May 16, 2016
Geneva Classical Academy is already receiving calls about enrollment in our private school, just two days after President Obama’s decree that schools that receive public funding must open up group bathrooms designated as male and female to any person regardless of their “gender identity.” Many of these callers sound angry. This interest is a backlash for what is really the fruit of the ideological war that has raged in our culture for a very long time, but the clash of ideas is not about bathrooms, nor about wedding cakes, or even marriage. The war is against God and what He decrees.
The issues over sexuality and sexual identity are really philosophical and theological in nature: ideas have consequences. The existential question is whether we are defined by what we do or by who we are: experience or essence? Is a person’s sexual identity defined by who he or she is attracted to (or their actions)? Or is sexuality defined by who a person is on the inside, who they were created to be (male or female)? Certainly there is a sense in which both are true; we are defined somewhat by both, but as Jean Paul Sartre, the “Father of Existentialism,” raised: which comes first? He said that existence (what we do) precedes our essence (who we are on the inside).
This is a lie.
Those who want to determine their own gender identity believe the lie and want to play Creator, not only determining that what they do is right (existence), but who they are (essence). In reality, they shake their fists at God and scream, “Why did you make me this way?”
The Bible says in Genesis 1 that “God made man in His own image; in the image of God He created him. Male and Female He created them.” God made each of us individually as male and as female, the designation being obvious to the medical community who record their observations on the birth certificates. The difference between male and female is supported down to the smallest molecular level, between XX and XY chromosomes. The most respected scientific research supports the fact that the male and female brains function differently. We’re not just different on the outside; we’re different on the inside. The way we were created precedes what we do, or at least it should. For the Christian, this takes on even greater meaning. A sinner who has been saved by the completed work of Jesus Christ wants to behave in a way that pleases the Savior: offering our bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God. Our essence precedes our existence, or in other words, our salvation affects our lives.
Those who promote the LGBT agenda don’t really care about bathrooms, and perhaps they shouldn’t. They just know that this is a weak spot where conservatives will react and potentially look foolish, strengthening their position. Taking turns or private closets would solve the bathroom question; other countries do it fine. Those who are on the offense are using this to get the desired outrage, where they can accuse the loudest opponents as discriminating unjustly.
At Geneva Classical Academy, we are not excited that this directive from the White House will bring us new student candidates or potential enrollment growth. We departed from the government system a long time ago to do something different: educate Christianly and classically for the glory of Christ. Thankfully, our families and students did not choose us for our bathrooms.
