not sure what what to do. So  

Henry - sexually, our sexual ethics class, a three credit class, where tape or  college professor talks about a lot of these issues. In terms of like, what is that,  how's that fit? The second thing to me is that we really live in a post fallen world, that the worldview of male and female is the worldview that God created us all to be. But now we still have these subjects, we struggle and we reach for God and  it's more difficult.  

Steve - becomes more complicated in the world, right? So we have a problem  of conflicting rights. So one person's right, to identify one's own gender as one  pleases. So that's kind of what our culture is saying, versus another's right to not believe in it.  

Henry - That's interesting. Before we get launched, what are you talking about  there?  

Steve - Well, you know, people can identify as something, right. But then how  does that, you know, so I can identify, I get to do what I want it's my body, it's my

life, I can do what I want. And that's true. Unless it hurts someone else. Okay.  See, that's, that's where there's a conflict or a dilemma is people are out there  saying, I want this, this is who I am, this is what it is. But they don't always see  how you getting what you want. stop someone else from getting what they want. 

Henry - See, so what happens then is a theory is absolutetized or really  reduced, and then everything is seen from that version of reality.  

Steve - And everyone has to accept that when that isn't the case. So the LGBT  version of reality, for example, versus the parents right to teach their own  children a different version of reality. That becomes a conflict because now,  schools are starting to mandate certain things about all this acceptance and all  these things. But doesn't a parent have the right to have a different view of life?  Right, just as much as you have a right to your own version, someone else has  a right to their own version, and therefore we're going to have this conflict.  

Henry - So there's a breakdown of the agreement of some essential things. Male and female, even agreeing that there is even male and female does not agree  to.  

Steve - So then there's the problem of relativism and the loss of objective  agreed upon truth. You know, we live in a world where everyone makes their  own decision about what is what, although, again, what I'm saying is, you know,  the one group has, it can decide what they want. But then if you disagree, you're not allowed to do that.  

Henry - So we're in dangerous waters were dangerous waters. So when one  person's right, to identify as whatever gender negatively affects others, what can that happen?  

Steve - When does one person's right to identify as? So we'll give some  examples. So example, in the whole sports world,  

Henry - yeah, there's a hot topic right now, I read a story yesterday, out of like  Connecticut, or somewhere out east, that, I mean, there's gonna be lawsuits,  

Steve - right? Because one person identifies I was born a man and now identify as a woman. And now I go into women's sports. Fine. And that's great for me,  because I finally feel like I'm part of what I most identify with. But then the  women who now have to compete with a person who was a man, and they're  like hold it, oh, you know, you have an advantage that, that I don't have. And 

now, you know, what about my rights to compete in the world that I live in? And  have known?  

Henry - So social sciences have cisgender or transgender. Cisgender is the  gender you were born with. And that you identify with. And transgender is not  the gender you were born with. That you do not identify with. Right? So now we  have two worldviews two worldview derivative views of gender fighting  themselves out. But the real fight is flesh and blood people, right? Who are  having the dreams take it away from each other. Right?  

Steve - Both are saying My dream is being taken away. I don't get my way.  Right. So another example, what if someone identifies themselves as a?  

Henry - Okay, so you're talking about this could be anything. So I can identify  myself as a seven year old girl, and went to your first grade or granddaughter's  first grade class. 

Steve - And how do I feel about that? Because you look like a 60 year old man.  

Henry – I just turned 60. But then somebody say, Well, you can't say that. Then  why can't you?  

Steve - Where's the line? Where's the thing that I can't identify with? Very  interesting. So why are we obsessed with things like race and gender? Why?  Why are we getting? Why is this become such a place in the weeds where we  find ourselves?  

Henry - So Genesis 32:1, when the people saw that Moses was so long in  coming down from the mountain, they gathered around Aaron and said, come  make us gods who will go before us.  

Steve - So what happened there, God and Moses disappeared, just for a  moment. I mean, they just went up. They went up the hill, and what happened?  All of a sudden, there's no God. So what are we going to do? their fears? Or find something we got to find something that is the replacement for God. And isn't  that exactly what has happened? So what's the answer to some of this critical  Grace theory?  

Henry - So we're back to that theory again. We introduced it. But we've learned  a little deeper. Let's see, 

Steve - everything relates to grace. Those with the grace share the grace with  those who do not.  

Henry - So one thing is noticed that word, deacons, servant to be great, you  must be the servant, to receive the grace of God that saved you and me from  sin from death, then it's to give it freely when it's in our power to do so.  

Steve - The same by Grace identities, that same verse we read, under race. So  in Christ Jesus, you are all children through for all of you who were baptized into Christ, have clothed yourselves with Christ. There is neither Jew nor Gentile,  neither slave nor free, nor is there male or female, for you are all one in Christ  Jesus. If you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham's seed and heirs according to the promise. 

Henry - So in some ways, it's not about gender at all. Although gender becomes  like that lightning rod, it's about Jesus.  

Steve - The Bible is not against gender, right? And it's not about, you know,  your identity and your self esteem wrapped up with gender, you know, I was  born a male and I, you know, I was into sports and feeling good about myself,  because I was doing these things. The Bible isn't against all of that. But what's  happened is, is that Moses, the Moses, God went up the mountain, and now we  made a God of gender, right? Like, this is the only thing that says, I am  somebody, and therefore, don't discriminate. You know, why we all are holding  on to it so tightly. And if someone questions, any nuance, I mean, you see with a nuance of what we think or believe about it, all hell breaks loose, because we  don't have that identity in Christ. If I'm in Christ, and then you don't like my hair,  or something like that. I can roll with that a little bit, because I am not my hair, I  am not my gender, I am not my race. I am not these things. These are all part of  me. But I am a child of God, I am one in Christ, that is my number one identity.  

Henry - Jesus in the gospels was talked about not getting caught up. And  whether someone was born a eunich by choice or by birth. But then it goes back to the worldview of male and female in the very past. I think in the ministry, when we are ministering, in the end, we put that ministry hat on our goal is to win  some argument about these arguments. What's the point people and know that? God is. And we don't know, we're not old enough to see how the spirits are. And  then this becomes this. And then the Holy Spirit allows, we've had a pandemic,  it's changed so many things. And it feels scary right now. But I remember you  saying 25 years ago that, that there's desert times, and then there's times where we invaded the promised land. And maybe sometimes you just happen to live in  the desert. And that's okay. To stay close to Jesus Christ. 

Steve - So I think, you know, a little word to those trying to minister, maybe  you're talking to someone who has strong views about this whole gender issue,  and you're trying to convince them of your view or the biblical view. That is one  strategy, right? Another strategy is to get them connected to Christ. See, if Christ became their number one identity, then they might lose some hold of some of  these other things. So yeah, so if you're trying to get them to let go of their hold  on their views of gender before they become Christians, see, then you're doing it the hard way. Why not get them connected to Christ, where now I am one in  Christ. And now these other things don't become so big and so important. Now  maybe we can talk about  

Henry - if you have a child who has loved how you raised them, and I  understand that maybe it's about just loving them and caring about them. And I  know it will be in Christ, Christ and they could cut you off or, but don't cut them  off. Right? Have that door open to them because at the end of the day it is Jesus Christ is our salvation. He is our everything.