In the coalition that is LGBTQ + (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, and Queer), it is the T that has become ground zero in the culture wars. LG and to a lesser extent, B, have long enjoyed widespread acceptance in the culture. But it wasn’t until about 10 years ago when Olympic gold medalist Bruce Jenner transitioned to Caitlyn Jenner that the T really started to gain traction. I will say that there has been a pushback to Transgenderism that has surprised many (especially in recent years with the controversy surrounding men playing women’s sports). But the statement “I am a woman trapped in a man’s body,” rather than being labelled absurd, is now largely accepted as the experience of many.

How did we get here? This is the question taken up in Carl Trueman’s landmark book, “The Rise and Triumph of the Modern Self” published in 2020. Trueman writes, “At the heart of this book lies a basic conviction: the so-called sexual revolution of the last 60 years, culminating in the latest triumph – the normalization of transgenderism – cannot be properly understood until it is set within the context of a much broader transformation in how society understands the nature of human selfhood.” (p. 20) In what follows, Trueman takes the reader on a three-century journey that explores the thinking of men such as Jean Jacques Rousseau, David Hume, Fredrick Nietzche, Karl Marx, Sigmund Freud and many others. His analysis shows how people went from seeing sex as an activity to seeing it as something fundamental to one’s identity. Rather than believing “I am made in the image of God, and that is fundamental to who I am,” now people connect their worth and identity to being Lesbian, Trans, Queer, Agender, among many others (some 70 genders recognized today).

Trueman notes you don’t have to watch the movie “The 40 year-old Virgin” to know that it’s a comedy. “The very idea of someone reaching the age of forty with no experience of sexual intercourse is inherently comic because of the value society now places on sex.”

How do we define Transgender? The Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation says, “Transgender is a term used to describe people whose gender identity differs from the sex the doctor marked on their birth certificate.” Notice the language used. Taken at face value, the doctor who marked the birth certificate is almost the bad guy. That is why LGBTQ often use the language of “assigned sex.” Sex is no longer scientific biological fact. It is arbitrary. And it is fluid. One who identifies as gay today, might be trans in a matter of months. But if you look at the actual science, every cell has a sex. God has literally stamped our gender into our DNA.

In her book “Love Thy Body,” Nancy Pearcey writes, “Today the accepted treatment is not to help persons change their inner feelings of gender identity to match their body but to change their body (through hormones and surgery) to match their feelings. In other words, when a person senses a dissonance between body and mind, the mind wins. The body is dismissed as irrelevant.” (196)

This is dualism at its finest. A modern iteration of an ancient heresy called Gnosticism, which is all about mind over matter. The goal among transgender activists is to completely obliterate the gender binary (that there is only male and female). They would have us see gender binary as nothing more than a social construct from by-gone ages.

Here is another definition from the Human Rights Campaign, a gay activist group: “Gender is one’s innermost concept of self as male, female, a blend of both or neither – how individuals perceive themselves and what they call themselves” (214 Pearcey). Gender is nothing more than how we view and label ourselves. Biology is completely irrelevant. Our identity is something we declare and speak into existence.

This, indeed, is the triumph of the modern self. The modern self says, I am not made in the image of God. I am neither male nor female. I am whatever I declare myself to be. Psychology, rather than biology, is triumphant. This is the epitome of what has been called expressive individualism. As Trueman rightly argues, we didn’t get here overnight. It took generations. But being a woman is now something that can be produced by technique and performance. It can literally be prescribed by a doctor.

In sum, we have a complete denial of the image of God in man. Transgenderism is a symptom. It is certainly not the only symptom but it is a major one. Where do we go from here?

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Daniel Stegeman, serves as Director of Pastoral Care with Fruitful Vine Ministry. Daniel has been a pastor for over 15 years and blogs at pastoral-theology.com. Daniel and his wife Stephane are the proud parents of four children.