Webster’s 1828 dictionary contained a simple definition of gender: “a sex, male or female.” In 2020, Dictionary.com provides this definition for gender: “either the male or female division of a species, especially as differentiated by social and cultural roles and behavior.” The modern definition starts out in a straightforward manner, much like Webster’s 1828 version. But then it equivocates: “especially as differentiated by social and cultural roles and behavior.”

Such vacillation has become common in our politically correct culture. In a Psychology Today article titled “Sex, Gender, Roles, Identities, and Orientations,” author Amanda Rose states, “However, for transgender individuals, their gender identity does not match their biological sex. When we say ‘transgender male’ or ‘transgender female,’ male or female refers to their gender identity rather than their biological sex.”[1]

In 1828, Webster made no distinction between the terms sex and gender. Now the term sex refers to one’s biological constitution while gender refers to one’s perception of himself or herself—or even itself, because some medical professionals tell us a person can fluctuate between the two gender identities.

Can created beings change the nature of their creation by changing the definitions of words and then willing the change to be so? Suppose I expand the definition of an Olympic 100-meter sprint champion from “the winner of the final 100-meter sprint in an officially sanctioned world Olympic Games” to include “and also a grandmother who believes she is an Olympic sprint champion.” Should the Olympic committee grant the grandmother an Olympic gold medal? No. But what if she sincerely believes she is an Olympic sprint champion? Still no.

YOU CANNOT BE ANYTHING YOU WANT TO BE

 

Here’s a declaration so common that we tend to gloss over its impudence: “You can be (or do) whatever you want to be (or do); just believe in yourself.” What if I want to be a starting center in the NBA? No matter how intensely I believe in myself, I will never grow into a strong, athletic, seven-foot-tall man with impeccable shot-blocking skills.

Yes, anyone can improve his or her physical and/or mental abilities through dedicated practice, but only within certain built-in limitations. Had I desired to become a track star, with enough effort and practice, I might have made my high school track team. I may have even been a star on the team. But the odds of my making the US Olympic track team would have been astronomical. And becoming an NBA center was, is, and always will be impossible for me. Nothing can change that. I can tell myself I’m a seven-foot-tall NBA center. I can tell everyone I meet I’m a seven-foot-tall NBA center. I can officially list my occupation as NBA center. But no amount of belief in myself will change who I am: a grandma who is not quite five- and-a-half-feet tall and wouldn’t last two minutes in a NBA game.

Dr. Ryan T. Anderson asks the following obvious but culturally unacceptable questions: (1) If those who identify as transgender are the sex with which they identify, why doesn’t

that apply to other attributes or categories of being? (2) What about people who identify as animals, or able-bodied people who identify as disabled? (3) Do all of these self-professed identities determine reality? If not, why not?[2]

The Bible says, “[God] created them male and female. He blessed them and called them humans when he created them” (Genesis 5:2). How does your understanding of sex and gender line up with what the Bible says?

[2] Ryan T. Anderson, PhD, “Transgender Ideology Is Riddled with Contradictions. Here Are the Big Ones,” The Heritage Foundation, 9 February 2018, https://www.heritage.org/gender/commentary/transgender-ideology-riddled-contradictions-here-are-the-big-ones.