A Question of Identity

In a society determined to accommodate every ‘victim’ group,where is the voice of the church? 

Let’s consider one of the hottest topics in our culture today, that of gender fluidity. To gain an understanding of this confusing situation, we will work our way towards it, starting with basic biology. I have to be honest, it was extremely difficult to get basic material on the traditional view, as the web has been hijacked by the newer manifestations of sexual and gender identity. It’s a perfect example of postmodern murkiness, reminiscent of the rabbis’ meanderings in the Talmud; you start off with a basic given truth and then you totally obscure it with commentary, research and opinion. Stripping this away in the best way that I could, I ended up with this …

So God created mankind in his own image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them. (Genesis 1:27)

There is maleand there is female in the original creation. Of course, as a result of The Fall and man’s sin, physical diseases and aberrations can affect the DNA and produce physical conditions such as hermaphroditism, where the body exhibits both male and female sexual parts and mental conditions such as gender dysphoria,where a mind may be uncomfortable with the assigned biological sex. Recent statistics indicate that gender dysphoria affects around 1 in 10,000 people (0.01% of the population) and hermaphroditism affects about 1 in 2,000 people (0.05% of the population).

So, given the rarity of these conditions, why is the transgender agenda so influential in society? In 2015 the Office for National Statistics had 1.7% of the UK population as lesbian, gay or bisexual, with 0.4% as transsexual. Again, a very small percentage, although you wouldn’t have thought that was the case, considering the massive cultural impact on our society. In Germany a top court has ruled that birth certificates should now have the option of a third sex (i.e. anything other than male or female). Such a major development, to cater for such a miniscule proportion of society? Is this an over-reaction to a (perhaps) nonexistent ‘problem’? Or has our World really gone mad?

A culture of ‘victim groups’

The heart of the problem is not these statistics, nor is it the people who constitute these statistics, but rather the people who have created an agenda out of the purported issue. These people are working through the ideas of Cultural Marxism and have created a ‘victim group’ out of those in the LGBTIQ+ (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, , Intersex, Questioning +) [the + indicates up to 12 current ‘genders’], community and, by doing so, have transformed these communities from self-help groups to a celebration of diversity. This, then, is promoted as a thoroughly ‘good thing’ because it emphasises the division between the oppressors(the straight ‘binary’ community, constituting 98.3% of society) and the oppressed(those who are encouraged to join the LGBTIQ+ community as a matter of choice).

The fact is that, apart from those suffering from a physical or mental condition, joining the LGBTIQ+ community really is a matter of choice. A choice has been made by the individual to re-classify their biological sex by emphasising their gender identity. This is the key word, identity.

‘Identity’ is at the heart of Critical Theory, the mechanism that drives the Cultural Marxism and political correctness that surrounds us today. It is a perfect example of a form. It is telling the World, my gender identity is the most important part of me, in fact, now that our culture is so progressive, I openly celebrate it. The corollary to this is that anyone who is obstructive to this ‘human right’, for instance refusing to bake a cake declaring this ‘celebration’, is an oppressorand is to be reported to the authorities. Surely there’s a big difference between acceptance and celebration? We can accept a personal choice someone has made, but we shouldn’t be forced to celebrate this fact in the same way that I don’t ask nonbelievers to celebrate my decision to follow Jesus as my Lord and Saviour (though the angels are pretty pleased by this – Luke 15:10).

Form and Function

Concentrating on form is looking inwards and placing yourself at the centre of the Universe.It is a natural outworking of the Kingdom of the World, as much a feature of postmodernism, as it was for secular humanism that preceded it. Christians, instead, should be concentrating on function.

“Therefore, my dear friends, as you have always obeyed—not only in my presence, but now much more in my absence— continue to work out your salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you to will and to act in order to fulfil his good purpose.” (Philippians 2:12-13)

For Christians, though, we have a situation where form and function come together … gloriously. And it is all a question of identity, our identity in Jesus.

“And we all, who with unveiled faces contemplate the Lord’s glory, are being transformed into his image with everincreasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit.” (2 Corinthians 18)

Our function is to strive to imitate the form of Jesus, as we have seen in earlier Chapters. It should always be: “not me, but Christ who lives in me (Galatians 2:20).”Our functionis to allow Christ to live in us and lead us into the work that he has for us.

For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do. (Ephesians 2:10)

Our identity should therefore be precious to us, but not our past identity, defined by race, culture or family, but our future identity, when we will be presented to Jesus “… as a radiant church, without stain or wrinkle or any other blemish, but holy and blameless. (Ephesians 5:27)”

Undermining traditional structures of society

The ‘enemy’, through his chosen tool of Cultural Marxism, has taken this concept of identity and twisted and corrupted it. He has used this to pigeonhole people into controllable groups, by emphasising their form and dismissing their function. It compels people to believe they are defined by their form, whether it is a matter of race, colour or gender inclination, to an extent that they lose any freedom they may have had to express themselves as individuals. Instead of identity being something that can benefit people, it has become a bondage, the ultimate goal of undermining the traditional structures of society and bringing in the extensive State control that Cultural Marxists crave.

You can look and look but, although you will find groups representing such ‘victims’ as Muslims, LGBTIQ+, Palestinians, the environment, racial minorities and pacifists, you will not find any group defending arguably the most victimised groups in the world today; Christians (particularly in Muslim countries) and, particularly, Jews. Jewish people may have invented and implemented Cultural Marxism, but they are certainly not benefitting from it as a community. Think about Islamophobia. It’s an artificial construct in order to push a particular narrative and agenda. A phobiais an irrational fear, yet fear of Muslim-inspired terrorism is totally rational, particularly as so many of the protagonists are characterised by the statement, ‘but they seemed like an ordinary quiet family.’There is no Buddhistphobia, Hinduphobia, Christianophobiaor Jewphobia, by the way.

If there’s any evidence as to the ultimate intentions of this process, then there it is. For Cultural Marxists, the only acceptable narratives for Jews and Christians, is either to see them as eternal aggressors (Christians) or arch manipulators (Jews).

Cashing in empty cheques?

At the time of writing the ‘victim’ culture is running amok, with Hollywood and the UK Parliament the current battlefields. For years people jokingly referred to the producer’s ‘casting couch’, which was obviously grounded in reality. Now the odious Harvey Weinstein episode has exploded with seemingly every male (heterosexual and homosexual) associated with the film industry who had touched someone else inappropriately twenty years ago being exposed, with contracts torn up, awards withdrawn and actors airbrushed out of films. Considering that these ‘shenanigans’
had been known about for years, why is there now such a conveyor belt of ‘victims’? The serious stories, of course, need to be told and dealt with to show what a disgusting place Hollywood was and still is, but one wonders how some may be cashing in empty cheques, unwilling to admit the consensual nature of the ‘dastardly deed’ as a passport to fame. Surely, like it or not, that’s how Hollywood works?

There’s a similar story with our politicians, with many chickens coming home to roost. Major figures are being forced to resign on such flimsy pretexts of an ‘accidental hand on the knee fifteen years ago’ and, although we have always known that our elected representatives have not always been paragons of virtue, we are seeing a fresh explosion of the ‘victim’ culture that is at the heart of Cultural Marxism.

Everyone seems to be offended about something and our lawyers have never had things so good! We really are a generation of ‘snowflakes’, particularly if we remember the current atmosphere in our universities, with their ‘safe spaces’ and lists of do’sand don’ts, the ‘micro-aggressions’.

God forbid if there was ever a serious war! Those grandparents and greatgrandparents who have lived through the 1930s and 40s must despair of our rising generation. We have been softened-up and our individualism clawed away from us, as we continue in our lives of  ‘personal entitlement’ and ‘human rights’; all sanctioned by the Marxist forces that surround us.

This is an abridged extract from Steve’s new book, Into the Lion’s Den, available at all good Christian bookshops or from the website www.sppublishing.com