Word leaked from internal memos on Tuesday that the Trump Department of Justice had officially instructed employees not to include preferred pronouns, motivational quotes, or other "extraneous content" in their official email signatures.
Workers in the department have 12 days to clean up their correspondence as the directive, part of the administration's policy on "Defending Women from Gender Ideology Extremism and Restoring Biological Truth" takes effect August 25.
No doubt the decision will be criticized as petulant and unnecessary by those who made this nonsense an issue in the first place. It's not difficult to anticipate the incensed op-eds, the eye-rolling MSNBC commentaries, and the impassioned ignorance pouring from the lips of privileged actors addressing the next GLAAD gala:
"Doesn't the government have bigger fish to fry?"
"People can't afford groceries, why are we spending time on email signatures?"
The irony, of course, is that it's only on the current agenda because those same people complaining about that insisted on dragging the issue into every corner of public life and demanding everyone play along. This corrective action was as predictable as it was necessary.
While the memo's immediate impact is limited to federal workers' email footers, it points to something far larger:
The cultural collision over reality itself.
In the end, this isn't just about email etiquette. It's about whether we live in a world where truth is discovered, or a world where we pretend truth can be invented.
From the very first pages of Scripture, God roots human identity in His own design. Male and female are not arbitrary categories we accidentally stumbled into or that evolved over time. They are part of the blueprint of creation, a fixed reality woven into our being by the Creator Himself.
When society treats gender as a fluid self-definition, it is not simply adapting to popular trends. It is attempting to rewrite the script of creation. But reality doesn't bend to human will. We can ignore reality, but we will never escape its consequences. That's the testimony that Christians must bring to this cultural moment because that's the urgency of this issue.
Truth is more than factual accuracy; it's the alignment of our words, thoughts, and lives with God's reality. While the ungodly may suggest that doing so is "unloving," Christians must remember that affirming what is false is never an act of love. Love without truth is sentimentality; truth without love is cruelty.
None of this denies the fact that we live in a pluralistic society. Respecting someone's dignity does not require agreeing with their definitions. In fact, it's precisely because we respect people that we refuse to affirm something that contradicts the very truth God created for their good.
In the end, this DOJ decision is in line with a reality that is not, no matter how much revolutionaries and culture warriors wish it to be, up for renegotiation. God's created order stands, whether a culture wisely chooses to embrace it or foolishly rejects it.
The DOJ directive affirms truth, offering a reminder that the light of truth will never be extinguished by the shadows of confusion.
In fact, it is often in those shadows that it shines the brightest.
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Disclaimer: The opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of Not the Bee or any of its affiliates.
