My people are destroyed from lack of knowledge~ Hosea 4:6a NIV

 There is a super weird debate that’s been going on for a while now:

  Female athletes argue transgender women (men) should not be permitted to compete against women who were born women in athletic competitions. These folks assert women who were born men have some distinct physical advantages over women who were born women. Those advantages include greater overall physical size, superior muscle mass and improved lung capacity.  

 Those fighting for the rights of transgender women to compete against biological women say that transgender women (biological men) ought to be allowed to compete against biological women because when a man declares himself to be a woman he is a woman and no one should be allowed to dispute his claim.    

 I cannot believe I have to explain why this is a super weird argument but I do and I will:

 Less than a generation ago no one would have even believed rational human beings would even be having this discussion. Even ten years ago it would have been considered certifiably INSANE to argue that a person can change who they are simply by making a declarative statement. Period.  Furthermore, clear-headed people know in their heart-of-hearts that declaring one’s self to be something does not, nor, will it ever affect reality or change that person’s situation. The fact that this discussion is taking place at all goes a long way towards proving exactly how far we have fallen down the rabbit hole (metaphorically speaking) as a society. Lastly, these crusaders are arguing for something and they have no idea what they are arguing for but they are managing to do it quite effectively.

 They are really arguing for the existence of objective truth.

 Those who want to ban biological men from competing in women’s sports are attempting to hold up two fairly rudimentary standards of objective truth. The first being that men and women are fundamentally different. The second is that wishing something to be true cannot and will not make it true. The problem with these standards is not with the standards, the standards are both perfectly reasonable, demonstrably true and historically accepted.

The problem is that all this truth telling is just a little too little and a little too late.

The secular world has been denying the existence of objective truth for several decades now. The longer a person or a society chooses to believe a lie the less likely they are to believe the truth when they are confronted with it. In other words, the secular world is in no mood to be set straight about what’s real and true after fifty years of partying it up in the land of make-believe.

 Sigh.

 Okay, so here’s the thing:

 It is easy for Christians to look at this situation, roll their eyes and feel superior to those who have willingly bought into obvious chicanery and are now paying the price for it.

 However.

The same disregard for objective truth has crept into Church world.  

 Christians of all ages use the terms “my truth” and “your truth” as if there are versions of truth that all have equal validity and should be taken equally seriously. It is true, human beings can interpret the same event in two entirely different ways but only one of the interpretations can actually be true. It is also not uncommon for Christians to say things like “that may be true for you but it’s not true for me”. It is true, there are times when God convicts one Christian that a behavior not forbidden in Scripture is wrong for them as an individual. Because He knows that behavior will become a gateway for truly sinful behavior for that particular Christian (Romans 14, 1^st Corinthians 8:9-13, 1^st Corinthians 10:23-31). Nonetheless, that situation is an entirely different breed of cat from one person deciding that they should not be held to the same moral standards as every other believer on the planet because they have chosen to believe that God’s opinions on morality have become wibbly-wobbly and open to interpretation (Judges 21:25).  In most evangelical churches love has been held up as the highest value. However, we have forgotten love that is not built firmly on a foundation of theological truth inevitably devolves into a puddle of messy, inarticulate, crazy-town sentimentality.  

We have become victims of some really bad doctrinal teaching.

For at least two decades now, Christians have been told it doesn’t matter what Christians believe as long as they sincerely love Jesus and people. There are teachers and preachers who have even argued against their people attaining biblical knowledge because they misinterpreted 1^st Corinthians 8:1 where Paul says “knowledge puffs up”. Paul was not criticizing all biblical knowledge as something that puffs people up with pride. Paul was simply stating that the Corinthians “knowledge” concerning the fact that idols are nothing had made them prideful. Their understanding of truth was causing them to ignore the needs of those who had not reached their level of understanding concerning THAT PARTICULAR ISSUE.

Here’s the thing:

If Paul were asserting that biblical knowledge inevitably leads to pride he would have been refuting his own teachings about knowledge found in Ephesians 4:13, Philippians 1:9, Colossians 1:9 and 2^nd Timothy 2:25.

Seriously.

Christianity must do some intense soul searching on the subjects of truth and love. Love is important.  Love is critical. Without love we are nothing (1st Corinthians 13). However. Love that is not based on truth is less than nothing.  But when we offer the people around us the love of Jesus without telling them the whole truth of the gospel (Acts 2:38, Acts 3:19) we deceive them into believing God is okay with their sin.

That’s not loving at all.