If you’ve made the mistake of wandering into social media as of late, you’ll discover that bored and self loathing teens have started asserting the idea that there are a limitless number of genders. This idea ties tightly into the whole Tranny self identity craze where in men insist you refer to them as women even though everyone knows they are men. It’s like a Monty Python episode which people have chosen to take seriously.

But what gives? Doesn’t gender just mean male and female? Uh… yes. Yes it does. But what do we MEAN by male and female? In order to keep my PG rating, I shall say that it involves some anatomical parts (which in the future shall be referred to by their AOL screen names “Tab A” and “Slot B”) and some DNA. Let’s start with the DNA.

Every human has two chromosomes which determine gender. Everyone has one X chromosome. If the second is also an X, you are female. If the second is a Y, you are a male. It is the difference in this one chromosome which causes your genotype (gene type) to be expressed as the phenotype (Physical type) of Tab A or Slot B.

When we ask for your gender, we are asking what your genotype/phenotype are. It’s a binary system with only two options: XX/Slot B (Female), or XY/Tab A (Male). This is the point where my readers who learn science via social media will throw a hissy-fit and point out that there are OTHER options! What about genetic abnormalities like people with a third chromosome or people whose phenotype is an abnormal combination of Tab A and Slot B? What about THOSE people? HUH? Mr Smart guy?!!!

I wear glasses. The reason I do it because my eye is built so that the focal point is not the same distance as my retina is. This means I need corrective lenses to alter my vision so the image does get focused on the retina. Does this mean that it would be inaccurate or somehow bigoted and close-minded to assert the idea that the eye’s lens is designed to focus light onto the retina? No. What my eyes show is a break down in the design. Mutations have caused the original design to fail. Similarly, the variations in genes or phenotype some people have are, in a word, a disease, just as nearsightedness or diabetes are. They are not a new gender any more than my eyes are new kind of vision.

So what are these people going on about? I believe they have confused the objective physical expression of genes (and resulting phenotype) with the subjective experience of being unique. The simplest form (believe it or not) is the whole Tranny issue.

If I may digress- tranny used to be shorthand for transmission- the part of a car which shifts gears. I just know every time I write “tranny” I think of a car part. Life is weird.

A Tranny (transsexual, in this context) is a man who says “I feel like a woman on the inside even though I am built as a man on the outside (or a woman who says “I feel like a man on the inside where as I am built as a woman on the outside.”) The problem with that way of thinking is this: HOW do they know? A man has NEVER BEEN a woman. How does he know what it feels like to be one? A man who says he feels like a woman is like a man who says he feels like an African white rhino. It’s an entirely unverifiable claim which no one can say with sincerity. In certain circumstances, we can all say “I feel like a little kid,” because we’ve all BEEN children, and so we have memories of what it feels like even when we are older. A man has no experience BEING a woman, and so he can never honestly say he FEELS like a woman. Even if it happened to be true, he could never KNOW that.

So what do they mean when they say these things? No doubt these men mean that they think of themselves as being female- they have an internal self image which is the image of a female (or a white rhino in some cases). But just as in the case of the man who says he feels like an African White Rhino, the man who says he feels he is a woman is simply wrong. He is NOT a woman. A woman is not a man who feels he is not a man. A woman is a woman. In simple biological terms, a woman has the XX chromosomes and the TabB@AOL.com phenotype.

For those of you who feel I am being sarcastic in presenting a person who self identifies as an African White Rhino, I present: Otherkin. This is the next sad stage in the devolution of mankind. Otherkin are people who self identify as NON human. Be afraid.

Where did all of this identify confusion come from? I am blaming atheism. And also you, the American Church. You guys need to get your head in the game! If we had been doing our job for the past four decades, this would not have happened.

In Genesis 1:27 , we are told

“So God created mankind in his own image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them.”

The first thing we are told about being human is that we are made in the image of God. We are like God action figures. Whenever you see an action figure, your first reaction tends to be “Oh, man! This doesn’t look anything like (name of actor or actress who played that character in the latest movie).” The reason you can say that is because there is a real person whose image that action figure is intended to resemble. If there was no actor, then you couldn’t say that.

Atheism tells us that God does not exist. Then, in whose image are we made? No one and nothing. Nothing made us, in its image. On atheism, self identity is the surface description or the personal lie you tell yourself. The reason we have a national identity crisis is because we have a generation being told they are the children of nothing, and they are seeing that imaginary family resemblance.

God made us in his image, male and female. In a sense, the difference between male and female are the difference between two pictures of the same person, one taken head on, and one taken in profile. They are very similar in many ways, but very different in others. A man has only one X Chromosome, just as a picture in profile only has one eye. But we are all images of our heavenly father, and made in his image with equal value and worth.

So what do we do with all of these dozens of new gendered persons? Our response should not be one of anger or hostility, but compassion. Our brothers and sisters are so far from their Father that they think they are cosmic orphans with no Father at all, and as a result they have such a hollow identity that they can’t even see themselves as they are. Men can’t see themselves as men, women can’t see themselves as women, and some people can’t even see themselves as human.

What does it mean to be human? We are told by those who think they know that human is just another primate, which is the latest version of rodent, which is the latest version of amphibian, which is the latest version of fish which is the latest version of worm which is the latest version of bacteria which is the accidental result of rain falling on rocks, all of which came from an explosion which came from nothing. But all of that is a lie, and here is one of the many ways in which it matters. We are human, made in God’s image, and made male and female. Gender is not a social construct, it’s a very real part of who each of us are, even if sometimes we don’t feel the part. Thankfully, reality doesn’t depend on our feelings. I don’t feel like being nearsighted, but I still have to wear glasses. I often don’t feel like an image of God, but that’s what I am even though, like my eyes, my image is significantly out of focus. But that’s why we need Jesus. He does the work of making us back into the image of God action figure we were created to be. He sharpens the focus, if we let him.

The solution is to point people back to the bible. We are human, purposefully and wonderfully made in the image of God, our heavenly father. We are male or female, and we are male or female before we are born. Every cell in our bodies tells us what our gender is, and our soul is etched with the image of God either as masculine or feminine. If we forget what we are, or if we simply can’t see it, then we need to go to Jesus and let him heal us. Just as I need glasses to see the world, many of us need Jesus to help us see ourselves and each other as we really are. Jesus is the truth which can fix that which has been distorted by lies.

Jesus paid for our sins so we can be reunited to our Father. Once we are adopted back into the family, we will begin to see our father for who HE is, and he will help us to see his image in ourselves.

Whatever you feel, you are human, you are male or female, you are fearfully and wonderfully made, and you are loved.

#JesusLovesYou