Are you a feminist? [Answer yes or no.]

If you answer yes, I can tell you the correct type of feminist you must be. You don’t have a choice. You must think a certain way. If you are on the team, you must be orthodox.

If you answer no, you are incorrect, and you are the enemy.

That is an example of binary thinking. You have the choice to be correct, and then you must be completely correct and orthodox, or you are on the other side, and they are always wrong.

I used the word “feminist” because it gets attention, but any belief fits the conversation. I grew up with Christians who were binary in their beliefs; people who were proud to be called fundamentalists. As a young boy I learned to avoid all discussions in the house and play with my friends outside. When I became an adult, I wanted to be a Christian, but the choice was hard for me. I didn’t want to win the argument, I wanted to know God.

So, are you a union member, a Free Mason, or Christian, or possibly feminist? Insert any human decision and belief system into the question. We like to construct the argument, so we can always be correct. This is all-or-nothing thinking, also known as the bifurcation fallacy, is comfortable.

Let’s agree that binary arguments are annoying, and probably wrong.

But the word binary is being used in a different way. Since we agree that binary thinking, being mean and judgmental, is not good, the word has become useful to people who want to win a different argument. Now we have a very powerful movement that denies the existence of male and female. These transgender beliefs include the idea that there might be as many as one hundred gender possibilities, and we can change our gender, if we want. When you see the letters LGBT, Transgender is the “T.”

In the video above, the Christian doctor refers to the statement in the Bible “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). I believe those words, but that makes me a prejudiced binary thinker. Somehow, when we weren’t paying attention, we all became wrong.

Brace yourself, this is coming down on us like an avalanche. Our children are taught that gender, or sexual identity is fluid and completely under our control, and that we should be what we want to be, when we want. Without much discussion, this has become our received orthodoxy, something that we must believe.

And what is our answer?

1) We can’t be binary.

God is the judge, and if we get angry and preachy, no-one will listen. We will be labelled as ‘fundamentalists’ and we will have to take time away from being kind, and showing God’s love. The Bible tells us to believe in the one truth, and then tells us not to judge:

“All of us, then, who are mature should take such a view of things. And if on some point you think differently, that too God will make clear to you.”

Philippians 3: 15

I recently taught classes to truck drivers in training. One of the students was a man who had decided to be a woman. I never asked if that person felt compelled to change, or made a choice, but we all had enough wisdom to avoid arguments. Some in the class almost had to be restrained, but we got through it with no rudeness.

2) We must be binary.

The world needs truth, and reality is not something we can negotiate. I understand that some people want to change their lives, but I don’t believe that true gender can be re-assigned. We can’t alter DNA.

We need wisdom from God to negotiate this patch of ice.

I believe that we are approaching a time when Christians will lose their jobs and be punished, for simple beliefs. The doctor, in the video, was fired from his job, and he does not seem angry and offensive to me.

I also believe what the Bible says “Be alert and of sober mind. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour” (1 Peter 5:8). If persecution defeats us, we have an enemy who will use that weapon.

This is clear, and black and white, and binary: “Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we a have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.” (Romans 5: 1) If we are not justified, we do not have that peace.

But that should make us loving and kind, even if the world rejects us: “God’s love has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us.” (Romans 5: 5)