The in-house Youth Fellowship discussion led by Susan Saji Kochamma, brought together young families from the Mar Thoma church. During this gathering, Kochamma provided a brief history of the issues, explaining how and why cultural attitudes have reversed on this subject in such a short time span. Young parents actively shared their challenges of raising children in today’s increasingly pro homosexual culture.
Evolution of the term ‘Gender’
Simone de Beauvoir in her book ‘The Second Sex’ published in 1949 never used the word gender. However, the most famous line from that book ‘one is not born but rather becomes woman’ is considered the seed of gender theory. She makes a distinction between woman and female and argues one is born a female but a woman is one on whom all the social and cultural interpretations of what human femaleness should look like are laid on.
In the 1970’s, sexologist and psychologist John Money introduced the term ‘gender’, and he drew a distinction between Sex as a mere biological fact and Gender as a social construct which was completely malleable in the first 3 years of a child’s life. He had the opportunity to test this theory on an infant who had a botched circumcision. Money convinced the parents to raise him as a girl. However, this child had suicidal tendencies as he grew up and eventually rejected his imposed identity as Brenda and took on a new name David. He tried to live a normal life but finally commits suicide at the age of 38. Thus, Money’s experiment not only failed miserably but was also fatal but this tragedy took decades to play out. Meanwhile, he was publishing this experiment widely about gender being the success, so the concept of gender took hold in social sciences and feminist particularly. Feminists latched on to this concept of gender as a way of critiquing the ways in which woman hood have been expressed culturally and socially. Thus began the classic wave feminist split of sex and gender: sex is biology and gender is social construct.
In 1990 Judith butler, a feminist philosopher who is considered the god mother of gender theory takes this theory a step ahead by saying Gender is a social construct and Sex too is a social construct. Her theory is based on a philosophy that is anti-realist at its foundation. So, for Butler there is no such thing as Reality. What one perceives as “real” is not the objective truth. Any truth claims a person makes is ultimately a social power move. This philosophy can be traced back in the Bible where the serpent tricks Eve into thinking that what she perceives as real “if you eat fruit from the tree that is in the middle of the garden, you will die” is not the objective truth. The serpent deceives her in believing, that the truth God is claiming is just a power move to keep her under God’s subjection. For God knows that when you eat of it you will rise above him and be God. Thus, the very foundation of Judith Butler’s theory can be said to be a lie, a deception of the serpent.
In 2014, The Gender Unicorn was released which says the Gender Identity of a person lies in the mind of the person. According to this theory, Sex is a social construct, and Gender is the Real You – I am who I THINK I am. I create Myself. The moment one identifies oneself with one’s thoughts and feelings one is creating a self that is inherently antagonistic to any kind of external authority. Anyone challenges their thinking or feeling, is seen as oppressive. True Freedom and Joy is found when one breaks away from all chains which stops you from being who you are. Inner me is the real me and the Body is just something attached to me.
Biblical Overview
The Bible says that all our thoughts and desires are fallen, and we need to align our thoughts and desires according to God’s will. That is where we find True Freedom and Joy. God is the Creator, and I am His Created Being. Body and the person are one and cannot be separated. The Lord God formed man out of the dust from the ground and breathed into man God’s Spirit. Our bodies were to be God’s Temple where he dwelt. As 1 Corinthians 3:16 says Do you not know that you are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit dwells in you? God’s plan was to dwell in our bodies. As Psalms 139:13 says God formed our inward parts and knitted them together in our mothers’ womb because our bodies are His dwelling place. But when sin entered, our bodies began to fall sick and die. But that was not God’s original plan. Jesus came to Earth in flesh to break the curse of sin, died and rose again in His Body not just to redeem our souls but to redeem our bodies The Christian gospel is the Resurrection of the Body.
Genesis 1:27 says God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them. Why God created 2 sexes? Why male and female? In Matthew 19, when the Pharisees ask Jesus if it is lawful for a man to divorce his wife, Jesus points to Genesis and says Haven’t you read that at the beginning the Creator ‘made them male and female,’ and the two will become one flesh. God created male and female for marriage. Bible begins with marriage between Man and Woman and ends with marriage between Christ and the Church. Apostle Paul summarizes the whole Bible in Ephesians 5:31-32 by bringing the two book ends of the bible together. In Ephesians 5:31-32, Paul quotes Genesis and says “For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh.” This is a profound mystery—but I am talking about Christ and the church. Paul implies that the marriage between the man and the woman is a sign pointing to the marriage of the Christ and the Church. So, once we are resurrected, there will be no marriages because we no longer need that sign. The marriage of Christ and the Church has been God’s Eternal Plan from beginning. God made us male and female because he wanted this eternal plan of God so plain to us, that he stamped that image on our bodies by making us male and female and calling the two to become one flesh.
The Hebrew word for Male is Zachar which also means Remember. So, the very essence of masculine identity is to remember the love of God. In the Old Testament, the physical sign of God’s covenant with Abraham was circumcision so that men remember that to image the love of God demands a sacrifice of flesh and shedding of blood right where it hurts. But women do not need circumcision for it is already written on her body, she bleeds and goes through pain every month. In Ephesians 5:25, Paul urges Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church.
So, men no longer need the physical sign of circumcision. The spirit of God inspires and calls Men to remember to love their wives as Christ loved the church.
The Hebrew word for Female is Nekevah which also means Open. So, the very essence of human identity is to be open to Divine Love as Paul says in Ephesians 5:22, Wives, submit yourselves to your own husbands as you do to the Lord. Women are to open themselves up to their husbands.
In the Bible, Christ is revealed as groom and the Church as the bride, because God first loved us and gave Himself to us. When we open ourselves to receive His Love, new life is born within us. This salvation story is stamped onto our bodies. When the man gives his seed and the woman opens herself to receive that seed, new life bursts forth within her.
The attack on Gender and Sexuality in today’s world is an attack on God’s Eternal Plan of Oneness between Christ and the Church. Let us not get carried away by what the world says. As Christians, we are called to be the Light in this dark world, while being compassionate to people struggling with sexuality and gender identity.
Summarized by Tessy Mathew
