“Don’t you see that the whole aim of Newspeak is to narrow the range of thought? In the end we shall make thoughtcrime literally impossible, because there will be no words in which to express it.” – George Orwell, 1984
There is a growing cultural mandate to express our respect toward other people by using their preferred pronoun. Out of kindness, courtesy and perhaps naivete many believers are suggesting that by practicing ‘pronoun hospitality’ we open up opportunities for dialogue about the gospel. At the beginning I didn’t understand this whole issue mainly because my mother-tongue (Hungarian) is gender-neutral (we don’t use male or female pronouns) and I couldn’t fathom why anyone would want to be called something other than their genetic, biological reality.
Then I slowly started to discover a very familiar and sinister attempt. An attempt that is very customary from how the Nazis and the Communist took over and controlled my nation. Their malicious, evil rule started with language. Every authoritarian regime knows that whoever controls language, controls power. People will be shaped by the narrative they follow. Language is the basis of human thought because it structures and shapes the way we think and the way we see the world. Language shapes our culture, values and future. Hijacking, twisting and controlling the language is the most ancient tactic of our enemy. Questioning the God-given reality in Genesis was the devil’s method to strip us from our God-given freedom and to destroy our God-intended future.
“There is no swifter route to the corruption of thought than through the corruption of language.” – George Orwell
Our ability to express our thoughts through words is one of the ways we reflect God’s image. In order to have a free and truthful future, our language needs to prioritize reflecting the truth rather than accommodating emotions and preferences. Our freedom depends on how truthful we are to reality. “Truth sets you free.” – Jesus Christ (John 8:32b)
Pronoun hospitality undermines objective reality by favoring subjective preferences.
Our biological sex is an objective truth that we didn’t choose. Scientific facts and realities (i.e. our genes) are not changed by personal preferences or emotions. There are many other objective facts about our biological existence that we can’t change no matter how we feel about them or how we prefer to change them. For example, we can’t change our age no matter how we wish to be younger. We can’t change our intellectual capacities no matter how upset we are not having the talents of a Nobel-prize winning scientist. Our personal preferences, feelings, traumas and mental state will not change our biological realities. We can try to change the outlook of our biological existence, but we can’t change the essence of it. Pronouns are a reference to our biological reality. Using a different pronoun than what reflects the biological reality is undermining the truth. When society demands using language which caters emotions and preferences at the expense of facts then we live in a society where facts, science and truth will be manipulated by the preferences of those who dictate the narrative. The aim of the narrative is always deception, control and more power.
Pronoun hospitality affirms confusion.
When it comes to sexuality and gender, our society is filled with confusing and conflicting messages. Here are just a few examples of the nonsense, confusing and conflicting messages:
- It is a common practice that expecting parents are hosting a gender reveal party and they only use blue or pink colors to reveal the baby’s two possible gender. Yet, when the baby is born, some parents, teachers, doctors, media-personalities and political leaders are saying that this child can choose his/her gender or can become one of the 70+ genders of their choice.
- The same people who are saying that a 20 year old can’t make a decision to buy alcohol are also saying that a 6 year old can decide about what gender he or she will become.
- Those politicians who are demanding to put more women in leadership can’t even answer the simple question of “what is a woman?”
- The same people who are saying that gender pay-gap is real deny that gender is real.
- Those who say that there are 70+ different genders are also demanding gender assigning surgery in which they can only transition into male or female.
As we hear these (and many other) nonsense, confusing and conflicting messages, do we wonder why there is an epidemic of gender dysphoria and confusion among teenagers? The destruction of the nuclear families and the erosion of the fabric of society led to an epidemic of mental problems, personality disorders, depression, gender confusion, loneliness and suicide. ‘Pronoun hospitality’ is just one segment that accommodates this confusion by affirming the narrative of an ideology that created much harm and destroyed a huge segment of the future generation. ‘Pronoun hospitality’ affirms the betrayal of the adults who turned over the children to the roaring predators of our age.
Pronoun hospitality is rooted in and supports a regressive ideology that contributes to the destruction of society.
“Political speech and writing are largely the defense of the indefensible…” – George Orwell
Today sexuality and gender became a political message, and as such it is grotesque, absurd and a means to gain control and power. People who are controlling this narrative say that you can’t bring God into schools because religion interferes with science, but at the same people also propagate the scientific nonsense that man can get pregnant. A first step of this grotesque and absurd narrative is forcing the use of preferred pronouns.
First, the force of using preferred pronouns threatens free speech and enforces censorship. We live in an age and culture, where people are losing their jobs if they are not willing to use preferred pronouns. It clearly shows the true ideology and power behind this force when people are terrorized by losing their livelihood if they are not willing to abide by the demand of this ‘newspeak’.
Second, the force of using preferred pronouns threatens religious freedom. The use of preferred pronouns forces us to abandon our worldview that God created man and woman. They demand that we participate in their belief system while they are vehemently attacking and rejecting ours. They demand us to abandon our beliefs and to conform to theirs, while they don’t respect ours. They demand tolerance, but they don’t extend the same to us. They are forcing us to live according to their beliefs. The group that demands that we use preferred pronouns also demands that we don’t talk about God in schools, because (as they say) that is indoctrination of our children. Yet that same group says that having drag-queens story-hours in schools are educational. This shows that we are dealing with an evil that aims to attack our religious freedom and wants to mold us into it’s culture and values.
Third, the force of using preferred pronouns contributes to the destruction of young lives and to the transformation of society. Those who promote ‘pronoun hospitality’ argue that using preferred pronouns will prevent harm. The opposite is true – it will cause harm. Using preferred pronoun is the first step toward ‘gender affirming care’: “Gender-affirming care starts with not assuming the gender identity of any individual and can be delivered in any setting. Using correct and affirming pronouns is a universal sign of respect.”1 If you doubt how harmful ‘gender affirming care’ is, read it’s own definition: “Gender-affirming care, as defined by the World Health Organization, encompasses a range of social, psychological, behavioral, and medical interventions ‘designed to support and affirm an individual’s gender identity’ when it conflicts with the gender they were assigned at birth.” 2 Using preferred pronoun is affirming a process of destruction, mutilation and confusion.
Pronoun hospitality attacks and mocks God’s plan and creation.
God made humanity, in his image, as male and female (Gen 1:27; 5:1b–2). The male/female distinction represents God’s “goodness” and plans to multiply his image-bearers on Earth. It is Satan’s attempt to stop God’s image-bearers to multiply because he absolutely hates to see them. He will do everything in his power to confuse us (“he is a liar and the father of lies” John 8:44b) and to destroy us (“he was a murderer from the beginning” John 8:44a). We need to embrace the goodness of the sexual difference God created by living distinctly as male and female, which includes using pronouns that align with our biological sex. We affirm God’s goodness and plan for sexuality and multiplication when we use the pronouns that is aligned with someone’s biological sex.
Does compassion demand pronoun hospitality?
I often hear that it is compassionate and loving to use preferred pronouns. Is it really? Is it loving and compassionate to affirm confusion? Is it loving and compassionate to support a regressive narrative? Is it loving and compassionate to confirm something that denies science and reality just to help the other person feel good? Is it loving and compassionate to bow down to a cultural mandate which viciously oppose anything God created and anything He has to say?
The truly loving act is to help people to find their way back to God’s original design and plan. Jesus never affirmed anyone in their confused state, sinful behavior or identity. He forgave them and changed them. He changed them to who they were created to be – to their God-given identity and purpose.
The most loving thing is not to affirm what’s wrong, but to correct it. Sometimes true love is the most costly and courageous act.
- https://newhampshirebulletin.com/2024/03/25/the-truth-about-gender-affirming-care-for-youth-in-new-hampshire/#:~:text=Gender%2Daffirming%20care%20starts%20with,a%20universal%20sign%20of%20respect. ↩︎
- https://www.aamc.org/news/what-gender-affirming-care-your-questions-answered#:~:text=Gender%2Daffirming%20care%2C%20as%20defined,they%20were%20assigned%20at%20birth. ↩︎