Bathroom Battles

HoHum:

Steve Bailey was with my family a couple of months ago. All 6 males had to go to the bathroom and we were standing in a line waiting for the men’s bathroom. No one was in the women’s bathroom. A worker at the convenience store came through and encouraged us to use the women’s bathroom, so we did. This place had one toilet in the men’s bathroom and one toilet in the women’s bathroom. Go in and lock the door and this is no big deal. Many are wanting to go to gender neutral bathrooms because of the transgender movement, companies like Target have already made the change. Men can go in women’s bathrooms and women can go in men’s bathrooms. Disgusting but no big deal because we have a closed stall around the toilet. However, let’s throw in a locker room like the YMCA where the men shower in the men’s locker room and the women shower in the women’s locker room. I have a problem if we go to gender neutral locker rooms but this is where many want to go. All of this goes back to the topic of gender and it goes much deeper than just which bathroom we use. How insanity is beginning to reign!

WBTU:

Does the Bible speak to issues of gender? Yes

Thesis: Two things- Gender confusion and Gender clarity

For instances:

I. Gender confusion

A. Our culture is very confused about the issue of gender. Examples of gender confusion

1. Former decathlete Bruce Jenner is honored for undergoing gender reassignment surgery. He/she is now known as Caitlyn Jenner.

2. “In California, Maine, Washington, and other states, children whose ‘gender identity’ does not match their sex may enter restrooms and changing facilities of the opposite sex in various public places.” (Strachan)

3. Al Mohler writes, “In some European countries, preschools now prohibit the use of gendered pronouns. Similar prohibitions are being attempted in North America” (Mohler, 69). University of Tennessee encouraged use of “ze” and not “he.” University of Kansas Student Senate bans use of gender pronouns when writing legislation. University of California has six gender options: male, female, trans female, trans male, gender queer and different identity.

4. The state of Minnesota wants to eliminate all gender distinctions for high school sports. One reporter writes, “In this scheme, there would be no accounting for sex differences in high school sports on the field or in locker rooms, bathrooms, and hotel rooms.” (The Federalist.com) This spells the end of high school athletics, college is next, then the Olympics??

5. Right now a war is raging in North Carolina. The issue is simple... can a male who identifies as a female use female public restrooms. Several cities and large corporations (IBM, Paypal, Biogen, NCAA, and many others) are refusing to do business with North Carolina if they don’t give into the transgendered agenda.

6. The transgendered movement will not stop until everyone bows to their agenda of eliminating all gender distinctions in every sphere of life. And make not mistake, the transgendered agenda and religious liberty are on a collision course.

B. Reasons for gender confusion

Why are we so confused as a culture? It was not always this way. Postmodernism

1. Postmodernism is a philosophy that claims that there is not such thing as truth. What is true for you may not be true for me and what is true for me may not be true or right for you.

2. This is because truth is nothing more than a social construct- something created and developed by society. In fact, reality itself is a social construct meaning that you determine your own reality.

3. If you can determine your own reality, why not your own gender? If you are a male who wants to be a female, you can adopt a female gender even though your biologically a male. We should not let our biological sex determine our gender. In fact, a key concept in the transgendered movement is this very idea

4. Here is a great summary of the transgendered understanding of gender, “Nowadays we understand that anatomy isn’t destiny; its your choice to be called lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer and questioning, intersex, asexual-or something else. That’s not a misstatement. It is your choice.... We have reached the point that regardless of anatomy, you can choose your identity. And you can choose to change your gender identity as often as you change your clothes.” (Metcalf quoted in Mohler, 78)

Application

1. According to Romans 1 our culture’s gender confusion is the result of

God’s judgment. “Furthermore, since they did not think it worth while to retain the knowledge of God, he gave them over to a depraved mind, to do what ought not to be done.” Romans 1:28 2. With that said... We must have great compassion on people who are confused