Efforts have been in full-swing to force employees and students across culture to participate in the gender pronoun game. Too many have felt the very uncomfortable pressure to include our so-called “gender pronouns” on our name badges, work email signatures, and introductions in meetings and at conferences.
How should Christians respond to such demands?
Some have framed using gender pronouns as a sign of graciousness to others. Christian author Preston Sprinkle refers to this as “pronoun hospitality.” Wheaton College professor Mark Yarhouse has written, “It is an act of respect, even if we disagree, to let the person determine what they want to be called.” As well intentioned as this opinion might be, it is wrong.
Participating in the pronoun game is a not a matter of good manners. It is not a kindness. It is not reasonable. It is certainly not love of neighbor.
Christians and all people of sound reason must understand that the pressure to use gender pronouns is an indoctrination in the anti-scientific, unreasonable faith of gender ideology and transgenderism. Pronoun enforcements are used as a required catechism in the new secular religion. British mom-activist Kellie-Jay Keen correctly calls gender pronouns “the gateway drug” to gender brainwashing. When we go along and use them, thinking there is no harm, we are participating in and supporting a belief system that is diametrically opposed to reality.
Rosario Butterfield, a good friend of Focus on the Family, actually calls using gender pronouns sin. She writes the practice “makes no Christian sense” adding “any parachurch ministry that elevates ‘being winsome’ as the endgame” of the Christian life can be manipulated into making this mistake.
Why is it sinful?
Because it affirms a belief that is directly contrary to God’s careful and loving design for humanity. None of us “identify” as male or female. We are male and female! Every cell in our body speaks to this. And Scripture is very clear on page one: God created humans as male and female as the only part of His creation that are His image and likeness.
So, no wonder the truth of male and female are being attacked so viciously today. The Spirit of this Age knows the profound and divine importance that male and female reflect. When we use gender pronouns, we are denying this basic Christian truth and assenting to a false dogma that believes male and female are mere feelings we hold about ourselves. We are encouraging others to hold this false belief as well. Truth and reason dictate that we cannot participate in such deception.
Butterfield asks us, “Do you love your neighbor? Do you love your Lord? Do you believe that Jesus alone is ‘the way, the truth, and the life’ (John 14:6)?” Then we can never speak or participate in lies that question the beauty of male or female. Never.
If kindness and maintaining relationships with those who would force you to speak what you cannot believe are your highest goals, then you have made kindness and relationships your new god. That option is never open to the Christian, because God’s holiness is never at odds with his loving kindness. The two always go together.
Reason dictates we can never use our words to participate in the catechism of transgenderism and gender ideology. Christian blogger Tim Challies offers this direct advice when faced with this challenge.
The simplest thing to do is to politely decline. Refrain from putting pronouns in your biography or your email signature and don’t announce them at meetings. If invited to, say “No thank you” and if asked why, say something bland like “It is not a practice I follow.”
No polite person will ever force you to say something you do not and cannot believe. If they do, they are the ones being unkind.
Both Christians and Evolutionary Biologists Agree
It must be stated that refusing to play the pronoun catechism is not just something Christians must resist because of our unique beliefs. We must resist because it is contrary to basic universal reason.
We share this conviction with people we otherwise have very little in common with. Dr. Colin Wright, an anti-religious evolutionary biologist, wrote some years ago in the Wall Street Journal that we should all refuse to confess any assent to the new gender dogma. He bluntly states,
Coercing people into publicly stating their pronouns in the name of “inclusion” is a Trojan horse that empowers gender ideology and expands its reach. It is the thin end of the gender activists’ wedge designed to normalize their worldview. Participating in pronoun rituals makes you complicit in gender ideology’s regressive belief system, thereby legitimizing it. Far from an innocuous act signaling support for inclusion, it serves as an implicit endorsement of gender ideology and all of its radical tenets.
He takes this position because he knows that such a belief system is wholly anti-scientific and denies biology. He’s an evolutionist after all. The objective reality of male and female and how both pass their genes onto the next generation is kind of a big deal in evolutionary theory. Wright recently gave an important talk on the reality of male and female to a group of medical professionals who are gallantly fighting against the intrusion of baseless gender ideology in their profession. You can watch that instructive talk here.
In his Journal piece, Wright speaks to the wholly unscientific nature of gender ideology by comparing it to being forced to mention one’s astrology sign in their email and signatures and personal introductions. They are similarly baseless belief systems.
He explains it would be ridiculous to say as a part of one’s work or school world, “Hi, I’m a Sagittarius. What’s your sign?” adding, “To respond with your own star sign would be to operate within and signal your tacit agreement with the belief system of astrology.” Astrology and gender ideology are equally baseless.
Journalist Megyn Kelly has also strongly and publicly stated her bold and absolute opposition to using gender pronouns because it serves as an on-ramp to indoctrination in the falsehood that gender is a feeling. She carefully documents the profound harm this has created.
Resisting the madness of the new secular gender religion will take a clear and uncompromising commitment to reality. Yes, taking such a stand will be difficult. But our children and fellow citizens need to see our bold strength and commitment to the truth. They will gain courage from ours. It is contagious.
And none of us should be shamed by the utterly false claims that not playing along with the gender catechism is unkind to people who might die if we don’t affirm them. Such claims are bald bullying and manipulation to get you to practice that which you cannot believe.
We must all refuse to play along.
Additional Resources
Don’t Be Bullied in the Pronoun War
Part I – Navigating Gender Pronouns at School and Work
Part 2 – Required Personal Pronoun Use at School and Work Leads to Crazy-making, Literally
Part 3 – What to Say When Pressured to Use Gender Pronouns
Part 4 – Is it Ever Right to Use Personal Gender Pronouns?
How to Respond to “Trans” and Gender Ideology? Simple: Live Not by Lies
Why Christians Can’t Avoid the “Trans” and Gender Redefinition Issue
Why Focus on the Family Cares About the Gender Issue?
Yes, Sexuality and Gender Are Undeniable Gospel Issues
Image from Getty.
