LGBTQIA+ and the Political Divide

To many, the Sexual Revolution evokes nothing more than memories of the summer of love, the emergence of contraception, and “freedom” for sexual expression. But after years of warnings by Christian cultural commentators, the Sexual Revolution has overtaken the mainstream. More and more Christians are awakening to its harms but are unsure what to say and why. The LGBTQIA+ activist movement has become one of the most influential cultural forces today and has shown itself capable of redefining human identity and telos. How might a Christian response to its postmodern and Marxist ideological underpinnings impact America?

GAY ACTIVISM

Around 2015, we entered a “third wave” of the LGBT activist movement. The first could be roughly defined as the Stonewall movement that spans from those riots in 1969 to the late ’80s when “homosexuality” was entirely removed from the DSM.[i] The Second wave extended from then to 2015 when the Obergefell decision legalized gay marriage. Gay marriage signaled the fulfilment of the original goals of the Equality Movement. For my generation (I “came out” as a lesbian around 1993), acceptance of gay marriage indicated equal status in society. However, only a month later in June, Caitlyn Jenner appeared on the cover of Vanity Fair, inaugurating a new era (a third wave) of activism. This current movement, LGBTQIA+, has new goals. The change can be seen in how the Human Rights Campaign (the premier LGBT political action organization) represents itself today. Though still favoring the mantra of “Equality”, HRC has expanded to become a clearing house of progressive ideals beyond LGBT Equality, now also incorporating “reproductive” rights, DEI, BLM, LatinX, and Trans Activism.

Today’s LGBTQIA+ identities require their own culture to be sustained. These are no longer necessarily linked to a unique sexual feeling. Instead, I encourage you to think of LGBTQIA+ as a cultural revolution, not a human rights movement—even though people are in pain and hurting. The activist movement has expanded beyond LGBT feelings into a socio-cultural force. For example, incredibly, the CDC recently reported that lesbian and bisexual-identifying adolescents are nearly twice as likely to become pregnant than their heterosexual peers! These students have opted into a movement. They continue to carry the message of the first wave powerfully and believe they experience the same traumas—even though mainstream American culture is affirming and proactive. Most have never experienced the painful social realities of these previous generations. Sadly, we are discovering that girls and boys of Gen Z who are caught up in the LGBTQIA+ transgender craze often must undergo psychological deprogramming to escape its grip, as if they had been involved in a cult.[ii] Through the deceptive “born that way” mantra of the LGBTQIA+ movement, its members believe they are born into it, and, increasingly, there is no escape. So-called “conversion therapy bans” ensure that minors (and, increasingly across the world, adults) may not legally find professional care to address the misconceptions and traumas that led to identifying as LGBTQIA+.

 A MOVEMENT SHAPED BY POSTMODERN PHILOSOPHIES

The LGBTQIA+ movement seeks to embody the postmodern queer and gender theories first widely explored only within academia. Names such as Alfred Kinsey (the Kinsey Institute and its Kinsey scale), John Money (of Johns Hopkins Gender Identity Clinic), and Judith Butler are associated with these ideas. Critical gender theory purports that “gender” is a social construct that has no link to physical biology. As such, gender is fluid, and concepts of masculinity and femininity are subjectively defined so that so-called “oppressive” sex-based roles and institutions (marriage, family, same-sex social groups etc.) are disrupted. The modern “Queer” movement is powerfully illustrated in non-binary social identity. Though “Trans” activism plays a role, the genderqueer movement is capable of ­­­consuming all of LGBT since each of these is based on the sex binary. Already, infighting via Trans activism has split many mainstream LGBT activist groups. Gays Against Groomers is a popular expression of this division. The ultimate trajectory of the genderqueer movement will be transhumanism, which redefines the sexed body. We are seeing early expressions of this among YouTube influencers such as Jeffrey Marsh, who combines male with female in his persona.

ITS CONNECTION TO MARXISM

But the LGBTQIA+ movement also has a wide-scale socio-political change in mind beyond postmodern gender identities. It is its own branch of Marxist thought. Pure Marxism has an economic and class focus aimed at dismantling social power structures; however, thinkers influenced by Marx, such as Nietzsche, also influenced postmodern philosophers like Michel Foucault who sparked social theories upon which the Sexual Revolution progresses.[iii] The LGBTQIA+ movement is advancing its broader goals across the world and has become a significant influence in the United Nations and its entities.[iv] Today’s Christians may not recognize that the civil rights movements of the 1960s, namely the women’s rights, LGBT rights, and African American rights movements, were all deeply affected. Marxism and the postmodern philosophies surrounding it beginning in the early 1900s have had great success in American academics—and, therefore, in the broader culture. Its popularized effects can be seen in Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion programs (DEI).[v] Note, however, that it’s possible to combine some Christian ideals with socialist values linked to Marxism. The heroic voices of Oscar Romero and Martin Luther King, Jr. are examples. Equity, related to God’s justice, is a dominant Biblical theme that has been distorted through today’s DEI movement. 

Biblical equity recognizes God’s righteousness in establishing justice. To be clear, today’s DEI programs use a different moral code with a Marxist anti-establishment focus on instilling equality that opposes individual merit. And so, it’s imperative to understand that while human dignity and human rights are features most of us revere from the civil rights movement, it was (and still is) a socialist political movement with goals beyond human rights. As both Romero and King understood, true justice can never be accomplished apart from Christ. As we evaluate the gains of the civil rights movements, we must learn to discern the gifts given by God and those with merely humanist ends. Only God’s justice and righteousness endure. Marxism and its related ideologies may seem to provide justice by “leveling the playing field” in the name of fairness. However, while it may provide immediate material gains, it also demands thought control. A signature feature is its total(itarian) intolerance of competing viewpoints. Biblical morality condemns unjust gain and oppression. It prioritizes self-sacrificial love, honor, and generosity, and encourages liberty of thought, so that good is freely chosen over evil.

Today, Christians must re-emphasize human dignity and how American democracy cherishes and protects it. Where we have failed and often have, we must repent. True Biblical morality demands it and demands better. Socialism opposes democracy. Two hundred-fifty years ago, the American experiment was based upon a Biblical moral code—it was our founder’s conversation partner (regardless of their religious backgrounds). Democracy in America cannot exist apart from Biblical morality, which persistently navigates toward equity, freedom, and justice. Christian morality recognizes human frailty (our need for forgiveness and redemption) and continually seeks to establish God’s righteousness. It flexes and accommodates freedoms based on human dignity—the acknowledgment that men and women are made in the image of God— and free will to enable people of all religions and ideologies to live side by side. Christianity must continue to undergird American governmental principles, so everyone benefits from its moral foundation. As Christianity has retreated from public spaces, socialism (and its subjective postmodern morality) has filled the vacuum.

Continued embrace of the LGBTQIA+ movement, acquiescing to its nondiscrimination rhetoric, not only is selling America’s soul, but it is also eroding our republican (small “r”) governmental structure. Exposing this truth could have many effects. It would set many free who are trapped in LGBTQIA+ identities and their underlying traumas to finally identify as “men” or “women” without the victimhood and self-destructive social norms that accompany that culture. But this truth could also free America’s thought leaders to recognize that protecting LGBTQIA+ advances political dissolution. It doesn’t help those caught up in its nihilistic worldview and confusing life experience.

WATCH FOR THE “BAIT AND SWITCH” LANGUAGE OF ACTIVISTS

The LGBTQIA+ movement uses the rhetoric of the Stonewall movement: “equality” and “born that way” to advance its mission. Yet, the goals of the Equality movement have been realized. From employment protections to marriage and parenting rights, LGBTQ-identifying people have the same legal protections as every other minority in the U.S. Nevertheless, activists do not accept these gains and continue to advance their cultural goals through effective (albeit 40-year-old) nondiscrimination language. Their mission affects human identity and all the institutions that shape it: family, marriage, religious institutions (esp. Judeo-Christian expressions), and social roles. Ultimately, America’s own identity is at risk.

THE THREAT TO CHRISTIANITY OF SYNCRETISM WITH LGBTQIA+ CULTURE

A similar battle to the abovementioned socio-political debate is being waged among churches. Because of the steady advancement of the LGBTQIA+ movement, nondiscrimination rhetoric has entered churches. Once again, rightly, Christians must cherish human dignity and human rights. Yet, the LGBTQIA+ movement opposes orthodox Biblical morality, and this correlates with theological hermeneutics. Christian pastors must begin to recognize and challenge the degree to which mainstream culture distorts our theology.

Conflicting responses to LGBTQIA+ culture within American Christianity reveal the clash between Evangelical and Postmodern hermeneutical approaches to Scripture, which are the two prevailing methods of interpretation among mainstream denominational churches. To be clear, Evangelical approaches (e.g., Reformed, Baptist, Wesleyan) emphasize the Biblical texts more than any other source (Sola Scriptura.) They rightly protect the authority of Scripture; however, they often take such a granular view (word studies, for example) that interpretation gets distorted.[vi] This is the source of the popular social media debate whether the Bible mentions homosexuality. Those who apply evangelical approaches may need help to see larger themes in Scripture or may need to apply some of the typological methods (techniques used by Jesus and Paul) of many Charismatics.[vii] Alternatively, Postmodern approaches (e.g., Episcopal, United Church of Christ, Presbyterian-USA) prioritize the reader above the text. The reader’s experience and understanding of Scripture, not the text’s context or authorial intent, have the most significant weight. Understanding these important distinctions exposes the weaknesses of postmodern interpretation, which allows itself to disconnect from Apostolic (the Creeds) and Biblical authority.

Theological embrace of LGBTQIA+ identities requires a postmodern view of Scripture, aligning with broader postmodern social influences. Postmodern critics of the Evangelical approach point to misinterpreting Scripture or too narrowly interpreting it because of the limited number of passages directly confronting same-sex sexual behavior or gender incongruence. Such methods recognize sola scriptura’s limitations in addressing LGBTQIA+ and therefore are more effectively influencing broader Christian thought. More and more evangelical leaders are adopting postmodern priorities relating to sexual ethics, but wherever LGBTQIA+ and its identities (and therefore necessarily its culture) are affirmed among Christian congregations, these postmodern approaches erode faith and depopulate churches.

It is essential to recognize the theological approaches (and limitations) of these debates and understand that prioritization of Biblical authority must also draw upon the early church’s prophetic and apostolic traditions. The whole of the Wesleyan quadrilateral (Scripture, tradition, reason, experience) must be embraced to preserve the Gospel in America effectively against the cultural revolution that is occurring right now.

In closing

 Truly this is a moment to revisit Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn’s Live Not By Lies as we thank God for America and its Constitution. For those personally impacted, who may identify with LGBTQ feelings, it is vital to turn away from that movement and renounce attachments to these labels. Look beyond these postmodern influences to embrace your dignity as men and women.

[i] "Homosexuality and American Psychiatry: The Politics of Diagnosis; Homosexual Behavior: A Modern Reappraisal." American Journal of Psychiatry, 138(9), pp. 1266–1267

[ii] See Maria Keffler, Desist, Detrans & Detox: Getting Your Child out of the Gender Cult (Chicago, Ill.: Partners for Ethical Care, 2021).

[iii] See Michel Foucault, The History of Sexuality (New York: Pantheon Books, 1978).

[iv] For example, see https://changedmovement.com/press-1/statement-to-victor-madrigal-borloz-un-independent-expert-on-protection-against-violence-and-discrimination

[v] See Neil Shenvi and Pat Sawyer, Critical Dilemma (Eugene, Oregon: Harvest House Publishers, 2023).

[vi] See James Barr, The Semantics of Biblical Language (Place of publication not identified: Hassell Street Press, 2023).

[vii] See Craig S. Keener, Spirit Hermeneutics: Reading Scripture in Light of Pentecost, Paperback edition (Grand Rapids, Michigan: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 2017).