What is true is true, and what is false is false, irrespective of what the Culture around us says. Truth is not decided by a popular vote.
God’s Word alone will guide you through the ever-changing mess of truth and false claims the Culture continually bombards us with. (2 Tim 3:16)
But because such claims are constantly changing, and with significant portions of society coming to dispute at least some of these, it can be tempting for Christians to see a “win” for them where there is significant dispute, but keep quiet, or even go along with it, where there is overwhelming support for a lie.
Some examples:
1. Transgender
The tide has gradually been turning in the U.K. against transgender treatment for children.
In 2018 Maya Forstater, a think-tank researcher, put on Twitter:
“I think that male people are not women. I don’t think being a woman/female is a matter of identity or womanly feelings. It is biology.”
Consequently, in 2019, her contract with the Center for Global Development wasn’t renewed. She appealed, but the employment tribunal denied her appeal and deemed her views “incompatible with human dignity and fundamental rights of others.”
But the same year J. K. Rowling (of “Harry Potter” fame) took up her cause on Twitter (#IStandWithMaya #ThisIsNotADrill) when she said she opposed “forc[ing] women out of their jobs for stating that sex is real”; she subsequently stirred up increasing controversy as she became increasingly vocal.
In 2021 Forstater appealed to the Employment Appeal Tribunal which found in her favour later that year. And, the following year, the same Tribunal concluded she had suffered direct discrimination on the basis of her gender-critical beliefs, and in 2023 she was awarded compensation of £106,400.
Glen Scrivener (the author of The Air We Breathe) notes:
“Since then the National Health Service has ordered its only “gender identity clinic” for children, the Tavistock Clinic, to shut down after 18 years of complaints and “thousands of damaged children.” And when Scotland’s first minister, Nicola Sturgeon, campaigned vociferously to get a Gender Recognition Act through the Scottish parliament, Rowling opposed it. It was roundly voted down by Westminster (the U.K. parliament). In the ideological clashes stirred by the debate, Scotland went from the least “trans-sceptical” part of the U.K. to the most.”
Whether out of conviction, or simply to win votes, conservative politicians have since become increasingly sceptical of the whole transgender narrative. In October 2023 Rishi Sunak, clinging on to his leadership of the Conservative Party, drew one of the loudest cheers of his hour-long speech (as well as predictable denunciations – and praises – in the press and on social media) when he stated: “We shouldn’t get bullied into believing that people can be any sex they want to be. They can’t; a man is a man and a woman is a woman. That’s just common sense.”
Following a review conducted by the Commission on Human Medicine, which found puberty blockers pose an “unacceptable safety risk”, the U.K. has issued an indefinite ban on puberty blockers.
Again, Glen Scrivener:
“It genuinely seems a tide has turned.… More and more, public aspects of British society are expressing a skeptical no to key aspects of the trans movement… Because it’s a largely secular movement, it’s had a good measure of success in changing popular opinion. When hearing trans-skeptical views, the average Brit doesn’t suspect a Christian agenda lurking beneath the surface.”
Yet even as the tide turns in countries such as the UK, Sweden, Finland and the Netherlands (and to some extent the U.S. and New Zealand) which have all wound back or completely paused such treatments for gender dysphoria, so far in Australia there has been little progress.
But there are encouraging signs as some health professionals begin to speak out – and suffer for it. Just last year Dr Jillian Spencer, a senior child psychologist at the Queensland Children’s Hospital, was stood down from her job for calling out the potential harms of puberty blockers on children.
She has appealed to the Queensland Human Rights Commission:
“I was concerned about the increasing number of children and adolescents – especially biological females – presenting with gender dysphoria in the context of comorbid mental health diagnoses and complex psychological issues, including trauma.
“I became very concerned about the potential harm our hospital was doing in immediately using preferred pronouns, that unquestioningly affirms a child’s perceived identity and sets them on a treatment pathway of medical intervention that purports to transition a young person into an identity that they are likely to outgrow if interventions of this kind are not applied.”
Though it was recently (and inaccurately) reported that the new LNP government in Queensland had accepted a recommendation for a statewide expansion of gender ‘services’, this was later refuted by the LNP; and the Minister for Health, Tim Nicholls, reiterated concerns he had previously raised about children’s gender transition and puberty blockers. (For further on this see here.)
2. Abortion
Conservative politicians have not been so keen to address the abortion issue.
On the one hand it is heartening to have witnessed in recent years Roe v. Wade overturned by the Supreme Court in the U.S. – a decision that Donald Trump was not slow to take credit for since he nominated three of the Justices who voted to overturn the decision. It was also encouraging that Kamala Harris, with her radical views on abortion, was not elected. (This does not mean I am encouraged by Donald Trump’s election. See here.)
But in the run up to the recent U.S. election, as it became clear that this could lose him votes, Trump kept shifting his view on abortion, suggesting that new laws restricting abortion were “too tough” – frustrating social conservatives and anti-abortion rights groups. (See here.)
Back here in Australia, the “conservative” parties are equally afraid of losing votes over this issue. Two months ago, when the Coalition Senator, Jacinta Nampijinpa Price, condemned later term abortions, her Coalition colleagues quickly disowned her views. Peter Dutton even blasted Coalition MPs for fuelling a federal debate on abortion laws, declaring there would be no change to policy if he wins government, fearing it may have cost the LNP votes in the recent Queensland election.
In that recent election, the LNP candidate, David Crisafulli, tried desperately to distance himself from the issue. More recently, now as the newly elected Premier, he has ruled that for the next four years “no bill or amendment, seeking to amend” current abortion laws will be “allowed to be introduced” into Parliament. In addition, that “no motion or amendment, seeking to have this house express its views” on these matters is “allowed to be moved.”
3. Marriage
Glen Scrivener observes that while society “may well be heading toward a skeptical no on trans,” yet “all the while maintaining a proud yes to gay marriage”.
It was a “conservative” government in the U.K. that brought in same sex “marriage” (SSM) there; a “conservative” government doing the same here in Australia (within five years of both major parties here opposing it!).
Before the present millennium not one country on earth approved SSM, yet now, a quarter of a century later, not one politician in any country where it is approved dares oppose it.
There are also professing “Christian” organisations who are falling over themselves to keep in with the surrounding Culture. Here in Australia, in the seven years since SSM was legalised, two of the largest denominations: the Uniting Church and the Anglican Church, have agreed either to perform, or at least bless, same sex “marriages”. This, even though the Bible is clear that, not only those who “practice such things are deserving of death” but also those who “approve of those who practice them.” (Rom 1:32)
Of course, all sin is “deserving of death”, not only the sins involved in SSM that are the focus of Romans chapter 1, but all those listed at the end of the chapter, eg. “sexual immorality, wickedness, covetousness, maliciousness; full of envy, murder, strife, deceit…” etc (see vv 29-31). But that should not be used as an excuse to keep quiet on the sins of SSM.
I once corresponded with someone (a professing Christian) who objected to those taking issue with the sins celebrated in the Gay Mardi Gras suggesting that “likely Jesus would not have condemned those involved, but rather would likely say, ‘Neither do I condemn you, go and sin no more’.” I pointed out that: “to say, ‘Go and sin NO MORE’ means what you are doing is sin and you must stop.”
He responded with: “Romans 1 certainly outlines the status of what it terms unnatural sexual acts.” But he then sought to divert attention from this by pointing to all the other sins listed at the end of Romans chapter 1, by referring to those who are “full of envy, murder, strife, deceit and malice… gossips, slanderers, God-haters, insolent, arrogant and boastful, inventors of ways of doing evil, disobeying their parents, having no understanding, no fidelity, no love, no mercy”. He then added that “this goes much further than simply the pride of the LBGT+ [sic] community to whom the love of God still extends on the same basis as all others who need the saving grace offered through Jesus Christ.”
But to take this approach to excuse your silence on sins our Culture celebrates misses the point: you are influenced far more by the surrounding Culture than you are prepared to admit.
After all, we are not being encouraged (in some cases, required) by the Culture to celebrate any of the other the sins listed at the end of Romans chapter 1 – either by way of a marriage ceremony or in a publicly funded march.
So I said in my response:
“I would be equally appalled if prominence were given to a march in support of ‘envy, murder, strife, deceit and malice’. Or, let’s celebrate ‘gossips, slanderers, God-haters, insolent, arrogant and boastful’. Or let’s ‘invent ways of doing evil’ and ‘disobey parents’. But the fact is these are NOT being celebrated or paraded in our society. We are not being asked/required to affirm these. But we are being asked to affirm, approve and support these other sins.”
By all means, love the sinner. Bear patiently with him/her. But do not approve of, or keep silent about, the sin.
Remember Jesus came “to seek and to save that which was lost” (Luke 19:10). But they must first realise they are lost; you can’t help someone who is lost if you are reinforcing what they are hearing from the surrounding Culture by saying nothing about their lostness. How will Christ save them, if we don’t tell them they are lost?
Conclusion
Some in the secular Culture around us are starting to see the light when it comes to transgender issues. Christians can be encouraged by this, and work with those who are going in a good direction.
But on other issues, though “the light shines in the darkness, the darkness does not comprehend it.” As Glen Scrivener put it: society “may well be heading toward a skeptical no on trans,” yet “all the while maintaining a proud yes to gay marriage”.
But truth is truth. Truth is not determined by what the majority tell you is “on the right side of history”.
Only Jesus is “on the right side of history” – for, in the end, “at the name of Jesus every knee shall bow, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.” (Phil 2:9-11)
In the meantime, it does not matter that “they think it strange that you do not run with them in the same flood of dissipation, speaking evil of you. They will give an account to Him who is ready to judge the living and the dead.” (1 Pet 4:4-5)
It only matters that we “teach them to observe all things that Jesus has commanded us” ; knowing Him who has promised, “Lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.” (Matt 28:20)