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GenitaliaAreNotDestinyButAreTheyDesign?|DesiringGod
Riding in the wake of the cultural speedboat of the destigmatization of same-sex intercourse is the mainstreaming of gender
non-conformists. Witness the June 9 issue of Time. Laverne Cox, born a boy, is on the front page, in his chosen female identity.
Cox, the star of the Netflix drama Orange Is the New Black, gives a lengthy and illuminating online interview with Time
reporter Katy Steinmetz. It is a sad story of a very painful childhood, an absent father, an emotionally disconnected mother, an
attempted suicide, and a marginally significant church.
Up until the third grade, Cox says, I just thought that I was a girl and that there was no difference between girls and boys. I
think in my imagination I thought that I would hit puberty and I would start turning into a girl. He had one twin brother. No
sisters.
The supreme treasure Cox longed for was fame. I wanted to be famous, I wanted to perform. Those things I really, really
wanted more than anything else.
My mother just had an inability to fully emotionally connect. . . . I never knew my father. He was never married to my mother,
he was never a part of my life.
Today Cox is touring the country giving a stump speech titled Aint I a Woman? When Cox says it, that refrain is not a
question. Cox claims, Im happy that I am myself and I couldnt imagine my life if I were still in denial or lying, pretending to
be a boy. That seems ridiculous to me. That seems crazy at this point. . . . Its nice to be done with transitioning.
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GenitaliaAreNotDestinyButAreTheyDesign?|DesiringGod
In a stunning way, the apostle Paul draws a parallel between the way nature teaches about God and the way nature teaches
about male and female sexuality. And the point is this: Nature is one of Gods methods of revealing what we should prefer, even
if we dont.
In other words, Paul shows that preference is to be guided by Gods design in nature. Its not independent, as though you can
simply choose your essence.
But Laverne Cox maintains the exact opposite:
Folks want to believe that genitals and biology are like destiny! All these designations are based on a penis, . . . and then a
vagina. And thats supposed to say all these different things about who people are. When you think about it, its kind of
ridiculous. People need to be willing to let go of what they think they know about what it means to be a man and what it
means to be a woman. Because that doesnt necessarily mean anything inherently.
Without God, this reasoning is compelling. If there is no God telling me what is wise and good, then my own preference will
assume that role. It will seem ridiculous to say biology is destiny. The modern man thinks otherwise, as William Ernest
Henley says, I am the master of my fate: I am the captain of my soul.
But in Pauls mind, the issue is not what nature says inherently, but what it says as Gods revelation of his design for male and
female. God, the wise, loving, purposeful creator and designer of human life is the one who connects biological nature and
sexual identity.
Lets watch him do it.
http://www.desiringgod.org/articles/genitaliaarenotdestinybutaretheydesign
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GenitaliaAreNotDestinyButAreTheyDesign?|DesiringGod
created another destiny contrary to his genitalia. But it is not the whole truth. Here is a greater truth: Genitalia is a revelation
of Gods design.
God knows what is best for humanity. He also knows the painful disordering of our sexual desires that came with the fall. We
are all disordered in some measure in different ways. He promises to help us with our disordered loves so that we can enjoy
measures of contentment in the midst of our necessary self-denial (for example, Hebrews 13:56).
He also sent his Son to die for our sins, so that, even if we have spent the last twenty years of our lives trying to be a man when
God gave us the body of a woman, or trying to be a woman when God gave us the body of a man, God will forgive us if we turn
to Christ for mercy and embrace him in repentance as our supreme treasure.
It will not be easy certainly not for Laverne Cox but it is possible. For all things are possible with God (Matthew 19:26).
John Piper (@JohnPiper) is founder and teacher of desiringGod.org and chancellor of Bethlehem College & Seminary. For 33 years, he
served as pastor of Bethlehem Baptist Church, Minneapolis, Minnesota. He is author of more than 50 books.
http://www.desiringgod.org/articles/genitaliaarenotdestinybutaretheydesign
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