We Can't Be Whatever We Want to Be
“You can be whatever you want to be” ... a lie told to encourage people to push and remove boundaries. At its best, it encourages people to push through barriers that inhibit their human dignity so they can breathe more fully their unique breath of God (which is what makes us weird, in the eyes of the world, as described in the previous post). However, our sinner hears this and runs rampant and decides we can reject who God made us to be and then desecrate and irreparably mutilate the gift of our bodies because we decide we identify as a gender or race or species other than what God made us to be. This is nuts, and the “woke” presumption of “what do you identify as” is a very divisive question, for it presumes facts not in evidence, such as we have the authority to decide our gender or race or species or some subset thereof we call “identity.”
This came up today in a survey I filled out for a bikepacking organization that has become woke and wants to promote diversity in bikepackers, including gender identities.
I hope gender confused people decide they want to go bikepack and that barriers are removed for them to do so, for entering God's creation gives us a view of ourselves that is hard to dismiss, and the realities often challenge our delusions. The more deluded we are, the more we turn from God, and the less joy we experience, and the more we hate ourselves and displace that as hate from others and toward others. That gets ugly quick.
Anyone on an adventure in God's country will be humbled by weather and terrain ... things they can not and should not have control over. Route? Sure. Timing? Sort of, but once you're out there, you are out there and there ain't no teleporting out when things get tough. Harsh realities happen. A mountain between us and the campsite and water. A deluge. A washed out road. We don't get to decide these, only how we navigate them. Doing so instills humility. I suppose someone could “identify” that they are an adventure bikepacker who only does fair weather and flat or downhill, and then bull doze mountains out of their way. That is the same mutilation to the land that gender change surgery causes to the body, and the same denial of God's gift of creation.
How foolish would a tour-guide be to encourage a frustrated client facing a mountain climb on a mud soaked trail in a torrential rain without sign of letting up, late in the afternoon, with four hours of riding to go to a camp spot under normal circumstances by telling them to identify themselves as being on flat terrain on a sunny morning with all day to go and not a care in the world? To quote the literal Latin from Luke 24 on the Road to Emmaus, “stilted and tardy of heart”.
Why this matters: our eternal soul. When we confuse being our own god in a vainglorious attempt to create ourselves (which we can't) in our own image, we deny God's image in us, and instead of loving ourselves, hate ourselves. So say Saint Augustine. “Whoever loves himself, not God, loves not himself ... he cannot love himself who loves himself to his own destruction” (Saint Augustine, Catena Aurea on John 21:18-19).
I hope any barriers can be removed preventing someone who wants to go on any outdoor adventure can go, so they can experience the humble joy that only comes from facing what we can not control and discovering how to navigate it humble, with wisdom and respect.
But asking me what gender or race I “identify” as? That's a nonstarter. I don't identify as any gender or race, I am the gender and race(s) God gave me. This question will only divide us, for it is rooted in a denial of reality.
May Christ startle you with joy!
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