Fifteen Minute Cities, vaccine mandates, gender identification, politics … and what did I miss? Have you noticed that we are told who to be?

Political correctness and wokeness are dominating our culture, and it is clear who we are supposed to be, in our modern culture. We are being pressured to conform.

I have opinions, and so do you, but there is a bigger picture. What is our new orthodox religion? We have a modern culture, and there is pressure to follow the new way. People who do not agree are arguing, and I think our culture is in a civil war.

If you want to see this war, consider the Anglicans, the Church of England, in Australia:

The Anglican churches, worldwide, are divided and arguing about questions like, Should the Church support same-sex marriages? Is God a man or a woman?

The divisions are deep, and this historical Christian denomination could split. We all have opinions about each question, but the bigger problem is; how do we live in our modern culture? Some Anglicans want to adjust to new cultural values, and others want to continue without change.

If we are not Anglican, we might feel comfortable, and even superior because we’re not going there. Really, we shouldn’t just pick on the Anglicans. We are all moving into this change, and the Anglicans are just a canary in the coal mine.

Change is coming to us all.

Where I live, our city has just ruled that everyone can now be topless in public swimming pools, and not just men. Also, some parents are complaining about biological men using the female changing rooms, even with young girls using them, because those males now identify as females. I know some calm and quiet people who are furious about this. Parents don’t want to take their children to public pools now.

I could say more, but some radical new ideas are extreme, and they will create their own angry argument. It’s hard to stay on topic with some new ideas.

What is happening where you live? Are you angry?

So, is God a he or a she? The problem is partly language. The Bible is translated from ancient languages to modern ones, and “he” and “she” are important pronouns in our modern languages. We are told, in the Bible: “God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth.” (John 4: 24)

Is a spirit male or female? Note; there is a “him” in that verse.

In another part of the Bible, Jesus told us how to pray, and we all know the words: “Our Father who art in Heaven” (Luke 11: 2) That is clear in any language.

After two thousand years, words in the Bible that everyone accepted have become controversial, at least to some modern people. With modern values, some people want to refer to God in a gender-neutral way. That is a picture of a cultural shift.

It’s easy to have a picture of the modern world that we live in, but there is still one question: Who am I? Or, who are you as one person in a world that is changing?

Someone surveyed modern people in Russia, and asked about their beliefs, or their religion. I think these people are another canary in a coal mine. They are a picture of us all:

So, who are you?

This is a question we should all answer, in our modern culture. If we cannot decide if God is male or female, we probably do a poor job of knowing who we are.

I am writing as a Christian, and as the world around me is changing, I need to ask who I am. Am I changing with the world around me? Is my church about to split?

We are told: “Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.” (Romans 12:2)

I hope we can all know this. We are not like chips of wood floating in a large river. We are made to be lights in a dark place.