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I got delayed, for several reasons, with the “final” post in this gender and sexuality series. Final is in quotes as I’m sure I’ll have other random posts in the future that will fit in this category, but this will wrap it up for now. I also decided to emphasize the idea of “Love Thy Body” for this final post. While it has already been addressed, I wanted to discuss it a bit more. Again, I am interacting with Nancy Pearcey’s exceptional book. (Read it!)

What does it mean to be human? In our day, the underlying secular philosophy is a fragmented view of the human being where the body is treated as separate from the true self. This sets the body against the person. It ultimately demeans the body. The body is just an object and anything can be done with it. (For example, hookup culture.) Our body does not play a part in defining who we truly are as a person. The body is irrelevant. (For example, someone who says they are really a female but trapped in a man’s body.)

Christianity teaches that body and soul are an integrated unity. Both our bodies and souls matter, and inform who we are as a person made in the image of God. Our body and soul causally interact with each another. Furthermore, God made us male and female. The book of Genesis states this, and Jesus reiterates it. This is also basic biology and science. Men and women are different down to their cellular level, and are counterparts to one another. Despite being taken over by the secular gender ideology, physicians still need to know your sex at birth (even if you identify differently) because whether you are biologically male or female is important for you to receive the best medical care.

And as Christians, we consider the fact that God, the Creator, made his creation with purpose and design. Creation gives evidence for God. Even secular scientists have to admit, although they use different wording, that there seems to be good engineering design in nature and a teleological aspect to it. Teleological comes from the Greek word telos, and simply means purpose or goal. Biblical morality is not just random or arbitrary, but based upon God’s purpose for our lives as men and women. Our bodies should be respected and honored as part of God’s creation that declares the glory of God.

You are likely familiar that Romans 1 refers to same-sex sexual activity as dishonoring the body. Pearcey’s book shed more light and depth of meaning on this for me. God made us biologically male and female, and what we do with our body should connect to our telos, our purpose. A man and woman are counterparts to one another, not two women and not two men.

Some think that sexual hedonism gives sex too much importance, but it actually gives sex too little importance. Christianity is not anti-sex but pro-body.

Our bodies are valuable and Christianity connects our body and soul, our sexuality and spirituality. Modern day sexual ideology has torn apart the body from the person, separated the body from our internal sense of sexual desire and gender identity.

“The biblical view of sexuality is not based on a few scattered Bible verses. It is based on a teleological worldview that encourages us to live in accord with the physical design of our bodies. By respecting the body, the biblical ethic overcomes the dichotomy separating body from person. It heals self-alienation and creates integrity and wholeness.” (page 30)

But what about people who sense a very real disconnect between their body and internal feelings? The modern sexual ideology emphasizes the feeling side entirely. All that counts is how you feel, and you do not define a person by their body. Pearcey shares thoughts from a young man named Jonah Mix who was once gender nonconforming, called himself non-binary, and was immersed in queer theory. However, his views changed as he slowly realized that these so-called liberating views were actually not liberating.

To discover whether you identify as a man (or woman), you must define manhood (and womanhood). Do you act stereotypically masculine? Then you are a man. Do you act stereotypically feminine? You must be a woman. Ironically, this liberating sexual ideology actually reinforces rigid gender stereotypes! Read that sentence again! Pause. Think about it.

[As discussed in this previous post: Transgenderism, and broader questions about gender stereotypes that apply to everybody. Sadly, the church can also end up teaching strict gender stereotypes!]

“By contrast, if you take your identity from your body, Mix says you can engage in a range of diverse behaviors without threatening the security of your identity as a man or woman. ‘When we are defined by our bodies, the whole width of human experience remains open…There is freedom in the body.‘” (page 198)

Perhaps this makes you a bit nervous? Are lines being blurred between men and women? I don’t think so. Even throughout the Bible, we see men and women who did not fit gender stereotypes, and this did not lessen their masculinity and femininity. Jeremiah was a male prophet, who was rather emotional. David was a warrior, but he also wrote poetry and played the harp. Deborah, a female prophet and judge, had strong leadership skills and even led in war. Hmmm.

“Contrary to what postmodern gender theory says, there is greater diversity and inclusivity when we anchor our psychosexual identity in the objective, scientifically knowable reality of our biology as male or female.”  (page 198)

Unfortunately, the church can err in two opposite directions. Some churches go “liberal” – becoming so inclusive and compassionate that they abandon a biblical sexual ethic. While other churches can over-correct by teaching strict gender characteristics and narrow gender roles. In these later churches, there would be no place for a man who writes poetry and plays the harp, or a woman with strong leadership skills!

I’ll close with this from Pearcey:

“Christians should be on the forefront of creative thinking to recover richer definitions of what it means to be a man or a woman. The church should be the first place where young people can find freedom from unbiblical stereotypes – the freedom to work out what it means to be created in God’s image as wholistic and redeemed people.” (page 218)

⇒ Thanks for reading this post. I know so much content pulls us on the internet today, so I appreciate you spent time here. Feel free to explore the previous posts in this series. See them here: Sexuality and Gender.