There's a great liberation to be felt in abandoning yourself to the divinity and doctrines of Christ. That likely seems counterintuitive to a world convinced that it has found freedom by rejecting what they perceive to be all those do's and don'ts that come with Christianity. But, of course, the manifest existence of God precludes any belief that a person can actually be "free" of His dominion, no matter how passionate we are about our individual sovereignty.
Simply put, God alone is sovereign, we can't escape Him, and surrendering to that reality in order to accept His providential guidance and correction leads to a far more pleasant existence than engaging a lifelong struggle of pretending our rebellion against Him is freedom.
I was reminded of that enduring truth watching the latest example of the world routinely chewing up and spitting out one of its own. For the better part of two years now, feminist author J.K. Rowling has been the brunt of an unrelenting barrage of cultural condemnation. The rejection has likely been disorienting to Rowling, given that she had enjoyed a meteoric rise to stardom and effusive celebration from the "in" crowd. An outspoken advocate for lesbians and gays, as well as a bevy of other left-wing social causes, Rowling was the toast of the sophisticated, elite, privileged town.
And then in June 2020, everything changed.
That month, Rowling chose to defend her feminist, lesbian, and gay allies by attacking an opinion piece that famously referenced the increasingly chic descriptor, "people who menstruate." The children's author reasoned correctly:
"If sex isn't real, there's no same-sex attraction. If sex isn't real, the lived reality of women globally is erased…. I know and love trans people, but erasing the concept of sex removes the ability of many to meaningfully discuss their lives."
She's right, of course. Transgender ideology is inherently and unavoidably anti-gay, anti-lesbian, anti-bisexual. Since it demands the rejection of a male/female gender binary, it erases all individuals who define themselves according to that binary.
There's an uncomfortable irony there for people like Rowling, who for years dedicated themselves to fighting against the supposed forces of bigotry on the right. Who is the greater enemy, after all: religious conservatives who condemn conduct they find immoral, or activists who seek to destroy your very identity?
It is no doubt a startling insight to realize that those who made themselves at home in your movement, tacking their "T" onto your "LGB," have been implementing a Trojan-horse strategy all along. To her credit, Rowling has stood her ground and been pummeled for it, most recently being denied participation in an HBO special meant to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the Harry Potter films.
If I can be brutally honest, I can't imagine living like that. I can't imagine having to worry every day if my moral framework was going to implode around me by the shifting fault lines of a fickle culture.
When I chose to follow Christ, I was accepting a moral guidepost that was locked in the ethical concrete of God's character, as revealed in His unchanging Word. I knew that in so doing, my beliefs would be reviled and despised, maligned and disparaged by a world of pseudo-sophisticates convinced that they had a far more enlightened view of the world and its realities than my Bible could offer. That has certainly proven to be the case.
But compare that to the alternative – a lifetime of trying to keep up with man's latest moral charade, his most recent determination of what is right in his own eyes. A lifetime of realizing that what you thought and espoused just months earlier now renders you a discriminatory bigot.
That kind of values volatility testifies to the unreliable foundation provided by the spirit of the age. It's the dilemma that now torments J.K. Rowling and countless others, and I would contend there's a better way.
What God's Word said was true about identity and human sexuality 2,000 years ago, is true about identity and human sexuality today, and it will still be true about identity and human sexuality in another 2,000 years.
The confidence that emerges from such a fixed, reliable, unchanging, consistent, and steadfast foundation brings a freedom for the human soul that the world is powerless to replicate.
